Seven ways Etsy can improve in 2009

I've been thinking about website usability and online communities a lot lately. That's partly because it's my job. But I've been thinking about Etsy's usability and community specifically. I also read a fascinating book – "Why We Buy" by Paco Underhill – that focuses a lot on the ways that retail spaces can be made more amenable to shoppers. Since a longer time spent in the store translates to higher sales, retailers need understand what frustrates, annoys or confuses shoppers – and, alternatively, what delights and engages them.

At work, when we're reporting on the success of our clients' sites, we often take note on time on site as a significant KPI. It's amazing how small tweaks can translate to much more time on site – and better sales.

So, back to Etsy. The whole reason I joined Etsy as buyer, a couple years ago, was because I liked the products on the site, and I thought the community (i.e. sellers) were neat. I still believe those things, but Etsy staffers – as creators of a major online community of crafters, tinkerers, buyers and sellers – sometimes screw up, bigtime. And they're missing tons of opportunities to make their site more amenable to buyers and sellers alike.

So here are my ideas:

1. Diversify currency and payment options

Adding Google Checkout would increase sales overnight. So would adding support for British pounds and other currencies. E-commerce is global. It's pretty amazing how provincial Etsy is in this regard.

2. Expand Etsy services

I have a few ideas here, and the beauty is that they would make life easier for sellers, life more fun for buyers and would add to Etsy's bottom line.

a. Encourage the use of gift certificates and coupon codes that are valid sitewide

Etsy currently bans gift certificates. Not only should they reverse this stance, but they should enthusiastically embrace anything that keeps Etsy buyers returning to the site.

Before making any purchase online I search around for coupon codes - and I'm not the only one. Why not offer a coupon code (for $5 or $10 off, say) to new buyers, in order to entice buyers into the Etsy fold? Even if Etsy completely ate the cost of these discounts, I have a feeling it would pay off in buyer retention and the lifetime value of customers.

I'm not the only one who thinks that Etsy needs to do more to attract and retain buyers. Loyal Etsy shoppers are the site's biggest asset, but it doesn't do much to woo them or keep them interested.

As for coupons that are good sitewide: consumers love gift certificates – period. And they don’t always have the time or the desire to shop for the perfect item. Sitewide gift certificates would be immensely popular among the spouses and friends of handmade aficionados, and would help build up Etsy as the #1 online venue for handmade. It would help establish Etsy as a cohesive marketplace for handmade merchants.

b. Offer sellers Etsy-branded goods and services, such as packing materials printed with the Etsy logo

All sellers need padded envelopes, gift boxes, packing tape, and the like, especially when they are first setting up a shop. Etsy can make a profit - and increase the strength of their brand - by selling these materials (Etsy-branded) to sellers. They could also offer some materials gratis to new sellers when they sign up – that would increase sellers' loyalty to Etsy (they aren't the only handmade venue, after all) and help new shops run smoothly in those crucial first weeks and months – which helps Etsy retain shoppers.

3. Allow sellers to gather information

Access to information is addictive. Etsy should do more to promote education among sellers:

a. Promote access to analytics data

Etsy rolled out Google Analytics, but it was badly botched and it's giving sellers useless information. It's insane, really.

If Etsy needs an impetus to fix analytics, here it is: Access to accurate analytics will allow sellers to optimize their shops, leading to more sales and – wait for it – more money in Etsy's pocket, via fee collection.

b. Allow sellers to incorporate surveys into the buying process

This is especially important since sellers don't have access to meaningful stats. Allow sellers to ask their buyers a few short questions after they've completed a transaction. Entice buyers to fill out the survey through contests and the chance to win coupons (valid sitewide) or other cool stuff.

4. Streamline and improve the checkout process (for buyers) and listing process (for sellers)

I shop on Etsy all the time and the checkout process still trips me up. Streamline the checkout process and buyers will come back more than they do now.

If buyers had access to Etsy's shopping cart abandonment stats, they would be shocked. For e-commerce sites, shopping cart abandonment rates of 20-30% aren't uncommon – and that's with a smooth, one-step payment system. Buying stuff at Etsy takes two steps. It's confusing and disjointing and I have no doubt it puts off lots of buyers – not to mention the myriad buyers who don't have a PayPal account or aren't shopping in U.S. dollars.

Similarly, the process of listing an item is needlessly complicated. Making listing a one-page process.

5. Remarket to buyers - elegantly

When I first began shopping on Etsy, I found it kind of amazing how little Etsy itself seemed to care about the process. After learning of Etsy through blogs, I found shops I liked (with no help from Etsy's search), picked out some fine art prints I liked, paid, and then…nothing. After receiving the confirmation emails from PayPal and Etsy, I didn’t know what to expect, really. The prints came in the mail a little while later, and that was it.

