Surely it’s still down to your SEO. Unless it’s a really general search like ‘necklace’, you’re going to appear reasonably high after the local items, because it won’t be all the local items if their SEO isn’t good. If I’m looking for something on a handmade site, I’m looking for just the right thing and I’ll happily browse loads of pages to find just what I want because I know there’ll be lots of different interpretations of what I’m after. If you’ve got pages and pages of the same thing come up, you’d just go for the cheapest local item. It’s a bit different with handmade. But if you are concerned with buying local the new search changes won’t make any difference because that’s always been an option to go local.
‘This is now something everyone in the UK will see’.
No, it isn’t - it is something every UK shopper on Etsy will see (and will have been seeing for years in any case if they’ve used the ‘UK only’ option, or simply typed ‘UK’ alongside their search terms).
UK buyers have used and use Etsy for two reasons: Either because they’ve heard of Etsy and have gone there direct to do their shopping, or because they’ve found Etsy via a Google search for the particular product they want. No UK buyer who hasn’t found what they’re looking for on Etsy (highly unlikely!) has ever then come hot foot to Folksy to do their shopping. And that I can absolutely guarantee, as the reason they’re shopping on Etsy is that they’ve never heard of Folksy, and because Folksy so rarely comes up in Google searches (after the major changes in search made by Folksy 3+ years ago) that the chances of any Folksy seller being found that way are extremely low.
So I really don’t see how this Etsy tweak can have any impact on Folksy sellers at all.
I do understand, and I think that the targeting of UK and Oz for this trial is significant because both countries have an appetite for quirky hand-made items and their own pre-existing craft sites, in our case Folksy and NOTHS. The dark side are on the run because Amazon recently opened up their site to the hand-made market, causing the dark side’s stock to crash overnight. I imagine they are now trying to increase their market size in the UK and Oz because these are countries which are already aware of their site and they feel that Folksy and the Australian site are weaker than they are, especially in terms of promotion. The next country they target will be Germany, although it must be said that the German site is much better known and well patronized in that country.
This is their plan, but it may not be effective for several reasons;
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Amazon is a global leviathan that exists in all of these countries. If Amazon turns out to be the best place for sellers to be then it will be curtains both for Folksy and the dark side too.
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The shops that British customers want to visit have their following generated through pages on FB and instagram and the shoppers simply follow them from their FB pages, so it is the seller who has control over which site they direct customers to, not the platform. I know people who have bought things on the dark side, but it is invariably because they came across the maker on FB first, not the other way around.
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Folksy is in a better position than the dark side because it actively forbids vintage, re-selling and factory produced goods from outside the UK and it polices its site. In that sense it is more trustworthy than the dark side and certainly more trustworthy than Amazon. Reputation is everything when you are selling something like hand-made jewellery. People have to be able to trust that the quality of the piece is everything that it appears to be in the photograph and is not a cheap knock-off. This is the commercial advantage that Folksy has always had over the other sites (Eb*y included) and it may in fact be able to capitalize on the dark sides downfall with some judicious promotion in the right magazines.
To bear point 3 out, an american magazine I follow online featured this story stating Amazon was now selling “home-made” jewellery. The tone, even in such a short column, in a magazine which aims itself at fashionable professional women, suggests nothing short of “You REALLY don’t want to go here, ladies…” It mentioned the dark side in the same breath. Hardly good publicity for sellers on either platform.
Love Sam x
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I make lots of sales on Etsy, domestically and internationally, and none of them have ever been as a result of my FB page (which in any case has been closed for some time now as I found it to be a waste of time and effort). All my Etsy sales, without exception, have come via Etsy and Google searches.
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You must have better SEO than me! The bounce rate for my google referrals is horrendous, but for referrals from my FB page it is between 20 and 50%. Plus I have also had some commissions direct from my FB page, so it works for me, as long as I keep posting and avoid falling into the algorithm traps 
Love Sam x
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Sam, this is not a test. This is the way Etsy is going to be. They rolled us out the other day and the Announcement says this is permanent and that the rest of Etsy will follow.
Jo, yes SEO will obviously have something to do with where you come up in search but you will only have to worry about other UK seller’s SEO to be on the first 5 or 6 pages.
It will not matter what filters you have. If they detect you are in the UK you will get UK sellers regardless.
Well, I truly hope all of you “disbelievers” are proven correct 
, I would really love to be wrong but sadly, I doubt that will be the fact. Let’s see what happens as we get closer to Christmas and then perhaps we can re-evaluate. Good sales, ladies!
You misunderstand me, Leslie. If “the Dark Side” were sure about whether or not this was the way forward they would have introduced it in USA first, as that is their largest market. The UK and Oz markets are similar in nature but smaller in size and so provide the perfect ground to test whether or not an idea works. I wouldn’t feel victimized by this if I were you. It isn’t about Folksy as much as it is about Amazon. “The Dark Side” are feeling a bit panicked at the moment because of the crash in their share prices and are casting about to find a way to give the American stock exchange more confidence in their shares.
Love Sam x
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I have often read different things on these forum that honestly just go over my head.
Just blame my age…lol…
All I know is that if I get worked up about anything…given a few weeks, everything is back to normal and I look back and think that nothing has changed for me…so I now don’t worry about these things.
I just continue to love what I do and leave the rest to the Universe.
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and because Folksy so rarely comes up in Google searches (after the major changes in search made by Folksy 3+ years ago) that the chances of any Folksy seller being found that way are extremely low.
If you type the quite general search tem of “stained glass suncatcher” into Google I think you will find my Folksy shop comes up 2nd. above anything on Etsy.
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I’ll second that Brenda. Happy crafting 
Sam, I definitely don’t feel victimised. I sell on both sites for a reason but my my bread and butter sales - commissions - come from my gallery, B & M shops and BAMM referrals. I sell some supplies and home dec online but that really isn’t my main income stream. I get trade pricing from my suppliers and then feel obligated to pass it on!
I do agree with you that this is the first of many changes Etsy will be making but I also believe that those that adapt will not be penalised by them.
Burying my head in the sand isn’t my way and I don’t like being caught short.
Regards,
Leslie
I already find I am getting more views there since this has happened.
I’ve never done well in Etsy searches, despite using all the keywords, and nothing’s changed. However, looking at the stats, I find I got two views via the keywords “fuchs aus ton modellieren” which I definitely don’t have anywhere! (don’t even know what it means but perhaps it expresses my frustration with searches! )
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‘Fox model from clay’. You must have something similar in your tags, and it must be translated to German for German customers 
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My views on Etsy have shot up since the changes so it will be interesting to see if my sales go up. Hopefully now, more UK buyers will see my shop and I won’t get lost in the sea of stuff from china and USA. But really can’t see how these changes affect Folksy?
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My views have improved because of this also. So I’m pleased.
My views have increased also, so all good.
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