Now I’m really annoyed! I looked up wildlife jewellery and the same maker was the first 34 items! 7 pages and it went on to cards and bags after a few other pieces of other peoples jewellery and the more of the first page person. I’ve been on here for YEARS, I rarely get picked for the gift guides and I’ve got over 200 items in my jewellery shop, alot of them wildlife, yet I couldn’t see any of mine in there at all!!! I was dispirited before, now I’m downright depressed.
4 Likes
The items from that maker have the exact phrase ‘wildlife jewellery’ in their title, so it does not surprise me that they appear first in the results.
I was disappointed today to re run the search for teddy bears to find the same listings were there from when i previously looked a couple of days ago anď the first 3 or 4 pages are primarily cards which all look the same style so possibly from the same seller. To find actual teddy Bears there are one or two dotted in the pages but it’s really only the last couple of pages that bring them up.
I hadn’t noticed last time that there were only 7 pages available, my shop is primarily bear related and a few did show in the search but not all of them and I know there are other bear makers whose bears didn’t feature much either. Is there a reason why it can only be set to 7 pages or is this something that is still in progress.
I understand this is all still under construction but judging by all the feedback it does seem to have made the search facility worse.
Also… would it be possible under the search bar to actually write something like ‘filter- by searching under specific categories (or something that explains it better than i did’ 
), I know there are the little symbols there to click on to search by the categories but i don’t think everyone will realise what they mean.
OK, I get that but 34 items from 1 maker, surely that can’t be a fair way of doing it. And if it then reverts to just wildlife after that bunch somewhere in the title or tags, surely other jewellery with wildlfe somewhere listed should appear, not cards and bags??
1 Like
I have 2 hares listed in the homeware/dolls & collectables/animal dolls category so I did a search for hare and filtered results for this category. The first page was almost entirely mice and pigs - of the few I checked none had the word hare anywhere in title, description or tags. Many of my animals (lion, dog, sheep, running duck, penguin - to name a few) showed up in the following pages along with an assortment of other animals from other sellers. My hares appeared at the end of page 7. Not sure what the search algorithm is but it certainly doesnt seem to be looking at title, description or tags!!
1 Like
I do love a person who doesn’t mince their words 
3 Likes
I don’t mind the different sized photos but I do think they’d be more easy on the eye if uniform. But that Gift Guide in your face banner is a big no no. It’s irritating and distracting. When I’m searching as a buyer I don’t want to see that in the mix. It’s like running up the stairs then stubbing your toe. A complete loss of momentum.
4 Likes
Just asked Mr PH to do a search for something unrelated to my shop, his words ‘ it looks like Ali express’ and ‘urghhh it’s a bit chaotic’ ……
I personally don’t mind the ‘Pinterest’ style layout but I really don’t like the orange price tags.
2 Likes
I’m seriously despondent, I’ve typed daisy and daisies into the search, I have 7 listings with daisies in the title and I’m featuring them as they are the flower for April birthdays. I don’t show once on 7 pages for both searches.
2 Likes
I’ve just typed in ‘doll’ ‘rag doll’ ‘doll’s clothes’ ‘mouse’ and ‘mice’ which are the only things I sell and it’s 4 or 5 pages before any of my things appear - way behind aprons with mouse print fabric, greetings cards with a mouse on them, bags with a little embroidered doll etc. I couldn’t find any of my mice at all. if I wanted to buy a doll, I would want to see dolls and I would give up scrolling if I kept getting lots of unrelated items. I don’t think the search is working as well as it was before.
1 Like
I dont use search on here at all, to be honest, because i know it doesnt function well, if at all. But i have insider knowledge. If i were a potential buyer, im not sure id find the site easy to navigate at all. The categories themselves frustrate me. Im looking for ceramics and go into Homeware, then am immediately siphoned into “parts of the house” rather than “ceramics” followed
by categories like “mugs”, “plates”, “vases” etc. So now i need to guess what part of the house it has been placed in. Its a very confusing, frustrating aspect to this site, and now the search function isnt functioning, it feels rather “needle in haystack”. Well, thats just fantastic for sellers, isnt it?
3 Likes
One of the “grumbles” has always been that one seller’s items appear together, and it seems that is still the case, forgive me if I am wrong, but surely improvements to the site should make listings fairer and list what you have actually searched for.
1 Like
Please don’t take this as criticism as it isn’t meant as such - all feedback’s a gift in my book and you’re entirely free to express yourself as you think best, but I did laugh at your post as it reminded me strongly of many comments I read from teachers on my homework years ago!
3 Likes
I have just looked and yours were nearer the end but not that many, I have 2 dolls listed a couple of days ago that are not even included which I find really annoying especially as there is a doll from a shop that has been on a break for the past few years so the shop is on permanent holiday mode.
When i go on holiday and put my shop in holiday mode my items become invisible which I don’t like but it annoys me more that there are shops that still appear in searches, it should be the same for everyone. I have never understood why our items have to be invisible because we are away, Afterall when you go to the shop it says they are on a break so wont be able to post. We don’t need to disappear from searches.
That’s exactly as I feel about Teddy bears, they are listed under homeware, I have mentioned this to Folksy as in order to find them you have to go homeware..dolls and collectables..teddy bears. I think dolls, bears etc need their own category, as a customer there is no way I would think to look under homeware. Homeware to me is cushions, curtains etc not collectables.
In fact if i looked down the search I would probably go elsewhere and now that teddy bears don’t even come up in the searches until we have seen pages of cards I would just think there arn’t any on Folksy.
Perhaps it should have been tested before it was rolled out as I havn’t read one positive post yet from anyone doing searches.
5 Likes
It’s the curse of my day job in a global IT and Business Consulting organisation. I spend all day every day telling large client organisations what to do (and what not to do) to successfully transition and transform their systems and services, improve user journeys, CX, etc.
I also own a number of ecommerce websites.
With these hats on I am exasperated at the basic mistakes that Folksy keeps making and that did come out in my feedback. I could have used less exclamation marks, but I stand by what I said.
I did a number of tests on the search this morning and I’ll share my observations later, sans exclamations.
7 Likes
I was wondering what all the fuss was about with the new search and so had a look. When I searched for ‘peg bags’ for some reason it looked ok as they mostly came up with the same sized pictures. A few of mine appeared, which was good. I then searched for ‘dogs’. The page was chaotic, with different sized pictures. Loads of the items had a similar multi-grid photo. The same sellers came up over and over again and none of my items appeared in the the 7 pages, despite having a number of items with ‘dog’ as a tag. I tried the same search again, hoping it was picking up a random selection, but no. The same limited selection appeared again. Shouldn’t the search results show every option and in a random, changing order? Why would a potential customer think there were more options than they are being shown? Anyone not shown is at a major disadvantage for potential sales.
II thought the shop search option was good, although a little small. I tried putting my shop name into the main search box. It came up with 7 of my items and loads of unrelated stuff, which was weird.
All in all not a very satisfactory experience. I understand that the aim is to make the search work for the customer but some how it is choosing what the customer should see, not giving all the options and giving an unfair advantage to some shops.
1 Like
How do we now search for a specific shop. I used to use that all the time and now have no idea how to find a shop.?
Just look under the search bar on the right - you can click there to search shops
It only appears After I hit the Search button so rather obviously I couldn’t see it as it wasn’t there when I looked