Etsy misses opportunities to connect and re-connect with shoppers at several points. For example:

a. Right after shoppers order something, many sellers take it upon themselves to convo them to confirm receipt of the order and to tell them when they’ll ship the item. Others convo buyers as they ship the item. Why can’t Etsy automate this process? Sellers have a dashboard where they can mark items as “shipped” – why not have that action trigger a convo or email to the buyer telling them their item has shipped? Nearly all other online retailers send out Shipping Confirmation emails. Why doesn’t Etsy? Why put the onus on sellers to do it manually?

b. At the conclusion of the payment process, guide shoppers back to Etsy so they can fill out the seller’s survey, sign up for the seller’s newsletter (if they have one), or shop more items from their Favorites. Better yet, do what Amazon does – show shoppers “related items” based on color, type, cost, etc. Even a simple algorithm based on item tags can put appealing items in front of shoppers’ eyes in the moments after they’re purchased something. (To Etsy's credit, they did add a little screen with "items from your favorites" after you purchase something, but that's horribly simplistic for this day and age.)

c. Give sellers tools for sending out email newsletters or writing blog posts right on the etsy.com domain. Both keep users coming back to Etsy – adding value to individual shops and Etsy as a whole. (I know this will never happen because Etsy is has kindergarten-esque community standards, but hey, a girl can dream, right?)

d. A week to ten days after a user submits an order, send them an automatic email asking them to leave feedback for the seller. Also, present them with other items they may like.

Those ideas were all Remarketing 101, basically. Some would be construed as spam by buyers. Obviously, Etsy would need to sort out opt-in processes and such. And they would need to listen, very very carefully, to customer feedback.

6. Fix search and employ filters

First, Etsy should fix the site’s horribly rudimentary and dysfunctional search. The search needs to encourage shoppers to search early and often, because it’s the #1 way they’re going to find stuff to buy.

Additionally, Etsy should work on behavioral targeting, so search results are customized based on users’ earlier queries and whenever they buy an item, they are presented with others they may like (a la Amazon’s insanely successful “you may also like….” feature). If done well, this feature could have the feel of an excellent salesperson at an upscale boutique – the kind that suggests a beautiful matching belt when you’re buying a pair of pants. (Similarly, it would be amazing if the front page was populated with items that the algorithm predicts a user may like based on their Favorites and past purchases.)

As for filters – searchers today, especially on e-commerce sites, are used to being able to sort and filter items in many ways. Any set of search results should be easily sorted by color, price, date added, and so on.

Clothing e-retailers like Bluefly have really put filters into action. I’m an especially big fan of their clickable color swatches, since clicking around on colors is a lot more fun than having to search something like “gray sweater.” (Etsy has already taken a stab at this, in this bizarre Colors thing, but it's a toy rather than a useful tool that acts on sophisticated user input.)

7. Listen to your community

I don't have time to read the forums or poke around in the other community features much, but I do peek at Closed Threads. I'm not in the least amazed by the crazies and jerks that come out in the Etsy forums, because every online community has them. But I am amazed by how much contempt Etsy's staff has for the Etsy community, how determined they are to ignore user feedback, and how eager they are to censor legitimate community discourse.

This article by Muhammad Salim – How to Survive a Social Media Revolt - says it much better than I can. Etsy staffers would do well to print this out, highlight it, underline the best bits, and read it every day as a refresher on how communities really should be run. His very first lesson – Communicate Even if You Have Nothing to Say – is especially applicable to Etsy.

So there you have it - my seven wishes for Etsy in the new year. They represent a complete 180 from the way Etsy currently approaches its operations and community, which just goes to show that Etsy is ignoring many marketing, website usability, and online community best practices.

Experimenting with light

My lighting setup has now been enhanced with two small battery-powered lamps (thanks, Mom!). They emit a bluish light.

For comparison's sake, here are my Primrose Earrings photographed using the old setup (one halogen desk lamp and a lamp with a plain old incandescent bulb):


And here are the same earrings photographed with the two new lamps arranged on each side of the photo box:

So, which do you like better? The biggest quibble I have with the new lamps is that they seem to wash out the delicate golden colors of the earrings a bit. In real life, the earrings have lots of rich golden tones, which is what I need to convey in the photo.

This picture uses the new lamps, and it's a bit more true to life:


However, you can still see all the blue cast onto the photo.

Of course, the real magic happens when I let my trusty blue paper to make the earrings pop:

In this photo, the lamps add more light to the photo without distorting the colors too much.

So, which setup do I use? Do I aim for ultimate truth in advertising, or add some pizzazz to my photos with interesting blue reflections?

I still need to test the lamps on blue-toned pieces. It's likely they will really enhance the colors. Also, I have some bright orange paper to test out!

Etsy getting stats, finally!

From Auctiobytes via Etsy Bitch:

Etsy said it was conducting a beta test with Google Analytics to enable sellers to track metrics such as pageviews, site visits, popular content and page referrals.

