cindylouwho-2

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, April 2024

It's time once again for my roundup of marketing and SEO news/resources for small and microbusinesses in ecommerce! April has been a very busy month, with a lot of Google & Meta news in particular.

Reminder that you can get news and my own posts from me a variety of ways:

blog emails (both Tumblr and my website blogs posts)

Patreon (the fastest and easiest way to get everything)

Bluesky

LinkedIn

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Don't know much about SEO but want to learn how it can help your ecommerce website? I've collected some trusted resources for you. (Bookmark that page for future use, as I plan to keep it updated.)

Google has recently been emphasizing that links to your site are not as crucial as they used to be. From Google’s John Mueller: “There are more important things for websites nowadays, and over-focusing on links will often result in you wasting your time doing things that don’t make your website better overall.” Here’s another instance of staff telling people you don’t need many links.

When doing keyword research, especially for niche/longtail terms, “think about think about 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 not search query volume.” Many less common searches will have a ton of slightly different variations, and a well-written piece will be able to target all of them. [It’s a good reason not to avoid really low search volume keywords that fit.]

Contrary to recent speculation, pages with ads on them can still rank well on Google; the real problem is ads that negatively affect the reader’s ability to use the page. 

Google has started testing its “Google Search Generative Experience” (AI) in regular organic search results. This was a US-only test, at first, but results have now been spotted in Australia, the UK and India as well. Note that Google’s AI still provides really lousy responses for lots of questions a full year after it debuted, including making stuff up. 

Google has been taking a lot of heat for bad results lately, especially for ranking forum sites above quality experts. SEOs have been piling on, and Google is getting a bit defensive, saying that sometimes it is just showing what people want to see. 

If you missed some Google changes in March, here is a complete accounting of all the updates. 

Not Google

Bing is apparently going to follow Google, as it is testing removal of cache links. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

A lot of people are confused about what “federated” social media means, so here’s a chat [text and audio] with the CEO of Bluesky that covers that and other goals of the social media site that started as part of Twitter but is now fully separate. Bluesky posts can also now be embedded on websites. 

Twitch is one of several social media sites introducing a feed similar to TikTok’s, for both livestreams and recorded videos. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta is rolling out its new political filter to Instagram and Threads, requiring users to opt in if they want to see political content. The change will be added to Facebook in the future. 

Starting in May, all AI-generated content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads will display a “Made with AI” label, Meta announced. “The old policy prohibits videos created or edited using AI tools that make a person say something they didn’t but doesn’t cover the wide range of AI-generated content that has recently flooded the web.” 

Meta’s new AI assistant pulls results directly from Google and Bing, in real time. 

Meta’s Advantage + Shopping Campaigns have new targeting capabilities, allowing advertisers to select interested accounts that are not current customers. 

Beware of Facebook ads glitches that many companies report have increased their costs.

If you aren’t happy with the traffic and interaction on Facebook, consider trying some of these 8 tips. [infographic with some text]

Court documents revealed that Meta tracked some of Facebook users’ activity on other apps such as Snapchat, perhaps without adequate disclosure. 

In yet another court action, advertisers who placed ads on Facebook and Instagram have a class action for $7 billion, claiming Meta reported more ad views than actually occurred. “The advertisers suing Meta allege that the Potential Reach metric used by the company to determine advertising costs relies on the total number of social media accounts rather than individual users. They argue that this approach is problematic because it could include bot and fake accounts, resulting in advertisers paying more money for their ads to be served to bots.” 

Instagram

Instagram has some pointers for getting more interaction on Stories. 

Here is a comprehensive list of various features on Instagram that might be useful to promoting and selling, including very recent updates. 

LinkedIn

A study of LinkedIn posts in 2022 and 2023 revealed a few tips for getting more engagement.

Because everyone wants to be TikTok, LinkedIn is beta testing a short video format. “While you have always been able to post videos on LinkedIn, the new dedicated feed is  designed to boost engagement and discovery on the platform by presenting bite-sized videos that people can quickly scroll through.”

Reddit

There’s been a lot written about how Reddit and other forum websites are really benefiting from high Google rankings for many basic knowledge queries; this article details Reddit’s search rise in the past year. “The most visible URL in r/buyitforlife, for example, is a thread on the “best coffee maker” which gets an estimated 10980 organic clicks per month. This one thread on one subreddit, on one domain which competes for visibility with nytimes.com, epicurious.com, target.com, cnn.com and bestbuy.com, to name just five on the list of over 1000 domains that are also on the competitor list for the URL.”

Threads

Threads users in the US, Canada and Japan can now cross post in the fediverse. This mostly works with Mastodon at the moment. 

It looks like Meta is going to make advertising available on Threads in the second half of 2024, which is earlier than expected. 

TikTok

TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program is now out of beta, and rewards users for 4 different metrics: “Originality, Play duration, Search value [and] Audience engagement.”

Tiktok’s photo app has now launched: "TikTok Notes” is now available in Australia and Canada [article contains screenshots of the app]. 

Twitter

No, Twitter is not currently at its highest traffic ever; the graph Musk tweeted was estimated web traffic only. Roughly 80% of Twitter’s traffic is through the app. 

Twitter may be banned in Brazil if the company doesn’t comply with government orders to block some accounts there. In related news, Bluesky is now allowing heads of state to open accounts, after their surge in Brazil. Brazil’s president was the first to sign up. 

YouTube

YouTubers now must admit when they use artificial intelligence (AI) in their creations, other than the most minor changes or “generating scripts, content ideas, or automatic captions.” This will be an interesting development to watch, as there are probably other platforms considering this type of rule right now. 

Over 25% of YouTube Shorts creators are receiving money from their short term videos’ revenue sharing option. Here’s how to monetize your Shorts. There are also increased ad opportunities for Shorts now. 

Buffer analyzed YouTube videos posted through its site to find the best times to release your pieces. “The best time to post on YouTube is on Friday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m….Other high-view times are Tuesday at 2 p.m. and Thursday at 6 p.m.” [Worth reading if you rely on YouTube for views, as it also includes tips on increasing traffic.]

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

With so much AI-generated content out there, anyone writing new pieces will need to rise above computer-generated regurgitation. Make sure your posts contain new information, such as your own tests or personal experience, or go way beyond the superficial. 

Yahoo is beta-launching its new creator platform, “Yahoo for Creators”, for lifestyle content from writers and influencers. Participation is currently by invite only. 

This is a decent calendar for planning an entire year of content marketing around theme days/weeks and special events. It’s not too early to plan your content marketing for May; there are several major events and holidays to work around. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Google Shopping now allows US buyers to upvote or downvote suggested items, to help Google find what you are looking for. 

If you program your own Google Shopping ads, be aware of recent and upcoming changes in several feed areas. 

The 2023 Google Ads safety report claims they are restricting far more ads and suspending more accounts than previously. How come they can’t stop the scammers advertising a “support phone number” for Etsy then? 

Instagram ads are more profitable for Meta than YouTube ads are for Google, according to legal documents. 

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Periodic reminder that while the Google Search Console is often the best Google stats package we have access to, it is still missing a lot of data. 

You can use the Google Search Console and Google Analytics to diagnose traffic changes on your website; here are a few tips.  

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

“Pre-loved” clothing is on the verge of taking 10% of the world fashion market. “[T]he US secondhand market grew seven times faster than overall fashion retail where sales were flat in 2023 from a year earlier.”

An oldie but a goodie: how to write an apology letter to customers. One that companies often miss is “Explain clearly what you or the company will do differently next time to avoid this happening again.” When a business screws up badly, I want to know how the problem will be prevented in the future. 

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

Canva has purchased Affinity, potentially making the platform more attractive to those with professional design skills. The 2 companies have now confirmed that Affinity users can keep their one-time licenses, and will not be forced into subscription plans. 

MISCELLANEOUS

Michaels has reduced prices on over 5,000 items, some as low as pre-2019 prices. “Prices on frequently purchased items including paint, markers and pens have been reduced up to 15%, papers and stickers up to 20%, canvases up to 35% and T-shirts up to 40%, among other reductions.” This could affect anyone competing with Michaels in these areas. 

#ecommerce #seo #social media #microbusiness #search engine optimization #content marketing #cindylouwho2

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), LATE APRIL 2024

Welcome to my Etsy and ecommerce news & resource update for late April 2024. There are lots of Etsy bugs to keep track of...

I now provide these updates at least twice a week to paying members of my Patreon, along with many other useful benefits. Please check it out!

Want to get these Tumblr updates plus my website blog posts via email? You can sign up here.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Some Etsy Messages continue to be sent to the spam folder for no apparent reason, and the site has finally taken action on the resulting damage to Star Seller status. The problem itself is not necessarily over, but Etsy is “working to improve the accuracy of these measures.”

If you have an Etsy shop that has been “inactive” for 4 or more years, be aware that Etsy is planning on closing those shops permanently if the owners do not log in to the shop in the next few months (post by me on LinkedIn).  

A really good reminder that correlation is not causation: just because your views or sales dropped at the same time something else happened does not mean that the event in question harmed your traffic and sales. That applies to Google Core Updates as well as Etsy’s Gift Mode. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy is testing new SEO tools that will change the listing titles shown in Etsy search and Offsite Ads. I have the full text of the opt-in explanation from Etsy, plus my thoughts. TL;DR: I wouldn't opt in. Sellers cannot control which listings get changed, nor can they see the changes. Etsy's AI track record is too abysmal to try this.

Gift recipients can now contact the seller, and sellers can issue replacements without any contact with the buyer/gift giver. “However, only the original buyer of a gift can request a refund, return, or exchange—depending on your shop policies. Gift recipients won’t be able to request a return or file a case. Messages you receive from gift recipients will be identified with a badge so you know who you’re messaging with.”

