How is the going to affect our sales?

Shop Talk
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I don’t know how many of you have shops at Etsy but there has been a new, permanent change is search as of two days ago (although this has been in test for at least the last two weeks).

SImply, when a search in undertaken by someone in the UK or Australia, the local shops will show first - I tried it out and in some cases, International shops were much less prominent, regardless of relevancy. I went as far as 6 pages before I saw many international sellers. There were some sprinkled here and there in the first pages.
The benefits for the seller that I see are - no worries about VAT (although you are supposed to reduce the price to people internationally as they shouldn’t be paying VAT. But that is another story and pain in the backside, we do have the best postal service anywhere so if sending 1st class you can almost guarantee next day delivery if posted before 4 and those that want to support the UK marketplace don’t have to look through page after page of results to find a local seller.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? I think this is going to prove a real challenge for our Folksy shops.

We will be:

  1. competing head to head with other UK shops all the time. Regardless of the amount of advertising done by Folksy, we certainly not a household word here in the UK No one I know has ever heard of Folksy until I bring it to their attention whereas Etsy is quite well known.
  2. Those of us who sell on both venues will be losing out too. I can see this potentially cannibalising our UK sales here as now Etsy is directly competing for our customers resulting in less people coming to Folksy. This is because they have easily found local sellers on the other side.

Obviously this will not affect repeat customers as they know where we are. I do feel we need to educate the UK about Folksy or there may be no Folksy left. I also feel like this is the perfect opportunity for each seller to strengthen their marketing. We are going to need all the help we can get.

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Sorry, I really don’t understand? Is this just on the Etsy search?

Also, I hate the way everyone assumes no-one has heard of Folksy - sure, it’s not as huge as Etsy, but it’s getting better known all the time. Also, many of us are already really strong on our marketing.

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Yes, Sara, on Etsy.

I am assuming anything, I know for a fact that Etsy is much more recognised brand than Folksy in the UK and the EU in general. I did not say that no one knows of Etsy, only in my experience. And finally, yes I am sure there are those who have excellent marketing but I believe everyone is going to be having to up their game.

I am not trying to be combative, I am just expressing my thoughts. I think this is something that needs to be addressed.

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I don’t understand either. If it is the Etsy search, surely the customers are already looking on the Etsy site, they are just directed to UK rather than US shops. It’s not going to make people flock to Etsy as they are already there?

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Interesting - not sure how it will affect Folksy really but may explain why I have had lots of UK sales from my shop over there this week! Honestly, as long as people buy my stuff I really don’t mind which side they prefer to shop at!

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Not sure how directly it will affect Folksy,although I can see that people may not seek out a specifically UK site to buy from if it is easier to find local sellers on there.
I have heard it is already having a huge impact in loss of sales for UK sellers on there, that used to sell a lot abroad.

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Well, typically my Etsy sales were about 60% UK 40% US. However, since the introduction of this “local” concept, I have had no sales at all. I’m not sure what you should read into that as a statistic (but as a mathematician I could provide you with several options).

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I think you’ll find it will hit those UK seller on that site who signed up in order to sell worldwide. As they will no longer come up in search for their overseas customers to find them. I don’t think they can now claim to be a world wide market any more. One more nail in their coffin really as it’s already known as a site for knock off’s and factory made resellers.

I know a lot of non USA sellers are now worried as most of their sales are exports to the USA and now they are not as likely to be found by their overseas market.

Personally if I want to shop in the UK I’d not go to a American site to look for UK sellers I’d go to a UK site in order to find UK sellers.

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So if it’s the Etsy search that has changed, why does it need to be discussed on a Folksy forum anyway? Surely it would be better to discuss it on Etsy?

Why would it have any effect on Folksy at all? If people are searching on Etsy they are already there, so I still find the OP confusing.

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There was/is an option there to search just for shops located in the UK (or anywhere else) already. Other than that - agree with other comments!

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Well, my last two sales on Etsy - both since this new search came in - were both to the US, and both new buyers, so I’m not worried about not being found internationally.

I guess it depends on the product - some product markets are saturated, so in those areas it may become more difficult, but that would be the same anywhere.