It's about time.

Working at a web dev shop, even the worst pre-makeover websites we get through the door have analytics installed - usually Google Analytics because it is a cheap, free option. It's surprising that Etsy never pursued analytics before this. Plus it's a little odd that they're spearheading the effort in this way, rather than simply flipping a switch that would let sellers install Google Analytics on their pages on their own time.

Stats are going to change the Etsy selling game. I love combing through site stats to learn what sort of keywords, referring sites, and niche search engines are driving traffic. It's simply impossible to predict what's really driving traffic and sales without seeing analytics data.

I'm especially interested to see how many sales are driven through Etsy's search. The site's search is notoriously broken, and analytics are likely to throw this issue into sharp relief.

I'm not a dork, I'm a devotee

It occurred to me just now that when we throw around terms like "nerd" or "dork," we're simply referring to someone who is devoted to a particular hobby, idea, etc.

So, put another way, dorks are devotees.

In related news, I've been making a lot of headpins recently.


This is for a few reasons. First, selling headpins seems like a practical way to rack up some sales. Also, I need headpins - lots of them - for my own creations.

But most of all, it's just fun to fire up the torch and play around. When learning something new like this, I like to get a little obsessive. It helps me refine my techniques and gain some muscle memory.

Here's what I've learned so far making headpins:

1. Don't overcook them. Especially with fine silver, it's easy to get lazy and let the balls get too big and gloppy; I ruined a bunch of headpins this way. Now I chant "medium rare....MEDIUM RARE!" to myself as I make them.

2. Making uniform, non-lobsided balls with sterling silver is difficult at first, but after a lot of practice it's second nature. Hang in there, or just buy headpins from me!

3. And an actual, perhaps useful tip...

At first my biggest challenge when making headpins was making them a uniform length. Anything less than 1" is unusable, and anything more than 1.75"-2" is a waste of wire. But measuring and cutting wire is a big pain. So, try this:

From your spool of wire, cut several sections of 4-5 feet each. No need to measure; just estimate the length by counting each time around the spool as the wire comes off.

Let gravity help you straighten the wire. Line up the ends so you have three (or more, depending on the strength and size of your wire cutters) long strands of wire bundled together in your hand.

Starting at the edge you've lined up, measure and cut away. I do all my beading on a mat with measurements on it, so I just lay down the wire on that and cut the wire to sections a hair over 2". I find this lets me create headpins of 1.5-1.75 inches. As you reach the ends of the wires, pay attention so you minimize waste. (theoretically, the longer your sections to start with, the less waste you'll end up with.)

Does that make sense? All you're doing is dividing your time by a factor of three or four, and maximizing that satisfying SNAP! sound you get when cutting wire.

I've found I can chop up a full troy ounce (~75 feet) of wire in a few minutes using this method; best of all, the pieces are totally uniform.

Warning: be careful as you cut the wire, or else the pieces will fly all over the place.

90% of everything is crap. 90% of crafting is marketing.

The top sellers on Etsy have one thing in common: superior marketing. It’s not about your product, it’s about how you market yourself and your product – and that goes doubly when it comes to handmade, because with handmade products you’re buying one or more of the following value propositions:

• Superior workmanship
• Personalized service
• Uniqueness
• Attention to detail
• Environmental friendliness
• Buying directly from an artisan
• Etc.

In other words, it’s not just about buying a necklace for your girlfriend: it’s about buying a one-of-a-kind hat from Theresa in Vermont (or wherever) who dyes her own wool and has a really charming blog and a killer email newsletter. It’s about marketing – all that stuff that transforms a necklace into a necklace I need to have.

When something is more expensive by dint of being one-of-a-kind and handmade, marketing becomes essential. Handmade items are unique by definition, so being unique isn’t enough.
Plus, Etsy is a marketplace that is flooded with products and sellers. Most of those products are crap, and all sellers are competing for the same small group of buyers.

And to top it all off, Etsy’s site search is rather useless, so search optimization techniques aren’t enough to get eyeballs on your product.

If I ever found myself teaching a marketing course, I would have my students open a shop on Etsy and give them a budget (say, $300) to cover craft materials, marketing expenses, and Etsy fees. The students who sold the most stuff would get a good grade.

At first blush, this plan seems terribly unfair to students who aren’t artistically inclined, but honestly? A good marketer can sell the ugliest, stupidest product with clever marketing techniques, and I think this plan would illustrate that principle quite well.

The truly savvy (and cynical) students would spend minimal time and money on materials for whatever they’re selling in their shop. The smarter ones would focus on marketing, as well as carving out their own special niche on Etsy (for example, jewelry is the most saturated category on Etsy, which suggests that I am terrible at taking my own advice). They would be able to use whatever online or offline marketing channels they wished (including affiliate programs, word of mouth, banner ads, paid search, social media…the list goes on).