Canadian sellers should check their tax IDs on Etsy, as one seller had hers removed from her account without notice, meaning Etsy is now charging her Canadian customers GST/HST, despite it already being included in the item price. Chat told her it was linked to an inability to verify the ID number, but of course no one told the seller, and the issue can’t currently be fixed. 

Some sellers in France report they are being told they must remove “Other” from shipping profiles (as a shipping upgrade only) and choose a carrier option that Etsy provides. While there has been no official announcement, this may be the first step in an expansion of the removal of “Other” in the US and the UK, which I wrote about last year. 

If your items seem to be due to ship later than you might expect, that could be a bug. [short post by me with forum links]

The official Etsy legal policies for sellers changed a bit on April 9, with some words switched regarding “off-platform transactions”. There is a side-by-side comparison here. Both the seller policy and the new “off-platform transactions” page also forbid the use of QR codes to take users off of Etsy. 

Etsy had a major outage on April 19, and from some reports this took an hour to fix. That usually means some major software changes coming…

Etsy released a Spring/Summer Trend Guide, now done as a pdf file of slides as well as a blog post. Searches for “handmade gifts” are up 238% in the first 3 months of the year compared to 2023 [so yes, you should use the word handmade in your tags or titles.] You can also now see Etsy's curated trends on the Trends Page, filled with Editors’ Picks for the different topics. 

Some US sellers did not receive their deposits on April 15, but staff now claim the problem is resolved. A few sellers disagree. 

Modern Retail interviewed Etsy sellers unhappy with the platform and comparing it to Amazon. [ModernRetail; soft paywall] “Etsy only permits the resale of vintage goods and crafts supplies, per its policy. But Modern Retail found listings on the platform for fast-fashion blazers, shirts and jackets from retailers like H&M and Shein. Those listings were taken down after Modern Retail flagged them to Etsy’s team.” The article misses the fact that 95% of takedowns for handmade violations are actually errors, as I covered last year. 

Etsy’s first quarter 2024 results come out May 1. If the company is planning big changes any time soon, they would likely be announced on or before that date, but they have surprised us before, so no guarantees. (Large changes such as the subscription tiers they surveyed sellers on earlier this year take a lot of programming work, so that could delay announcements.)

The Etsy “strike” happened 2 years ago this month, but the organizations that grew out of the movement continue to strive for better conditions for small makers and curators who sell online. 

If Etsy has removed one of your items under the handmade policy but it appears to be an issue with other sites stealing your photos, this Reddit user has a great approach for tackling Etsy Support’s usual slow reaction time. If you can’t access call backs due to your country not being on the list, try the same approach with live chat. If that doesn’t work, go public. Etsy tends to fix things more quickly when the company is being called out. 

Those involved in “closed” Teams in the Etsy Community should be aware that these teams were open to anyone logged in for a few weeks; outsiders could read, subscribe, and even post. [Yes, I did all of these things just to test.] Etsy now claims the issue is fixed. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

Amazon

Changes to return processing fees for Fulfilled by Amazon items kick in June 1. “Amazon will introduce a returns processing fee for high return rate products in all categories, excluding apparel and shoes, to address the operational costs of returns and reduce waste. The fee will only apply to products that have return rates above a threshold specific to each category.”

According to the Wall Street Journal [paywall], Amazon has sold its items on other marketplaces such as Walmart and eBay. The goal? Spying on those other marketplaces and collecting info about how they operated.  

By the end of 2024, Amazon will be responsible for 40% of ecommerce sales in the US. Note that Walmart is growing faster than Amazon but is way behind. 

Amazon is using more automation in its facilities, and just opened a huge facility with Amazon-designed robots in Massachusetts. 

eBay

Starting April 20th, some eBay orders are being cancelled due to a “systems issue”, even if the orders had already shipped. Some sellers were not aware until their buyers asked why the order was cancelled, even though eBay was supposed to send emails. 

eBay sellers with open orders between April 7 and now should verify the addresses, as eBay admits it has been providing incorrect addresses for some orders.  

Sellers that use calculated shipping on eBay will now see the default shipping price be the discounted eBay label one as of May 15, unless they opt out by May 13. 

eBay seller feedback now includes the requirement to leave a product review as well.  

For everyone following the new hot trend of not charging seller fees, eBay UK is eliminating transaction fees (listing, final value and regulatory) on pre-owned clothing sales by private sellers. [For those who missed it, Depop did this for UK sellers in March, but like Mercari, will be charging buyer fees in at least some cases. eBay has not announced charges for buyers.] 

eBay owns TCGPlayer, which sells collectible cards, and is now selling cards on eBay through TCGPlayer. Is this an undeclared conflict of interest? “Suspiciously, nothing on the main profile page or the listings discloses to buyers that they are purchasing directly from an eBay-owned subsidiary - though it does assure potential buyers that TCGPlayer (eBay) is "one of eBay's most reputable sellers…eBay has graciously granted themselves the "Direct From Brand" badging even though TCGPlayer is not the manufacturer of these cards and arguably has no "brand" rights to Magic The Gathering, Metazoo or any other products they are selling."

Other Marketplaces

Depop recently removed all transaction/selling fees for UK sellers, and is now advertising this on the street and on YouTube. The preloved clothing market is expected to continue to grow over the next few years. “Our research with UK consumers shows that 18-35 year olds are already making an average of £350 a year by selling unused clothing, and saving an average of £185 annually by buying secondhand.”

Apparently Mercari has listing limits for some sellers. 

US businesses who want to sell on Shein can join a webinar on April 25 to learn more about their options. 

Website Builders

WooCommerce’s decision to change the website to Woo.com did not go well, so they changed back to WooCommerce.com on April 9. This was largely an SEO issue, which should make anyone reconsider SEO advice from Woo in the future. 

Shipping 

USPS delays continue countrywide, and there are lots of complaints. "Nationwide, 87% of first class, two-day mail arrived on time during the last three months of 2023, a 2.5 percentage-point decrease from the same period a year earlier, according to data published by the Postal Service inspector general. For mail intended to take three to five days, just 70% arrived on time, a decrease of 11 percentage points…Delays have been the most significant in some of the first regions to roll out the new regional distribution system, including Richmond, Virginia, Houston and the metro Atlanta area.” The problems are so widespread that eBay issued a statement that estimated delivery dates are being changed to reflect the issues. 

Canadians who use Canada Post's oversized lettermail for domestic orders will be paying more as of May 6. Envelopes up to 100g will now cost $2.09 per stamp (plus GST/HST), up from $1.94. Other lettermail and international non-package letterpost are also going up, including single letter forever stamps, but remember you can’t use those to ship product anyway.

Canada Post will be making other changes for business accounts in early September.

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #microbusiness #cindylouwho2

[cindylouwho-2]

WARNING!

Etsy is planning on closing shops that have be inactive for 4 or more years. This will permanently remove the shop from the site, and reopening will not be possible.

Read the details to make sure your old shops do not get removed without your consent.

#EtsySellerNews #etsy

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), Early April 2024

Welcome to my coverage of all the important Etsy and other ecommerce news that microbusinesses need to know! It's been a few weeks since my last update, so there is a fair amount to report.

Want to get the news more often and in a more timely fashion? Please sign up to support my Patreon site, where among other features, I will soon be starting periodical live chats on important topics. (I promise there will be one the day Etsy announces a fee increase)

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Etsy has made changes to how processing times and estimated delivery dates work; I covered everything you need to know in this post. 

Etsy seems to be sending more Messages to the spam folder, so you may miss a real message. After reading that thread, I checked, and there was one from another seller needing help from just 5 hours ago. Etsy did say engineers are looking into it. 

UPS has won the USPS air cargo contract, currently held by FedEx. It kicks in at the end of September. “As of May 31, 2023, FedEx counted the USPS as the largest customer of its Express unit.” 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy is rolling out a new seller pricing tool, and it is just as useless as the old version. I posted some early thoughts (with screenshots). 

Some shop owners are struggling to cancel Etsy coupons, while others are not having the same problem. Support says the company is aware of the issue. 

If you still can't access most of the Etsy forum after the changes on Tuesday March 26, post in this Technical Issues thread so that your account can be fixed.

Periodically, some shops suddenly stop getting deposits. If your shop has recently had a security warning, you may want to check to see if your bank account is still verified with Etsy. 

Looks like Etsy has an issue with misrepresenting how many items are left for each listing on the app; I wrote about it here.

Canadians getting harassed by Etsy to sign up for TurboTax should know that the company has told a seller that it doesn’t import Etsy data into your tax return for you; that is only available for Americans. [If you can’t import your info from your various platforms, my suggestion is use a free online program to file instead; I’ve used Wealthsimple for several years with no issues filing small business taxes; the T-2125 is part of the program.]

Etsy’s activist investor seems to think that the marketplace can “…add more buyers and increase the amount of money they spend on the platform”. But “monetization opportunities” were also mentioned. 

Etsy is yet again called out for allowing AI-generated porn on the site. “Several of the available listings also appear to violate existing trademarks — TheStreet identified listings that sell NSFW (not safe for work) AI-generated, suggestive images that appear to mimic Rapunzel from Disney's "Tangled," Princess Jasmine from Disney's "Aladdin" and She-Hulk from Marvel's "She-Hulk."

Etsy has been talking a lot about "image quality" lately, but doesn't really define the term anywhere. While I agree with those that say it is more than image size - Etsy would not have humans curating images to train its AI if "quality" could simply be measured by pixels - note that Google Shopping Ads describe image quality as size. “The resolution of your product images determines its quality. Google considers images with more than 1024 pixels as high-resolution images.” 

Apparently Etsy CEO Josh Silverman likes to make “unorthodox, downright risky career decisions” that often involve a ton of responsibility. [Link to podcast in article; I haven’t listened to it]

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

General

Patreon’s live chats are now accessible on the web (instead of just the app). A creator can assign moderators, and have chats for different categories of members. 

Canadians: beware that new tax rules requiring digital platform operators to report their users’ income to the Canada Revenue Agency are expected for 2025. These laws would make Canada similar to the United States and the United Kingdom, among others. 