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I had 3 sales overnight to the US & Canada and that equals by total for 2015 on here so I think it will be all ok!

I do think though @EileensCraftStudio that if you were a layman looking for handmade goods in the UK you wouldn’t go to a particular site you would go to google and search. So where they end up shopping depends upon SEO and being found in the global marketplace rather than specific shops. In my area NOTHS has this sewn up for sure.

Interestingly, since the new website we are getting an increasing number of shoppers (both for promotion and for handmade goods) at British Crafters that find us via googling these specifics. Which of course is good for your Folksy shop if all your leads point here (like for example the lovely @JOYSofGLASS) x

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Etsy has always had the option for buyers to search within their own country, so this will have no impact on Folksy at all.

But it will have a massive impact on those Etsy sellers who sell internationally. As the aforementioned search option has always been available, I cannot for the life of me understand Etsy’s thinking behind this bizarre move (and one I was completely unaware of until I saw this thread…!). It makes no sense at all for a supposedly international site to do this. :confused:

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I disagree.
I’m in the UK, I have direct checkout and funds from this…including international sales…are transfered to my bank account within two days.

Although the default button is for payments to be deposited every other Monday, by pressing the "request earlier payment " button funds are released the next working day.

Sarah x

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@BelaFarCrafts As soon as the button is available on Payment System via Direct Checkout I hit “transfer to bank” All my overnight orders will be in my bank on Monday.

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Storm in a teacup if you ask me! This probably isn’t the right platform to discuss it though :slight_smile:

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Well, for me I’ve found it a system that works extremely well.
Fast, reliable and secure.

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The reason I posted this here is that I think it is going to affect Folksy sellers.

Lisa, I think you are right that it hasn’t been designed to bring in UK buyers to them but those that are already on the site will see UK shops first. The big difference is, that people don’t have to set their filters as it will be automatic.

I don’t see where, at this time, it affects UK sellers ability to show up early in an international search as only the UK and Australian buyers will be seeing the local shops first. They have said that they will be rolling this out elsewhere in the future but at the moment it is just the two countries.

Deborah, you must look at different posts than I do as I have only seen the normal posts of people complaining about sales being down, not specifically UK sellers. When I see these posts, I always remember that there may be a few thousand that frequent the fora - there are 1.6 million sellers there though, so only a miniscule amount are experiencing poor sales and talking about it. We all know that retail sales are cyclical. Those that aren’t getting sales at the moment will be getting sales tomorrow as long as they keep flexible and watch where things are going.

Eileen, this is not the case. It is only UK and Australian buyers that will see the local listings at the moment. It will not affect any other location so if someone in the US is looking for something, unless they have their filters set to exclude shops outside the US, they will see UK and Australian shops as they always have.

Minerva, that is not correct. If I sell something there through DC, I am paid 2 business days after the sale. That is faster than apparently the US sellers see their money. This is due to our superior banking system here where we are credited the same day as the transfers occur. At least that is the way it happens for me. They have integrated PP with DC (of which current sellers can opt out ) I think you are right in that they seem to want to have everything processed by themselves but at the moment established shops still have the choice.

I started this thread to give the Folksy sellers a heads up of what is happening over there and the possible ramifications for all of us. I think it is definitely the place to discuss how other venues may impact out business here.

Baggie Aggie, this is totally different from setting filters. This is now something everyone in the UK will see. I think it’s wonderful for UK sellers over there but I cannot see it being a good thing for Folksy sellers.

Melanie, I don’t think this is a storm in a tea cup. We are not insular. The markets dictate our success to a certain degree and this is happening in our market.

I am sorry if this is something you didn’t care to know. I just like to be well informed as to what is happening in the retail world so I can take appropriate action. Good sales to all!

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@DottieDesigns Ah thank you xxxx

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I understand what you are saying @ManiacalMosaics Esy have altered the location search for UK and Oz customers, because sales to UK & Oz are down. I wonder if sales are down because more UK & Oz customers are buying from marketplaces based in their own countries instead, the UK & Oz both have some great marketplaces which compete with Esy. Esy’s new search development promotes UK & Oz sellers to UK & Oz customers and I think Esy may have done this in order to compete with UK & Oz marketplaces.