The wrinkle in all of this is that Etsy gives sellers zero stats, so you (or my fictional students) have no idea of telling where your sales are coming from. Short of clairvoyance, it’s impossible to know whether that banner ad or email blast drove sales, or whether it’s a total waste of money. (Customer surveys are a possibility, but seem hopelessly quaint in this era of sophisticated and free Web analytics systems.)

Anyway.

Since I do marketing during the day and Etsy-type activities at night, the intersection between the two is pretty interesting to me. Oh yes…something as banal as marketing has such an effect on the pure and noble activity of crafting. The horror.

(Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures in this post. I will have more, and more specific, things to say on this subject soon.)

Adventures in jewelry photography, part 1: the ghetto-fabulous DIY photo box

First, I photographed jewelry items on my fire escape.

Then, I went to Horton Plaza during lunch breaks at work, and photographed jewelry on the edge of a planter.

I liked the texture of the planter, as well as its slight sheen. But shooting in the noonday sun isn't exactly a controlled environment. The photos had insane shadows – such that bracelets looked the size of Godzilla and earrings the size of yachts. The shots had a certain drama, but didn't really show off the detail of the item (and I hear people like to see what they're buying. Call me crazy, but...).

Seeing my pictures on Flickr, I guess my mom took pity on me and sent me this tutorial for a $10 macro photo studio. I totally ignored her suggestion at first, but spurred by something or other (the vastly superior shots of other jewelry designers, maybe), I set about building the studio. Far be it for me to ever refuse an opportunity to use an X-Acto knife.

Cost: $0. I used an egg box nabbed from the back of a dessert store many months back, as well as tissue paper and painter's tape. X-Acto blades, naturally – I have plenty of those - and a straightedge. Here's a progress shot:


I was up and running in less than an hour.

Then comes the fun part. My initial shots were pretty horrible:



These look like I shot them in the DMV, don't they?

However, now that I've gotten better, I can proclaim that taking crummy test shots is an important part of the process. Your eye gets trained, and you learn the finer points of your camera's macro lens. You learn to rig up whatever lights you may have – in my case a halogen desk lamp from the closet to supplement the table lamp on my craft table (I nearly typed "dining table" – but no, it's buried under a thick layer of craft supplies).

Soon, I was grabbing items left and right to give them their turn in the photo box. A vintage ceramic pigeon. A white pot from IKEA. A vase, again from IKEA. Any number of items from my motley collection of vintage dishes, art glass and the like.

I recalled jewelry stores displaying jewelry on rice, so I grabbed that too:


It adds a nice texture but I, for one, despise the yellow tint it gave to the photos (that could be corrected with better lighting and Photoshop, but I'm still not a fan).

I hit on the idea of hanging earrings on a little black lotus-shaped dish. The earrings hang attractively from the dish, and the contrast between white background and black dish is quite delicious:


I was ecstatic when I got this shot. It's so much more true to life than any earlier shots I'd taken of these earrings. Plus, they're almost in focus!

My other nemesis turned out to these Champagne and Berries earrings. They are glossy little treasures in real life, but I was having trouble capturing their essence in photos.

Enter the blue paper.

First, with plain white paper:


And now with blue:

Doesn't that blow your mind? It blows mine. Same earrings, same lighting, same dish, same position. That's some photographic voodoo right there.

Having gotten the basic hang of things, I'm now experimenting more with a dish that I picked out at World Market for its photogenic qualities. You'll also notice that I'm tending to favor black paper for the background, but that's probably momentary. I need to stock up on orange/red/pink paper for shots of cool-toned jewelry.


At this point I was really focusing on, well, focus. Properly focusing my shots is something I have trouble with, partly because I employ a spastic point-and-shoot technique when taking photos. I'm also working on styling the shots more carefully (no smudged focal stones!).

After studying some nice product shots, I also came to appreciate shooting jewelry from directly above:

The advantage of this method is that the piece can be styled so it's more flat - making focusing the shot much easier. The disadvantage is that you can block your light sources if you're not careful.

I love the little freckles on the bowl. Nevermind the haphazard styling of this shot.

And by gum, I think I've learned to get the camera to focus on at least one of the subjects of the photo! (Also, I love the "rising out of the mist" quality of this photo.)

So, I'm still experimenting with this beast. But I'm pleasantly surprised by all the fun you can have with a homemade photo box, a digicam's macro lens and a few spare evenings. And no more trips to Horton Plaza to photograph jewelry among the lunch crowd!

Featured in my first Treasury

This morning, I was so excited to receive a message from mamasmeltdown, who included my Glacial bracelet in an Etsy treasury! See me up there, in the top right?

Fittingly, the theme of the treasury is "hidden treasures discovered."

Yay! It's awesome to be picked out of the huge haystack that is Etsy!