Amazon

Amazon is struggling to verify the VAT status of many UK sellers, and the fact the company holds all funds until the process is complete means many sellers are without income. 

eBay

eBay is offering 3 free “express payouts” to select US sellers by email only, available until June 30th. Money is paid to seller debit cards and can take a half hour or more to receive. (The usual cost is 1.5%.)

If you use eBay For Charity, you may want to check to see if the charity is getting paid, as some apparently are not. 

If you advertise on eBay, or just list inconsistently, you may be interested in the marketing trends calendar for 2024. It shows you when certain types of searches peak. 

Michaels Makerplace

The landing page for Makerplace sellers doesn’t provide a lot of hard details; some of the actual policies appear once you begin to sign up. Here’s how they define handmade: 

Thanks to Bluesky user Brushfeather for the info.

Shopify

Shopify is putting more effort into large businesses these days, despite its core offerings targeting small and medium-sized businesses for years. [soft paywall; Business Insider] The company “...has made a concerted effort over the last 18 months to introduce more software solutions to win over larger merchants. It has enhanced Shopify Plus, a higher-tier subscription with more features, and launched Hydrogen, a more custom framework geared toward retailers with more complex needs...Shopify introduced Commerce Components, an offering that allows merchants to integrate parts of Shopify's software into their existing tech stack. Mattel was its first retail partner for that product, and Everlane has since adopted Shop Pay as a stand-alone component.”

CEO Tobi Lutke recently received almost $200 million CAD in Shopify stock options, “one of the largest compensation packages in Canadian history.” As company founder, he now has around $8 billion worth of Shopify stock.

CIRRO Fulfillment now integrates with Shopify. 

Squarespace

Squarespace is rolling out Squarespace Payments to sellers in the United States, and they expect to add more countries later this year. Fees are in line with other payment processors. 

All Other Marketplaces

Mercari is following Depop and is ending seller transaction fees while adding a buyer fee. There is now a seller earnings withdrawal fee of $2, however, plus the pricing only applies to items listed after the announcement on March 27th, and sellers now have to accept returns for any reason, within 72 hours of receipt.  I suppose this fee might work for buyers if many are also sellers on Mercari or elsewhere, and are buying stock. If you see a good deal you know you can flip with a good margin, you might not mind paying a buyers fee on top of the listing price. The only other way I can see being willing to pay a buyers fee is if you are so enamoured with the platform and its culture that it is worth paying more for. Or maybe I am just out of touch… The Mercari CEO basically calls out Etsy for raising seller fees too much [soft paywall; Modern Retail]: “I’m not going to mention them by name, but you have marketplaces that have a lot of makers, a lot of people that create things, and the fees around selling on those platforms have just been going up a lot very aggressively”. [my emphasis] Mercari wants fees to remain competitive while attracting better inventory. Another article on Mercari’s announcement mentions Etsy by name when discussing seller fees. 

Mercari might want to consult lawyers the next time the site makes changes, though, as many sellers were furious that their existing balances were now subject to withdrawal fees without any warning, leading some to file complaints with the FTC. That led the company to announce that “On March 27, 2024, Mercari announced that it would begin charging a $2 fee(s) (“ACH Charge”) for all ACH direct deposit requests. Effective immediately through April 3, 2024 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (“Waiver Period”), Mercari will waive the ACH Charge for ACH direct deposit requests made prior to the end of the Waiver Period for all eligible account holders.” Those who already incurred withdrawal charges will get refunds.

And because apparently you can never have enough Mercari news, they’ve introduced a listing importer for eBay and Depop. It uses AI. 

AliExpress will now do livestream shopping events in the UK. 

Payment Processing

PayPal users in the US will soon have only 30 days after delivery to file a significantly not described claim in most cases. Items not delivered by 180 days will still have the full 180 days. 

Shipping 

UPS is planning on closing about 200 facilities in the United States, and hopes to save money by instead using more automated hubs. Having fewer employees and consolidating locations is expected to save the company around $3 billion by the end of 2028. 

FedEx is continuing to combine its Express and Ground pickups and deliveries, both to save money and to make pickups easier on customers. 

#EtsySellerNews #etsy #ecommerce #ebay #microbusiness #cindylouwho2 #mercari

[cindylouwho-2]

Confused about how Etsy processing times and estimated delivery dates work? That could be due to the company changing some things in the last year.

I covered what you need to know, including which countries Etsy counts the postal holidays for, and how Etsy is changing the processing times for some shops without telling them.

#EtsySellerNews #etsy #EtsyNews #microbusiness

[cindylouwho-2]

It's my 5 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

(Well, yesterday was my anniversary, but I wasn't here to see it yesterday 😜)

#5 year tumblrversary #tumblr milestone

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, March 2024

Welcome to my roundup of SEO and marketing news and useful resources for ecommerce businesses, March edition. There is a lot going on with Google, and some really strong marketing pieces this time around, so let's get right to it.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google launched both a core algorithm update and spam updates on March 5, with the spam update ending on the 20th. Core updates now include the Helpful Content algorithm. In early observations, Etsy and Reddit both picked up visibility in the UK. 

The Helpful Content algorithm updates late last year destroyed a lot of sites’ Google traffic. Avoid the things they had in common.  You can read the full study here. 

Ecommerce sites were some of the biggest losers in Google visibility in 2023, with Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Target and Best Buy in the top 10 of sites whose Google appearances slipped. 

New to Google SEO? They’ve revamped their SEO starter guide for people like you. And if you are more advanced and want to learn how to optimize your website product pages, this is a good overview. 

This lengthy article on backlinks for ecommerce websites covers pretty much all the angles, including the really difficult ones. 

Reminder that if you want to rank on Google for a search term, you need to look at what is already ranking, and make decisions based on that content. [video and transcript] This works for most search engines, not just Google. 

Yes, Google crawls “high quality” content more often. I used to refer to this as Google thinking the page is “interesting”, so I guess I will need to change my wording...

While Google sends the most traffic to websites, people spend a lot more of their online time elsewhere. Market where people are, not just where your stats say they came from. 

Sadly, Google has stopped providing caches of website pages in its search results. While you can still see the caches of some pages by using the Google search Cache:[page link] as in cache:https://cindylouwho-2.tumblr.com that will eventually stop working as well. Bing still provides caches, but unfortunately both it and the Wayback Machine do not crawl often enough to give really recent results most of the time. 

Missed Google news in February? Here’s your update. And just in case you are really behind, here is January. 

Not Google

Unsure if your website has enough good backlinks? Bing Webmaster Tools will now tell you if you don’t. 

Yandex - the top search engine in Russia - was sold by its Dutch ownership group to a consortium in Russia. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

A US study of social media use found that the most popular site was YouTube, with 83% of adults using it. Two-thirds of American adults use Facebook, while TikTok is up to ⅓ of the US population. 

Because they do change periodically, here are the latest image and video sizes recommended for the top social media platforms. [infographic]

Bluesky is now open to everyone - it was previously invite-only. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta has introduced several changes to its Ad options, applying to Facebook and Instagram. 

Meta had a great 4th quarter in 2023, with revenue, users, and earnings per share up. “Fast-growing upstarts Temu and Shein, which originated in China, have been pouring money into ads on Facebook and Instagram. Li said on Thursday that revenue from China-based advertisers accounted for 10% of sales for the year and 5 percentage points of growth.”

Instagram

An updated post on Instagram's algorithm and how it works. 

Instagram is still beta testing longer Reels for some users. 

If your account is a brand account, you can now run ads on Instagram with coupon codes right in them. (Some Facebook users can already do this.)

LinkedIn

Among other recent changes on LinkedIn, the algorithm is now looking to boost important content longer than just the first day or two after publication. 

Pinterest

Pinterest has its own stats package, called Pinterest Analytics, but only for “Business” accounts. They show how many people clicked on the outgoing links, how many people saw your pin on their screen, and much more. Here’s everything you need to know. 

Reddit

Reddit successfully launched on the stock market this past week, but questions remain about how this will change the site. 

Google is paying Reddit to scrape its content through the API instead of from the web. 

Snapchat

Snap was a little later than most tech companies doing layoffs recently, waiting until February 5 to let 10% off staff go. 

Threads

Threads is so new that the algorithm is bound to change a lot in the next year, but for right now, here is how it works. 

TikTok

There is an overwhelming amount of info out there on the US attempt to either ban TikTok or force its sale, and much of it is incomplete, so I will let you Google to your heart’s content if you want to learn more. If you are relying on TikTok to drive sales, this would be a good time to make sure you diversify your promotional strategy. 

You can now track trending terms on TikTok through the Creator Search Insights section. “Creator Search Insights will highlight frequently searched topics, which creators can organize by category (for example, tourism, sports, science) or tailor to their content type with the “For You” option. Additionally, creators can filter for “content gap” topics, which are highly searched but have relatively few videos on TikTok covering them.“

TikTok may be testing a photo app, which would obviously compete with Instagram. 

Twitter

What? Twitter may have lied about its Super Bowl ad performance? I’m so not shocked. 

Tumblr

Tumblr will be selling data access to AI companies. 

YouTube

This is a pretty decent article on YouTube SEO. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Small and micro-businesses need an email list. An email list is:  

portable (unlike most social media followers or marketplace buyers) 

is available to almost everyone, as we all need at least one email address if we are online

less susceptible to the whims of algorithms (unlike SEO, marketplaces, social etc.)  

I keep seeing people argue that no one opens emails, but the chart in the article above is proof that is still wrong. (My blog email list averages close to a 70% open rate, depending on the topic and the time I send it. My jewellery email list - which I hardly ever send to - still has an over 30% open rate. My click rates are well above the industry averages, usually 30 to 40% of all recipients for the blog list. These are much better numbers than social, and astronomically better than my clickthrough rate on Google and other search engines.)

