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An interesting article, in part because this reflects what Ebay has been doing for months. Targeting notifications and becoming more intrusive on their buyers is commonplace and increasing.
Ebay sellers have been bitching about a lack of TV advertising, as if it would help them sell the unsaleable.
Ebay buyers are bitching about the ever increasing annoyances.
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TBH I don’t think that I’ve ever heard of Depop until this article, so Etsy is probably right to focus on promoting it. Although if it’s a rival to PoshMark, I also don’t shop there, so I’m probably not a good source.
Etsy’s reliance on search ads is a concern as search engines grow less and less reliable as traffic sources, according to a research note from analysts at market research firm MoffettNathanson. The company above all needs to find a way to attract more buyers, the analysts wrote.
The brand is investing more heavily in search, paid social and influencer marketing as part of an effort to attract more customers while carefully managing its marketing budget.
In general, given current consumer behavior trends and the weakening of search engines as reliable traffic sources, IMO retailers (both b&m and ecommerce) need to find ways to justify products to consumers, to connect to a need that can’t be met by cheaper products with quicker access. Plus make the consumer experience as friction-less as possible (which would mean decreasing Etsy’s paid search ads).
In this moment, I think the pursuit of new customers might be less productive than finding more ways to connect products to existing customers and make the site more shopper-friendly–but maybe that’s too short-sighted on my part.
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Etsy’s own search has been notoriously terrible for its entire existence. And Etsy sellers are notorious for spending their free time spamming listings with keywords.
Targeting existing buyers on Etsy has always been difficult. During my period of selling on Etsy, much of the traffic I say were not buyers, they people were creating collections of favorites ala Pinterest. Since i was selling vintage items, I asked other Etsy sellers of crafts who I was acquainted with, and that was common with their experience.
Given my odd selection if items on Ebay, I am not sure that the search engines are necessarily less effective. Ebay provides a break down of views between Internal (generated by Ebay search) and External from search engines and off-site links or bookmarks.
My sales increase on days with increased External views.
Ebay recently added the ability to track Store Views, and I do not have sufficient data to determine whether they correlate with sales. I have a fairly constant number of store followers, and only recognize some of my repeat buyers of related items.
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