Hi I am not sure if this is the right place for this and couldn’t think of the right Topic Heading either. I love Folksy but have one big issue with the site and don’t know if it can be fixed. The same seller can take up the first 2 or more pages with their products. So for example I just selected blank cards from the drop down option and it had one shops cards for 2 pages. As a seller I find this frustrating but think it is worse as a customer coming to look for something. If they have to trawl through a number of identical pages of items, particularly if they don’t like that style or type of work, they are more than likely to leave the site thinking it is not the right place for them. Other sites don’t have this and showed a wide range of sellers on each and every page.
I think one of the reasons this happens is because people on plus accounts are able to re-list everything everyday at no costs. Obviously this is a great feature and I am sure I wouldn’t be very popular if I suggested this was removed. As a plus seller I do re-list things but try to re-list just 2 or 3 things and make sure they are varied.
Anyway I really think that it is something that needs looking at so that Folksy can show case the wide variety of quality handmade goods it offers.
It used to be that the search results were biased towards how recently items were listed/ relisted with most recent being shown first so people got into the habit of relisting en masse to get themselves to the top of the pile (even if it was only briefly because lots of people were doing it). When the search algorithm was redone last year that weighting was relegated but people’s behaviour hasn’t changed. If people stopped relisting their entire shop all at once, every day, then the clumping issue seen in the categories would be much reduced.
That would prove unpopular with some as there are a few sellers who wait until everything is about to expire and then do a mass renew so they need to be able to relist a large number of items.
Thanks for the above. I realise it would be unpopular with sellers but I wonder if a blog post talking about managing a shops listings would work. Just an idea to help them understand that having 2 pages of their things won’t make someone buy them and could stop them returning to the site.
When you come on to Folksy it looks fabulous with high quality photos and beautiful products and it would be good to keep this look as people browse through options.
Sorry I was rather terse last night as I was writing my response on my phone whilst trying to get my OH to hurry up so we could get to a restaurant.
This subject (mass relisting by plus account holders) used to come up semi regularly when it had more impact on the search results and we used to go round and round in circles never finding a solution that everyone liked. Putting a limit on how many items could be relisted each day would be a logical way of stopping clumping even if it proved an annoyance to a few sellers. (although probably less of an annoyance to fewer people than the current clumping issue)
I agree and your response wasn’t terse. It is not an easy job running the site and keeping everyone happy. Like many others I love Folksy and think the people at HQ do a fabulous job keeping it true to Handmade UK. Sellers also have a responsibility to think beyond just their products.
Before joining Folksy as a seller, this was the main reason I would stop browsing. Customers want a variety of choice. Even using the filter option doesnt always help. I think limiting it to a certain number a day would be good, but not sure how popular it would be. In the catagory I list in, only a few people seem to relist their whole shop, i personally think they would be better presenting their work by relisting 4 - 12 at a time
I have always felt that page after page of the same seller is counterproductive to the seller, to other sellers, to Folksy and not least to prospective buyers. It just looks so uninviting if you don’t happen to be attracted to that particular seller’s products. When it’s a result of mass relisting it is also extremely discouraging to Folksy Basic sellers - we Basic Bunch may not be able to afford to be Folksy Plus folk, but we do contribute to the forums, we try to help other sellers with queries, we pay our listing fees and do our best to support and promote Folksy in our own way. We may be a minority but we still count!
You weren’t terse at all. Before they changed the searches, the same sellers would take up page after page and that has improved somewhat. But it’s obviously still a problem.
I agree that it’s counter productive. I think a restriction on how many items can be relisted in a day is a reasonable request if it gives other sellers more of a chance to be seen. If you can only list one or two items a day as a basic seller and you have someone relisting dozens of items in one go then those one or two get completely lost in those first vital pages. They don’t get a chance for their products to be on that first page for any length of time. And yes, it’s boring for buyers to see the same seller’s products on page after page after page.
I’ve been Folksy Plus and a basic seller and it wouldn’t bother me if I had those restrictions if it meant it helped others.
I agree I have only gone PLUS this month to see if I could generate some sales by using the relist feature. I won’t be able to afford to carry on as a PLUS member. I’ve tried really hard to participate and promote others and Folksy, I’ve done several Folksy Friday’s etc , support suggestions made by others to help promote Folksy in general, but I’m going to have take a break as it is having a negative effect on creativity so is becoming counter productive. But having the Folksy community helps and I want to try and stay positive especially as the Folksy team seem to be really working hard at the moment too
can I step outside the box a bit here?..I agree with what everyone is saying and I tend to relist a page at a time not for any reason other than it is easier for me to work that way…But I usually only do it once a fortnight…
What I was thinking, and am quite happy to be limited to how many I relist at a time…as I have nearly 500 items in my shop and if I could only relist 3 or 4 at a time ( per day?..week?) then I wonder if some of my items might delist before I could work through and relist them all…
I never was any good at maths…anyone know how many days I could relist for at 4 a day…please don’t shoot me down in flames…xx
brenda @teabreaks If you could only list 4 a day I think that works out at approx. 120 per month, so in 4 months that would be 480…so if you had 500 items then 20 would expire. I think that they would have to set a more reasonable figure of 10-12 per day. I tend to relist 6-8 at a time 2 or 3 times a day as I feel that gets some of my items higher in the search throughout the day rather than just once a day.
Absolutely agree with you. I need to relist a page at a time as otherwise things would often accidentally unlist. I have even more listings than you and could not manage the hassle of remembering to relist just a few every day. I have better things to do with my time. Like making and promoting and sending out orders. Apart from having a life outside Folksy
Ps I relist to stop things expiring Never to bring my things up the searches.
When I had a plus account I would relist things in batches or 3 or 4 items but do that several times a day, usually once at breakfast, lunchtime and maybe a couple in the evening, this way I hoped to catch as many people as possible (if you relist your whole shop at once then you only catch the eye of potential customers who are looking at that time of day)
exactly Joy it is to stop things delisting…I wouldn’t be nasty enough to want to push other people out…maybe there is a way for admin to “shuffle” the pages.?..
If admin stopped the free relisting then I would probably have to stop the plus account which would be a shame as I recently sold some paintings that were first listed in 2016…xx
So like everything else, there are always two sides to look at things.