Gmail and Yahoo both changed how they handle bulk emails such as newsletters in February. Here’s what you need to know on the basics, including authenticating yourself so your email gets through. 

Find out how to get people to read all the way to the end of your content. 

Get ready for April marketing with 5 topical ideas. National Handmade Day is April 6. 

We should all think twice before deciding to use AI to create content. “Circa 2024, generative AI does not produce new ideas or even develop its own conclusions. Rather, it regurgitates information that it has indexed.” Not convinced? Here’s another article. “AI-generated content represents the literal “average of everything online.”

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Google Ads can now be tracked in Google Analytics 4. 

Both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising were up in the 4th quarter of 2023. 

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Google Analytics 4 tracks organic traffic differently than the previous version. Here’s how to figure it out. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

I’ve probably posted this specific article before, but it is worth another read: how to communicate with customers.  For example, “Mirroring your customer’s tone lets them know you’re on their side. If a customer is formal, for example, hold back on the LOLs. If they’re more casual, relax your tone.”

According to a US study, Generation Z is skewing the traditional marketing funnel. “Per Archrival’s data, 77 per cent of Gen Zs and 79 per cent of millennials in the US are actively seeking style inspiration at least monthly, with almost half of those looking for style inspiration on social media. When asked where they learn about new brands, products and experiences, video reigns supreme: YouTube is the most popular platform with Gen Zs, followed by TikTok, then Instagram.”

Trend alert: bag charms are back. 

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

Almost all of these 12 video tools are free, and some can be used on your phone. 

MISCELLANEOUS

This is an older piece, but it checks out: IKEA Hacks for Craft Show Displays. A few of these could be done with non-IKEA items. 

Want to stay up-to-date on a nearly daily basis? Follow me on Bluesky or on LinkedIn, or become a member of my Patreon.

#ecommerce #seo #social media #search engine optimization #microbusiness #content marketing #cindylouwho2

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), March 2024

Since I wrote so many articles on Etsy in the past 2 months, it took longer than usual for me to get the full ecommerce update out. Sorry about the delay, but here it is!

For fresher and more frequent updates, please follow me on Bluesky or on LinkedIn, or become a member of my Patreon.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Etsy’s fourth quarter 2023 financial results came out February 21; I did a deep dive into all the announcements here. In short, there are a lot of new things coming, and some changes that may have affected some sellers already, including:

plans for more predictable shipping costs for buyers and sellers (what does that mean?)

Etsy Ads are now localized outside of the United States

search will be shifting to boost "high quality" items, going from highlighting what shoppers are most likely to buy to what shoppers are most likely to love

a buyer loyalty program is coming

the goal of “shortening our estimated delivery dates this year by at least 2 days”

This recent post on Bluesky indicates that Etsy is surveying buyers on what they would pay for shipping, which could be related to the “predictable shipping costs” mentioned. A recent Etsy presentation at an investor conference provided a few clarifications on points discussed during the 4th quarter call, and in previous interviews and announcements.

“Our research showed that 10% off is a waste in this market. It's not enough to drive an incremental conversion, so all you did is give up margin. So recently, you've seen us both change the default and talk to sellers about how if you're going to put something on sale in this environment, it needs to be at least 25% off.” [my emphasis] Silverman has previously mentioned that buyers want discounts these days. 

Since the information sellers provide when listing (i.e., titles, tags, descriptions, attributes) “is not always very reliable”, Etsy uses image recognition to classify items as well

They are working on improvement for international fulfillment

Most orders on Etsy aren’t impulse buys; 70% involve 2 or more visits, and 50% involve 4 or more visits

“only one out of every three women in the United States bought something on Etsy last year…. only one out of every 10 men bought something on Etsy last year.”

Etsy’s use of AI in places such as Gift Mode is not in-house. (We already knew they used OpenAI’s GPT-4 for Gift Mode.) 

eBay increased the transaction fee from 30 to 40 cents as of March 15, for all orders over $10. 

An Etsy fee increase of some sort is likely coming soon, as Etsy has surveyed sellers on which options they would most prefer. While I was not picked to take the survey, a few people who did have contacted me with screenshots and details, which I wrote about in some detail. 

Packaging laws are becoming quite onerous for some ecommerce microbusinesses, but fortunately the Etsy forum crew has helped out with a recent summary of which countries in Europe require registration or payment to ship into the jurisdiction. Thanks to Claudia of https://www.etsy.com/no-en/shop/DoceVikaVintage for doing most of the legwork. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy is once again changing some sellers’ processing days, adding Saturday or Sunday into the mix when the shop owner only selected Monday to Friday. Some are seeing a notice on their dashboard, while others received an email.

Remember, in the 4th quarter 2023 earnings report, Silverman said “shortening our estimated delivery dates this year by at least 2 days” was a goal, and unilaterally changing your processing times is one step towards that goal. Please check your shipping settings, as this could mean you need to ship earlier than you realize, and Etsy could put you on reserve, remove your Star Seller badge, and deny you Seller Protection when you ship later than Etsy thinks you should.

If that wasn’t bad enough, some sellers are reporting that Etsy has changed the timing of sending the Abandoned Cart discount to almost immediate, and changed the official Help file on the topic to say the coupon was sent just 2 hours after the listing was carted, down from 24 hours. Others say they can no longer deactivate these coupons, and that Etsy Support told them it was a known bug. 

If you want to learn how Etsy's algorithms work and what they favour, the company has added more details on "recommendations" modules we see all over the site to the legal policy page. I've written a short piece highlighting what sellers should pay attention to if they want visibility on Etsy.

Etsy is adding Regulatory Operating Fees to orders in India (0.29%) and Vietnam (1.24%) as of April 1, 2024. On the same day, the Regulatory Operating Fee in Spain will increase to 0.72% (from 0.4%), and the fee for Türkiye goes up to 2.27% (from 1.1%).

The Prohibited Items Policy has been updated in several places, as of March 5 2024. Some of the new sections are covered in this article. As always, the most important parts of these changes will be how Etsy chooses to interpret them, so for the moment I don’t have any further comment, other than to say these types of changes are sometimes driven by law, and sometimes by previous incidents in which Etsy is unhappy with the outcome. 

Looks like businesses in China will soon be able to use Etsy Payments, meaning new shops in China may be able to open for the first time since 2021. (It's not unusual for Etsy to beta test new countries before announcing them officially; it’s hard to say if that is what is happening here or not.)

Etsy's forum restrictions - requiring a signed-in seller account to view most posts - will start on March 26. Only posts in the Announcements and Technical Issues sections will still be visible to everyone. 

There has been some speculation that this is to reduce spamming of Etsy sellers after they post, but the change will also have the bonus of journalists, investors and others not being able to read Etsy sellers' complaints about the platform.

It’s possible to have your product photos featured on the persona page of Etsy's Gift Mode but not have the product available for sale in Gift Mode. I’ve checked several times, and have never seen that seller’s embroidery piece in the featured listings. If you missed my blog post on Gift Mode, check it out here. Note that Etsy seems to have made some changes since I originally released the post. Among other Gift Mode promotions, Etsy employees rang the opening bell at Nasdaq the day after the Super Bowl. Did you know that this year’s Super Bowl was the most watched show in the US since the 1969 moon landing? Etsy hired Drew Barrymore to promote the corporation's new gifting push, which will continue all year. And the company has also released a new “gift teaser” email that buyers can have sent to recipients, which is useful for last-minute shoppers. 

Elliott Management now owns 13% of Etsy shares and options - making it the largest investor -  and now has a board member at the corporation. Known as activist investors, they usually force companies to cut costs ; for example they pressured “Salesforce, in which it has a multibillion-dollar investment, to harsh new policies for engineers and salespeople aimed at reducing headcount.”

Newly-opened Etsy shops will soon be subject to stricter ID requirements, a $15 fee, and longer holds on their early sales; I covered the details we know on LinkedIn. 

If you use the new listing form, you may see a new pricing tool pop up. (It’s not on the old listing form.) Ridiculously, Etsy calls it an “estimated profit calculator”, when really, it’s just an Etsy fee calculator, and not a good one at that. It includes the lowest processing fee possible (some countries have a range of processing fees) and also excludes taxes you may pay on your fees. I don’t know if it includes country-specific fees such as regulatory fees, as Canada does not currently have those.

Etsy has several sales events coming up, including the “spring refresh” which has already started and continues until April 15. 

There are reports of Etsy now advertising its commercials in Canada, which is a first as far as I know. 

Struggling to update your tax information on Etsy? One tip is to use a different link to enter the updates. Another is to use a pdf or png file, not a jpg, when uploading documents, and to combine multiple documents into one. If Etsy is asking your LLP/LLC or corporation to upload ID, I’ve had multiple people report that personal ID should work, even if the wording of the page says it won't. 

If you are frustrated by the recent Etsy test removing the total number of items in a search, I explained here how to determine the exact number of results if there are less than 16,000 listings. Also, you can just try another browser or device because it is a test (I do not have it on desktop). 

Remember when The Smiley Company sued tons of small sellers for trademark infringement, and asked for damages? Some Etsy sellers fought back - and won.

Who is removing Taylor Swift-themed items from Etsy - the artist, or the marketplace?  Swift has sent cease and desist letters to Etsy shops in the past. 

The articles about Etsy being awash with non-handmade and counterfeit goods never end. Here’s one from Australia. Here’s one about Etsy sellers publishing fan fiction that is already free on the web and charging a huge amount. And the media attention to deepfake porn on Etsy also continues. AI use is also subject to media scrutiny. 

TikTok’s push to attract more sellers apparently involves approaching Etsy shop owners. [soft paywall; Modern Retail] 

Josh Silverman has sold off most of his remaining Etsy stock. 

I did a short report on who Etsy laid off in December. 

The scammers advertising a fake Etsy customer support phone number on Google are catching buyers too - why can't this be stopped? "Anyone looking to contact Etsy for customer service issues should be aware that there is no phone number to contact for Etsy support." It’s a big problem that Google seems unable to control, given this study on other fraudulent Google Ads.  

