Search Your Own Shop. A Handy Tip for Etsy Sellers

Happy New Year! Anne-Marie from byAmor here with a handy hint for Etsy sellers.

Those of you who buy on Etsy are probably well familiar with the search 'this shop' function.
But it is also something you can put to surprising good use in your own shop, especially if you have a lot, or a growing number, of items listed.



You will find this search mode in the top bar when you go into the public home page of your shop (not in ‘Your Esty’, which is only seen by you.) It wont be much use to you yet if you only have one page of items but the more you fill your shop, the more this simple search can become your friend. I'd like to share a few ways to utilise it.

Straight after the holidays the first thing I did was make sure I had nothing still tagged as Black Friday or Cyber Monday. These were sales I took part in until 14th December. In the box next to 'this shop' I typed in ‘Cyber Monday Etsy’ and hit the search button. Although I thought I’d removed all such tags after the sales, up cropped several items. Oops. Some urgent editting required there.




I decided to keep some items on special offer and add a few more. I made a new shop section titled ‘January Sale’ for them and amended each listing. Afterwards, another quick search for ‘sale’ within my shop reassured me I hadn’t forgotten to move any from their old section. The correct number of items came up, corresponding with the items now in this new section.

Such cross checking isn't a bad thing to do from time to time. When listing something new it isn't that difficult to forget to put the item into a section. A few months back I suspected I was missing an item from the bookmark section. A quick search for the term 'bookmark' helped me dig out the stray one and put it in its rightful place.



From time to time I use this search mode to check the balance in my shop. For example, On Monday I did a search for ‘men’ in my shop....read that as you will ;-)....and learned that I now had only two lonesome items tagged 'men' across my shop. Time for me to rebuild my stock of keychains and bookmarks, or perhaps develop a whole new line for the boys.



A shop search is also helpful when pondering what colours to use in your next project. On Monday this week, a quick search for each colour showed I had, for example, 25 items tagged with black, 5 purple and only 1 white. That helped me decide what to make next; a white beach glass pendant, which by the way, I made in a unisex design so I could tag for ‘men’ too.

Another great use for this search is when linking within your listings. I’m no techy expert, but I understand that linking to other items within your listing descriptions is supposed to help your SEO (or ‘googleability’ as I call it.)



More to the point, it entices buyers to go deeper into the shop. For example, when listing some Connemara marble earrings, I will add in a link to the matching necklace, or to the Connemara marble section of my shop, or maybe the general earrings section. Stats gleaned via Google Analytics lead me to conclude that it is working as people are not bouncing straight out of my shop. However, sometimes I like to link to the less obvious. This is where the shop search comes in handy.

For example, at the bottom of a description for a large, chunky pendant, buyers might like to take a look at other large pieces I have listed. A quick in-shop search in a second browser for the term ‘big’ drums up several statement pieces crossing 3 or 4 sections of my shop. I copy the URL for this search from the very top and paste it at the bottom of my listing. Two sentences long, It's a little clunky looking, but it serves the purpose, making it easier for the buyer to find something they like (I hope!)



Alternatively, I could include a link to all my listings found in the same stone or same matching colour or whatever seems to be a logical step for the buyer. For example, when listing the unisex seaglass pendant, I included a link to items for men. I don't have a section for men so a link to this search is almost like gaining an extra shop section, albeit within a listing.

Once you put yourself into the mind of a shopper, you can discover all sorts of possibilities for linking. However, less is more. If you include more than one or two such links, it becomes confusing and could be off-putting.

These are just some of the ways you can utilise this versatile search function. Obviously, the more you fill up your shop, the more invaluable it can become. I can’t wait to discover new ways to employ it. If you have any ideas, please do post them below.