Speaking of scammers, there is a new version of fake copyright takedowns affecting numerous sellers; the person who files the DMCA then offers to remove it for a fee, or even file takedowns against your competitors for a bigger fee. Etsy did fix the first round after 3-4 days, but the perpetrator then filed new DMCAs from a different email address. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

General

Michael’s Makerplace is beta testing selling third-party items in Michael’s brick and mortar stores. “Michaels says that MakerPlace garnered interest from thousands of sellers during its initial beta period, mainly through word-of-mouth. The company declined to disclose how many sellers are on the platform currently and is now focused on growing customers for those vendors to sell to. Buchanan says the next month will be "critical to make sure [the platform gets] some mass engagement from a buyer perspective."

Some Depop sellers had issues with deposits recently, with the money never being sent to their bank accounts, and instead the deposit was continually rescheduled for the next day. This may or may not be related to similar issues on Etsy. Depop is also immediately scrapping seller fees for the UK (as long as the account sells in GBP), but is adding a 5% fee for buyers in the UK as of April 15. Clearly the site thinks it has more UK demand than UK inventory, and that at least some of those buyers will pay for the ability to buy second-hand. Depop press release. 

Beni is a new “secondhand search engine” that pulls up used apparel from multiple different marketplaces such as eBay, Poshmark, and ThredUp. It offers an app and a Chrome browser extension. 

Temu is subject to a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company’s app is highly intrusive and can read "literally everything on your phone." Also, businesses in the United States can now sell on Temu. 

There are many different platforms and marketplaces to sell digital products such as ebooks, templates and courses; here are 20. 

Amazon

If you sell on Amazon, make sure you have 2-factor authentication set up, as it will be a requirement starting March 28th. Users will need a mobile number or authenticator app. 

Amazon is using generative AI to create new listings for merchants who enter a link of the product on another site. “The goal is to help sellers reduce the time it takes to bring the product from a different website onto Amazon.”

If you don’t use at least 3 images per product page, Amazon will now add in photos from other merchants on the site. 

Amazon had a strong fourth quarter in 2023, beating all estimates.  Amazon Lending has been discontinued, but existing loans do not change until the term ends.

eBay

eBay agreed to a $59 million settlement in the US Department of Justice’s case regarding the selling of tools to make counterfeit drugs. The company must also modify its restricted items policies. 

eBay joined the layoff race on January 23 when it let go 9% of its staff (~1000 people). Those layoffs were spread throughout the company, including plenty of engineers, legal and PR staff, and several recruiters, as well as authentication staff. The company also made upper-management changes. 

eBay’s 4th quarter financial results were up a bit, but active buyers keep dropping. 

Jewellery sellers in the UK faced an across-the-board fee hike as of March 7, adding 2% to the final value fee. This appears to be related to covering the authenticity process, which only applies to certain items above £500. 

Be careful when you confirm your Promoted Listings Standard campaign on eBay - a few sellers report accidentally upgrading to a far more expensive Advanced Cost Per Click campaign.

Walmart

Walmart is offering discounts for new sellers, covering part of fees for up to 90 days. 

If you sell on the Walmart marketplace, beware of the new rules on making authenticity claims.

Payment Processing

Klarna is now offering a monthly subscription to be able to use it at brick and mortar retailers without additional fees. The Verge speculates this may be related to Klarna’s rumoured pending IPO. The company has also employed an AI chatbot to do the work of 700 customer support employees. 

A US study reports that at least 20% of US consumers have used buy now, pay later options at least once. 

PayPal joined the tech layoff trend, getting rid of 9% of staff in January.

Venmo settings are public by default; here’s how to change that. [Washington Post gift link]

Shipping 

Is “free shipping” becoming less common? It appears so. [soft paywall: Business Insider]

Apparently USPS has significant delays in the Atlanta area, leaving packages in limbo for weeks. (Strangely, I had a shipment held up in Atlanta in late January even though the new processing centre did not open until February 24, and that package was finally delivered last week.)

Good basic post on return policies (from a Canadian perspective). Note that half of those surveyed say that return policies affect their purchase decisions.

Canada Post has sold its logistics and IT companies as it struggles to become profitable, and may be looking towards more ecommerce options. 

UPS will be laying off 12,000 employees this year, to save around $1 billion. The company is also starting to deliver to homes on Saturdays in major Canadian cities by March.

That's it for now! I hope to have the full SEO & marketing report out next week.

#EtsySellerNews #etsy #ecommerce #microbusiness #cindylouwho2 #how to sell online

[cindylouwho-2]

Etsy has updated its legal policy page on search and ads, to add information on "recommendations". I did a quick post on how they work.

#EtsySellerNews #etsy #ecommerce #search engine optimization

[cindylouwho-2]

Etsy Fourth Quarter Earnings 2023 - Still Banking on Improving Marketplace Sales, But Not Revealing Many Plans

Slide 23 from Etsy's 4th quarter 2023 earning report, © Etsy. it shows what percentage of sales each major category has, with performance in the quarter.

Etsy’s fourth quarter results for 2023 were as uninspiring as expected, but despite revealing few plans, the corporation is convinced it can increase gross marketplace sales through its gifting and other initiatives. There was a lot of interesting information for shop owners, though, so let’s get right to it. 

First, here are the resources that you should read/watch yourself, if you want to know more:

the press release

transcript of the conference call

slides from the conference call

video of the call (click on “Webcast” under “Latest Quarterly Results”)

my summaries of the fourth quarter 2022, and the third quarter 2023 for comparison

Then, the basic numbers (covering October to December 2023, compared to the same period in 2022):

Sales on Etsy were $3.6 billion, down 1.4% year over year

Total sales for all 3 marketplaces (Etsy, Reverb, and Depop) were $4.0 billion, down 0.7%. [Elo7 was officially sold in mid August; its numbers were still included in the comparison totals of 2022]

Etsy’s revenue (including all 3 sites) was $842.3 million, up 4.3%

Seller service revenue was up 9.4% to $226.5 million, while marketplace revenue was up 2.6% to $615.8 million

Net income was $83.3 million, down 24% (mostly due to the layoff costs of $27 million in the quarter)

Active buyers on Etsy alone stand at 92 million, a third consecutive all-time high

Active sellers on Etsy alone are now 7 million, the fourth large jump in a row compared to the previous quarter; numbers had been stagnant through the end of 2021 and all of 2022 [Note that “active” means one charge or transaction in the past 12 months; many “active” shops currently have nothing for sale.]

Sales where the buyer and/or the seller was not in the United States were 45%, up from 44% last year, but down from 47% in the previous quarter

Sales on mobile are 68%, up from 67% last year [this includes both the buyer app and mobile browsers]

As always, I am reporting what Etsy’s representatives said in the main text, with my commentary in square brackets.

Etsy Search

At the moment, Etsy’s search algorithms aim to show shoppers things they are most likely to buy. They are currently working on changing that to showing what buyers are most likely to love after the purchase. They refer to items that consistently get high reviews, have good photography, and whose shop owner provides good customer service, has quality return policies and ships on time, as “quality” items, or, “the best stuff.” 

This is all a work in progress, so search may not change drastically any time soon. Past calls and interviews have related this to the increase in Etsy Picks assigned in the past few months; they plan on using those Picks to train the algorithm to find “quality”, especially quality photos. The items staff identify as “quality” convert twice as well as other listings, so there is obvious benefit to Etsy showing them higher up in search results. 

Etsy has added some of the features in its “neural ranking model” to non-US searches; previously it was only in the US searches. 

Advertising

Offsite Ad spending was down 4% in the quarter vs. 2022, in part due to competition bidding higher than Etsy thought was worthwhile. At the time of the call, that spending was back to normal. Per slide 21, money from Offsite Ads fees covered about 35% of what Etsy spent on the ads during the quarter. 

CEO Josh Silverman explained why the performance marketing (Offsite Ads) spend can be unpredictable.

“So performance is dynamic on a, really, hour-to-hour basis depending on the ROI we're seeing on every dollar we're spending. And we've got pretty sophisticated algorithms that work on, is this bid -- is this click worth this much right now and how much should we bid. And so to the extent that CPCs rise, we naturally pull back, or to the extent that CPCs lower, we naturally lean in. The other thing, by the way, it's not just CPCs, it's also conversion rates. So in times when people are really budget constrained, we see them actually -- we see conversion rate across the industry go down. We see people comparison shop a lot more. And so we are looking at all of that. And not humans, but machines using AI are looking at a very sophisticated way of what's happening with conversion rate right now, what's happening with CPCs right now.”

Etsy also does testing twice a year where they stop running ad such as Google Shopping ads in part of the country, and then compare with the areas still advertising to see if the buyer still would have bought. Silverman admitted that the data shows “often the answer may be yes.”

Overall marketing costs went up 7% in the year. 

The Gifting Initiative

Etsy is now aiming to brand itself as the place to go to buy gifts. Gift Mode is just the start of this campaign. Their surveys report that more than half of US gift giving is based on personal occasions that occur year round, such as birthdays, or “just because”. People in the US spend an average of $1600 a year on gifts, but Etsy’s US buyers only average $38 spent per year on gifts from Etsy. They estimate that less than half of Etsy buyers in 2023 used the site to buy at least one gift. There is obviously an opportunity to do better. 

The percentage of US residents thinking of Etsy as a good place to buy a gift is now down to 10%. [Previously, the company reported it was 12%, and I commented last quarter that I’d like to see a more recent survey to judge if they have used this knowledge to improve. 

“Only 12% of buyers will name Etsy top of mind as the place to shop for gifts.” They don’t seem to have any updated numbers showing how they’ve been improving that situation. [It’s time to go after that “enormous opportunity”, Josh!]”

So despite wanting to grab a bigger gifting share before now, Etsy has managed to lose ground. This is my biggest fear about the gift push: the market was there before now, and Etsy’s own research demonstrated that. Are they only going all in now that they have run out of other ideas?] 

There were 6 million visits to Gift Mode in the first 2 weeks. [I am not really impressed, given that they promoted it very heavily, and I was personally responsible for over 100 of those visits while researching my Gift Mode blog post.]

Other plans to bring in buyers

Silverman stated “[o]ur focus will be to make Etsy even more Etsy”, and to differentiate the marketplace from sites that sell everyday needs. The following quote deserves to be read in full:

“Most other players are competing head-to-head to sell the exact same merchandise, focused on selling at $0.02 cheaper or shipping it two hours faster, and this has resulted in the commoditization of the entire experience. But that's just not Etsy.”

[This seemed to be a completely unironically-intended comment, with no recognition of the fact that he actually discussed speeding up shipping times in the same presentation, nor of the well-known fact that so much on Etsy these days can usually be bought cheaper on Aliexpress or Shein.]

He also said that the “special” aspect of Etsy is what sometimes holds the site back, as buyers might consider Etsy limited to specific items, or might “worry about the post-purchase experience”. Bringing people back more often is a goal. [They’ve been saying that for years now, though.]

The company is currently doing buyer loyalty program research, but gave no further details. He also cited “shortening our estimated delivery dates this year by at least 2 days” as something that buyers should like, but it is unclear to me reading this if the work done last year (the year discussed in this call) already shaved 2 days off of delivery dates, or if the statement is this year’s goal. I think it is the latter [but the only ways to do that are to improve the accuracy of their tools - and I am not sure that they are currently 2 days longer than reality on average - or to pressure sellers to ship faster. Since Etsy is once again updating shop settings to add weekends to shop processing times without notifying us, I guess we can assume the latter? UPDATE (Mar 19): Silverman clarified at a recent talk that "we think we can cut shipping times on Etsy by at least two days this year."]

Other things sellers need to know

Etsy Ads now involve some localization outside of the US, which increased conversion rates. [If your ad performance changed in non-US countries during the quarter, this is the most likely reason.]

Neither sales or Etsy’s revenue are expected to increase until the second quarter, and they expect revenue to grow faster than sales this year. [Revenue is almost certain to increase, as the corporation has been surveying sellers on what they would be willing to pay more for.]

“In 2023, we removed approximately 140% more listings for violations of our Handmade Policy than in 2022.” [No word on how many of them were removed erroneously, though, as we know the “Temu” bots pulled a lot of truly handmade items that had photos stolen and listed on other sites.]

Silverman promised “innovation planned to improve the predictability of shipping costs for both buyers and sellers”, but provided no details. [I am not sure what would make my personal costs more predictable, given they change every single week with Canada Post’s fuel surcharge right now. Is it going to be forcing people to use Etsy Labels with calculated shipping? Or is this more calculated shipping options for countries outside of the US, and for new carriers? Restricting the amount a listing can charge for shipping? I really have no idea, but I hope all those people they hired for “fulfillment” jobs a few years back are coming up with something that is actually useful.] 

Miscellaneous

Depop had a decent quarter in sales and revenue. 

Reverb sales were flat. “The Reverb team made some organizational changes late in the year” which are expected to be profitable [i.e., they laid off over 30 people in October].

The Etsy layoffs in December were referred to by CFO Rachel Glaser as “our recent workforce realignment”. [At least she didn’t call those former employees churn.] The call provided no details on the restructuring they previously said would be done by the end of this quarter. 

October sales were not good, but November and December improved. January “was a little bumpy.”

Outside of the US, sales in Germany were mostly steady, while the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria improved.

The upcoming $15 fee for newly-opened shops will largely go to paying the costs of the technology for vetting sellers; it is not expected to result in much profit. 

My thoughts: this is going to be a rough year for many Etsy sellers

As I discussed last quarter, Etsy’s upper brass didn't seem to think they were responsible for the lackluster sales performance of their marketplace, and this quarter that extended to not admitting they overhired since early 2022, and not acknowledging that Etsy’s reputation as a gift site actually dropped over the past few years. The last one is particularly galling. Why keep talking about how there was great room for improvement in Etsy brand recognition for gift buyers and then fail to improve even a tiny bit? What were these folks doing the past 2 years? 

It’s clear they think bravado will get them through this, including the bold move of claiming everything will improve in the second quarter and throughout the year without revealing any real details. No wonder the stock dropped yet again. 

That said, they likely have some reasons for thinking that revenue will pick up at least, if not sales. As mentioned above, they have been extensively surveying sellers about raising fees and/or charging us for things we currently get for free (or mostly do not want). Possible downsides for Etsy include the fact that the Indie Sellers Guild and the Artisans Cooperative (among others) are likely to get more negative press for Etsy if fees are raised yet again, just as happened in 2022. It does not help that Etsy didn’t really follow through on improved services the last time they raised fees. 

And the more I think about the comment on shipping costs, the more I believe they are considering making Etsy Labels compulsory for at least some in the US, with set shipping charges sellers won’t be able to change. Bonanza did this last year, charging its US sellers $2 per order extra if they didn’t use Bonanza labels and didn’t get an exemption from the program. Most Etsy sellers using the labels and being forced to show that price as the shipping cost for buyers is the only way I can think of making shipping prices more predictable for buyers, other than capping shipping charges outright (and that sounds like a nightmare to implement). eBay does it, though. Am I missing something? [UPDATE Mar. 5, 2024: Etsy is surveying buyers about how much they like cheap shipping.]

Perhaps more importantly, the planned search changes have the potential to disrupt the status quo a great deal. We know that Etsy frequently takes a lot longer to develop these types of technologies than they expect, so it may not happen this year, but the work on promoting “quality” listings will continue, and that is already affecting some shops that used to do better in Etsy search. Do everything you can to make sure your images are "high-quality". If you rely on internal search to get most of your Etsy sales, this is a very good time to follow my usual advice and diversify your traffic sources. 

Etsy’s branding pivot to being the place to get gifts could also have a big impact on some shops and categories, if it is successful - and that is a big “if”. I’m not thoroughly convinced Etsy can manage this change in consumer consciousness, considering that the site’s reputation continues to be hammered by controversies around scams and non-handmade items. Kitkats, anyone? 

Many other comments do not bode well for most shop owners: a continuing push for discounting, emphasis on faster shipping times, and financial restrictions/impositions on “newly-opened” shops all indicate that traffic may flow away from small business owners who choose not to comply, or are unable to comply. 

Last quarter I said “[d]on’t be surprised if there are major site changes in 2024”, and I appear to have been correct. But really, anyone reading these reports over the past few years could have seen it coming.

Stay well informed, everyone! It’s the best weapon we have.

Reminder that you can sign up to receive my Tumblr and website blog posts via email.

UPDATED March 19, 2024

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #microbusiness #cindylouwho2

[cindylouwho-2]

All artists and writers should be aware - no platform will keep your work safe.

#AI #artificial intelligence #copyright

[cindylouwho-2]

That Etsy Seller Survey Everyone Is Talking About...

Some Etsy sellers are getting worried about a survey the corporation sent out to some shop owners, asking them what they would be willing to pay for different tiers of service (like Etsy Plus, but with many more options). The key point that was most publicized was a potential listing fee increase to 40 cents USD from the current 20 cents, unless the shop purchased a higher tier of service per month. That was far from all that was covered, however. 

I did not take the survey - which apparently had the usual non-disclosure agreement (NDA) attached - but a few sellers have sent me more information on it. I am not going to publish the screenshots I received, or the written descriptions, as I have too few examples to be sure that Etsy did not send out more than one version. Thank you to my anonymous sources, who will remain protected. 

I will, however, reveal a bit more about some of the options Etsy proposed. Let me clear up a few key points, and provide some thoughts on where Etsy is going.

Not everything Etsy surveys us on gets enacted

I am not saying that Etsy won’t raise any fees - they have to find some more money to keep shareholders happy, after all - but we can’t be certain that a listing fee increase will happen, or that it will be 40 cents. Remember when people were concerned that free shipping would become mandatory? What about free returns? There have been lots of scares like this in the past. In fact, Etsy apparently sent out surveys before this particular one, asking what we’d pay extra for, and some of the options do not seem to be included in this week's survey. (And yes, those other surveys reportedly had an NDA attached as well.)

This survey largely seemed to be designed to determine how much they could squeeze us without losing too many sellers. 

Not every set of service tiers included a listing fee increase 

There were options where no one - not even the free tiers - would see a listing fee increase. 

Listing fee increases are not necessarily the worst option Etsy floated

One of the scarier possibilities that came up more than once was limiting the number of listings (presumably including renew sold and renew expired) to a very small number a month unless the shop pays monthly for a higher tier of service. The lowest number of listings mentioned per month was 5. To list more, a shop would need to subscribe to a higher tier, and pay a monthly fee. If you only listed 6 items a month, you’d be bumped to the next tier, and getting ripped off much worse than an extra 20 cents per listing (and in some versions in the survey, they included the listing fee increase in this option as well.)

This would bleed a lot of small shops dry before they could even get going. It also wouldn’t limit AI shops from uploading 1000 items because there were no listing limits mentioned on the highest tiers, which were relatively cheap when spread across a huge shop. 

Another possibility would take away the discounting tools, Share & Save, and the ability to be an Etsy Pick/featured seller/promoted shop from the free tier. This would limit some small shops’ development while tricking shops with no chance of ever being featured into paying monthly shop fees they probably did not need. 

Laughably, Etsy also floated the idea of including the pricing tool in the paid tiers. Why would anyone pay for that? It was garbage. 

UPDATE (Feb. 25, 2024): Ina Steiner published some more details from the survey on the EcommerceBytes website.

Should we be worried? 

Some shops should be worried, but not all of them. If you run an Etsy shop with less than a sale a day, it’s clear to me that Etsy doesn’t really want you any more, unless you have very high-priced items. You apparently aren’t paying enough to cover the cloud fees and the Support costs of keeping you open. The corporation wants to charge you more for things you already get for free, without improving your service, even though Etsy is currently turning a profit. New shops are also soon going to be saddled with a start up fee and longer reserve times, making it more difficult to start an Etsy shop if you aren’t already an established business. Additional fees for small shops after they start would just make that decision even worse. As I have mentioned many times, Etsy has too many items, and this certainly seems like one way to reduce the crowding.

If, on the other hand, you sell upwards of 100 items a month and have decent margins, the imposed tier rates could actually work out to far less than an extra 20 cents per listing, as the relatively low set charge per month would be spread across a lot of renew solds/renew expireds. For example, shops selling 1000 items a month would pay less than than 2.5 cents per listing extra compared to now. You’d also have access to additional opportunities and tools which may or may not be worth it, all included in that set charge. Some of these options would also potentially reduce your competition on Etsy, including the competition for being featured. If some of the tools work - and I admit that is a big “if” - you could actually come out ahead. If any of these changes happen, you might end up pleased with Etsy's decision.

Considering all the other changes Etsy is discussing right now, everyone currently selling there should review their business plans and make sure their income is well-diversified. 2024 will be a bumpy ride for many. 

Reminder that you can sign up to receive my Tumblr and website blog posts via email.

UPDATED: February 29, 2024

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #EtsyNews #microbusiness #cindylouwho2

[cindylouwho-2]

Who Did Etsy Lay Off in December 2023? A Quick Look at the Numbers

When Etsy announced the layoff of 225 employees on December 13, 2023, some sellers expressed concern that the corporation was in trouble, and that the site might be in danger of failing. While I don’t expect Etsy to close any time soon, recent developments such as an activist investor gaining 13% of Etsy and placing a member on the board do not bode well for anyone hoping the site would return to its roots and support independent microbusinesses over a blind drive for profit. In that light, looking at who Etsy fired last December could give us a better idea of what the company is up to. This post examines the known demographics and other characteristics of some of the employees who lost their jobs, and puts the Etsy layoffs in context with the numerous other recent events in the tech and commerce sector. 

Sources:

I compiled data on the laid off individuals from Etsy’s own materials, and posts by current and former employees on the social network LinkedIn. That includes a spreadsheet of affected employees collected by another laid off employee and posted on LinkedIn. 

If the 2 senior executives let go at the same time count as part of the 225, my data set includes 53% of the people involved (120 individuals). While that is a majority, it is probably not a representative sample, as those who posted about their layoff on LinkedIn or added their name to the spreadsheet may be very different than those who did not. It is also extremely likely that I missed some people, especially those who posted in languages other than English. 

It is also difficult to determine much about the percentage of various groups laid off compared to the whole, as we don’t have access to this demographic data on Etsy’s remaining employees. Out of respect to those who lost their livelihoods, I am not linking to or quoting any of their posts on the matter (but if I did, the selection would be sobering).

The Basic Numbers:

Gender: 

60 male (50% of sample)

56 female 

1 non-binary 

2 not declared/unknown

Location:

107 (89%) lived in the United States, including at least 34 in the state of New York. Some US employees did not identify their state.

8 in Mexico

2 in Canada

2 in Ireland

1 unknown

Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine the exact percentage of fully remote or hybrid workers, as that information wasn’t always available; even those living in a city with an Etsy office might have worked from home. That said, at least 40% lived in a state or country without an Etsy office, so were almost certainly remote or hybrid workers. 

Years at Etsy:

Of the 119 laid off employees who listed their tenure at Etsy, the average person worked there nearly 4 years and 5 months. The median was lower, just 3 years and 4 months. There was a wide range in longevity, however, with one person staying there for just 4 months, while the longest-employed had been there over 16 ½ years, (remarkable given that Etsy was only 18 ½ years old at the time of the layoffs). 

Yes, someone actually worked at Etsy for 16 ½ years! Some Etsy old-timers will remember Rob White from his early days as a forum moderator, and later work on the Etsy Community pages. I’m not sure if there are any current employees that have worked at Etsy longer than he did. Best wishes to you, Rob - I am very sorry to see you go. 

Job Category:

The people in this sample were almost equally split between those with the titles of Manager/Director/Head/Chief, and those who did not list a supervisory or top-ranked role, 62 to 58. While many jobs involved engineering, people were also let go in such diverse areas as sanctions, market research, recruitment, legal, seller education, and marketing. 

Miscellaneous:

While some individuals might not feel comfortable revealing many personal details on a social media site, we know that 2 were expecting children, 2 were on parental leave, and 1 had just returned from parental leave. (The company's press release stated that all eligible leaves will be paid out in full.) 

As I mentioned above, I am not going to link to the profiles of anyone involved, nor will I quote them, but there are many, many interesting stories here. Do not think of these people as mere entries on a spreadsheet.

Analysis

Since I was only able to find just over half of the laid off folks, this data doesn’t tell us as much as I hoped when I started the research. (I had actually decided not to publish this, but some other sellers requested I write it up, so here we are.) But we do have a few interesting points to consider.

Etsy’s Careers page still implies that all new jobs have the possibility of being at least partly remote, and some can be fully remote, plus many affected workers did live near an Etsy office, so there doesn’t seem to be a public “return to office” push as part of these layoffs. However, what companies say publicly/advertise, and what they actually do can be very different. The fact that hybrid employees are told that “additional visits may be expected depending on team needs” could mean that some teams only allow the occasional remote day. 

On the other hand, many allege that “return to work” mandates at other companies were sneaky ways to avoid laying anyone off, since some employees inevitably quit when forced to work in person every day after previously being fully remote. Accepting resignations is cheaper than paying out severance and other benefits; Etsy estimated these layoffs will cost $25 to $30 million in various expenditures. If Etsy wanted more people working in the office, there were cheaper ways to do it. 

“[R]eorganizing our internal structure” was supposedly behind these redundancies, and the roles laid off do seem to reflect that. Etsy is also advertising several manager positions at the time of this writing:

Etsy was not the only company to recently cut the Chief Marketing Officer position; that seems to be a bit of a recent trend in restructuring. Over 2 months later, we are still waiting to see how different the new structure will be, and why it is expected to drive marketplace sales growth. 

Tech layoffs have been very common in the past year or so, with some businesses waiting until the start of 2024 to deliver the bad news, unlike Etsy. Even Etsy subsidiary Reverb laid off over 30 people in October 2023, something that I didn’t see mentioned in any of the media attention surrounding Etsy’s December announcement. During the 4th quarter financial results call today, Reverb’s layoffs were only referred to as “some organizational changes.” The 30+ affected people were essentially erased from Etsy’s reality in half a sentence. 

Many of the well-known names, such as Meta, Google, and Amazon, are reporting profits, just as Etsy did today. Many - such as Etsy - spent cash on stock buybacks to benefit shareholders while claiming that smaller staff numbers were required to due the competitive market. These businesses are not broke; they are just more focussed on share prices than on staff, or on results. Etsy loves to differentiate itself as the company that will “Keep Commerce Human”, but then treats its employees as disposable, just like every other faceless corporation. 

And strangely, it doesn’t seem there is much accountability for the leaders of most of these companies. When Etsy lost $1 billion in value on the Depop and Elo7 purchase just over 1 year ago, the stockholders barely noticed.

Despite sales stagnating, Etsy continued to hire for the past few years, as these layoffs put the corporation's staffing numbers “similar to where we were early in 2022 in terms of the size of our core Etsy team”. The only consequences for blowing this much money on assuming that pandemic gains would last forever seem to have fallen on the Chief Human Resources Officer, who lost her job after less than 2 years. The other people who approved all that hiring are still employed, including the Chief Marketing Officer, who lost his job but was retained as a consultant. This seems really bad for shareholders, as well as for all the people who lost their jobs - and for the Etsy employees who will be laid off in the future if gross marketplace sales do not turn around in the second quarter as CEO Josh Silverman has projected.  

Perhaps the upcoming explanation of Etsy’s restructuring will help us make sense of it all, and perhaps Etsy plans for 2024 will make canning 225 people 12 days before Christmas worthwhile. Put me down as doubtful, though. 

Published: February 21, 2024

#ecommerce #etsy #EtsySellerNews #cindylouwho2 #layoffs

[cindylouwho-2]

Etsy to introduce new rules & restrictions on "newly created shops"

I wrote more about this on LinkedIn, but the TL; DR is that the ID restrictions and $15 fee will exclude many legitimate potential sellers while not necessarily hindering scammers and "low effort" shops.

If you already sell on Etsy and were planning on opening a second or third shop, try to get in before the new rules take effect. There will no doubt be bugs.

Also, this is likely another step towards holding all of our money longer. Reserves were step 1.

#EtsySellerNews #ecommerce #etsy #microbusiness

[cindylouwho-2]

Etsy's new Gift Mode is a real embarrassment for the corporation - did you know they are suggesting dangerous gifts for infants?

That said, I also give sellers some info that will improve their chances in appearing in Etsy's latest toy. Please give it a read!

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #EtsyNews #microbusiness #cindylouwho2

[cindylouwho-2]

Recent SEO & Marketing News for Ecommerce, January 2024

Here's my first SEO and marketing news report for 2024 (please read my ecommerce and Etsy news report as well, if you want to keep up to date! They were previously one large report together)

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

If you have ever wondered how Google ranks pages, this correlation study [infographic] by Semrush may shed some insight. 

And if you have ever wondered how Google assesses page or site quality, this good overview of Google’s “E-E-A-T” standards can help you gain better reader satisfaction and even higher rankings. “Although these guidelines might not have a direct impact on rankings, adhering to the principles of E-E-A-T is aligned with creating content that meets user needs, which can positively influence search performance.”

If you want to optimize a page for Google do that search first and see what Google displays, including related searches and related questions. 

An interesting study shows that tons of people use Google search like a bookmark service, to search common sites instead of typing the full URL. On the other hand, the long tail numbers have grown as well. 

Some Google search results in the EU will be changing a bit, due to the Digital Markets Act. Most of them involve Google giving searchers more options to see Google’s competition. 

Periodic reminder that you should not move your website or otherwise alter the URLs without making sure you won’t lose Google traffic in doing so. 

Google’s Helpful Content updates have really hurt some sites. There are things ecommerce sites can do to improve their “helpfulness”. 

While this Semrush blog post claims to focus on ecommerce SEO, it’s useful for most types of websites and has little in it specific to ecommerce. This post on ecommerce product pages specifically has more ecommerce-focussed info. 

A great article demonstrating how SEO is done on content blogs, and why it often means we get substandard content and confusing Google results. As with the The Verge’s last piece on SEO, some SEOs were not happy with this, and Google reps directly contradicted some of the info, including the claim that you need author bylines to rank better. 

“There is no such thing as perfect SEO”, and Google confirms that. 

If you missed any Google developments in December, you can catch up on them in this webmaster report. Missed November as well? That’s covered too. 

Not Google

Despite Bing’s AI chat being widely preferred to anything Google has put out, Bing only gained an extra 1% of search traffic worldwide in 2023. 

Baidu is China’s largest search engine; here’s a correlation study on ranking factors. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

A US federal court blocked Ohio’s ban on under-16s signing up for social media accounts without parental consent. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta has introduced Link History, so that users have more control over privacy, but note that “Meta is just asking users for permission for a category of tracking that it’s been using for over a decade.”

Meta ads no longer have some detailed targeting options, as of January 15. 

Meta collects info on you from thousands of companies, an average of 2,230 different ones, according to a study by Consumer Reports. The study was not a representative sample, and “[p]articipants were also likely more privacy-conscious and technically inclined than typical users and more likely to be members of Consumers Reports.”

Instagram

Instagram now lets you make custom stickers from your still images. Note that you can do this with other people’s still images as well, unless they have disabled permission. 

Reddit

Reddit is expected to introduce its IPO in March, after a few years of rumours. 

Threads

Threads became available in the EU in December. And it even has hashtags now. 

TikTok

We’ve heard a lot about Gen Z using TikTok as their primary search engine, and this study from Adobe confirms it: 64% of Gen Z say they have done this, while only 29% of Gen X has. Almost 10% of Gen Z prefers TikTok to Google for search engines. Also of note: across the whole study, YouTube finished second to Google as the most useful search engine. 

If you market on TikTok, check out their Valentine’s Day guide. 

YouTube

Shorts are doing well on YouTube, and the company now provides a tool to change your long form videos into Shorts. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

To get results from content marketing, you need a solid content strategy. This Search Engine Journal article outlines 11 reasons a strategy can underperform, with some tips on avoiding these issues.  

Get next month’s promotions ready early with 5 content marketing ideas for February. 

New Yahoo and Gmail email rules take effect in February, which may mean more promotional emails get sent to spam filters. There are some things you should do to improve deliverability rates, including not sending from free email addresses. 

Is a business’ blog eligible to show up in Google News? Possibly, but you still have to follow the content rules. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

While Google Ads is not planning on phasing out free support for the product after introducing a paid support service, they are looking at AI to improve service. Hundreds of employees in the Ads division have been laid off as AI-options become more available. 

Google’s Chrome browser has begun removing tracking cookies for 1% of users, the first step in removing them for everyone by the end of 2024. “The impact of Google removing tracking cookies will be significant, with cookies traditionally providing key insights that help power the internet’s targeted ad system. Google’s replacement will instead see users categorized into topic listings, in an anonymized way, so brands will still be able to show their ads to subsets of users, but they won’t be able to utilize granular targeting based on the specifics of what people have engaged with across different websites.” If you use Chrome, you can figure out if you are part of that 1%. [Sadly, I am not in the initial test.] Remember that Google “makes the vast majority of its money tracking you and showing you ads online” so this is a big change, but “Google isn’t about to destroy its own business.”

Not sure if you can afford Google Ads for your website? This article walks through the current average costs and how to control them. For example, “[a]d scheduling, also known as dayparting, involves specifying the hours or days to show your ads to potential customers. This practice enables you to allocate more of your budget to peak times when potential customers are more active, ensuring better visibility and more clicks.” As for setting bids, “If you’re unsure where to start, Google suggests a $1 max CPC bid. But the golden rule? Set a max bid below the point where you no longer profit.”

You need to set up GA4 in certain ways to get the most data out of your Google Ads. 

Microsoft will soon launch an AI tool to generate banner ads for you, based on the product page you want to advertise. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

When asked in surveys, free shipping is very popular with most US shoppers. Yet another survey had similar results, noting that same-day delivery is far less important to buyers. 

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

So many artists are furious about AI image generators scraping their work that there is now a tool, “Nightshade”, that you can embed in your work to poison the data set. “This can result in the algorithm mistakenly learning to classify an image as something a human would visually know to be untrue. As a result, the generator can start returning unpredictable and unintended results.”

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour) 

Looking to give away surplus stock? Here are some ideas. [The charities linked are in the US, but there are many general ideas that will apply to other countries as well.]

People are so careless with their AI use that they are posting items to marketplaces containing OpenAI’s refusal to generate a response. It’s hilarious. 

AI-created items can’t be patented in the UK. 

#ecommerce #CindyLouWho2News #seo #social media #search engine optimization #content marketing #microbusiness

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), January 2024

Welcome to my first commerce news update of 2024!

Now that we are through the intensity of the holiday rush, I plan on getting a few of these out each month. Please follow me on Bluesky or on LinkedIn if you want more timely updates. (New ways to get updates coming soon!)

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Some Etsy listings now have a link which displays some shop owners' names and home addresses under the seller contact info, which says “Meet your seller”. This may be legally required in some jurisdictions, including within the US if you don’t have a proper location on your shop, but here is how to remove it if you don’t need it. Here’s some of the info on the US INFORM Act which could require disclosure of your information; the EU and UK are other jurisdictions which sometimes may require this info if you sell to them. 

Reminder that UK small sellers may end up having their taxable income reported by the platforms they sell on starting for 2024. “The first deadline for firms to report details of transactions is the end of January 2025 – a year after the rules come into force. Bank account details and the cost of transactions made by sellers with sizable trading activity must be reported.” Etsy reminded shop owners that there is no change in taxes owed in the UK; the changes force platforms to report income so that people can’t evade taxes as easily. 

In case you missed it, many USPS rates, as well as forever stamps, went up again on January 21. Some label services such as eBay may actually offer decreases in certain categories, however.

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy announced 2 (very different) “privacy” changes at the beginning of January: limiting some third-party apps from receiving buyer email addresses, and making the Etsy forum a seller-only site in the near future. Shops will have to log in to read anything other than Announcements and the Technical Issues sections. We are not yet sure if this applies to shops in long-term vacation mode. 

Etsy teased a promotional announcement on Jan. 16, which is likely that the site will be launching Gift Mode [post by me with a link to another post with screenshots]. I’ll write more on that once it is officially released, but here is one of my screenshots from today, with lots of infringement. Also, the site is apparently buying a Super Bowl ad. This year’s ads are expected to cost at least $7 million USD. Etsy forum thread discussing both topics here. 

Etsy chose not to respond to this article about AI art sold as indigenous creations. “Etsy has a policy that prohibits users from selling items falsely listed as being produced by Indigenous peoples — but only in Northern America, and allows “Indigenous-style” products by non-Indigenous people.”

Some shop owners from Turkey claim their shops are being shut down at a high rate, with no explanation. At least some had issues with items that cannot be sold on Etsy, and there appeared to be some with ID or financial anomalies. I am still interested in hearing more, if anyone knows anything. 

EcommerceBytes covered the Etsy problems with the domestic pricing tool charging some international buyers domestic prices, which have been going on since May 2023. While some sellers have managed to get refunds from the company, others report no such luck. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

General

The Indie Sellers Guild is running a virtual convention in April; read the panel ideas here. 

Amazon

Amazon product pages now have a link to get AI-answers to your questions. Expect to see a lot more of this on many types of sites. 

There are several keyword tools that can help you optimize your Amazon products; 5 are discussed here, but note that some may be pricy.

The latest layoffs at Amazon include people working for the “Buy with Prime” department. 

Amazon’s difficult-to-navigate system for suspensions and other punishments has led to entire law firms dedicated to supporting shops that have been closed or have had listings removed. 

BigCommerce

BigCommerce sites can now have a marketplace component, meaning that a single business site can now have other sellers on it. 

eBay

eBay had to pay $3 million over its behaviour in the cyberstalking case against Ina and David Steiner, owners of EcommerceBytes. The Steiners issued a victim impact statement; the civil lawsuit in this matter goes to trial in March 2025. 

eBay’s discounted Tracked Packet rate from Canada Post has been extended to March 31, 2024. 

Buyers and sellers are getting annoyed with long delays in product authentication. 

eBay called a few sellers and pushed them to offer cheaper shipping rates, based on the discounted rates for eBay’s labels. (They seem to have forgotten that they charge fees on those shipping rates.)

Poshmark

Poshmark’s recent policy changes included a class action waiver. Changes are effective February 5. 

All Other Marketplaces

Depop released its first Trends Report, similar to those put out by its parent company, Etsy. 

Bonanza is introducing a combo website builder/inventory integration and accounting platform called Vercado. Price will be $99 a month, so I strongly suggest investigating what - if any - advantages it provides over its competitors. 

Payment Processing

PayPal and Venmo are teasing some big ecommerce plans for this year, to be announced on Jan. 25. It involves use of AI, and the possibility of improving engagement rates. 

Shipping 

There have been numerous reports of major USPS shipping delays, especially in Texas.

#ecommerce #etsy #microbusiness #EtsySellerNews #EtsyNews #ebay #amazon #CindyLouWho2