Etsy Touts Shop Manager Improvements ; Sellers Worry About AI Review Summaries & Alt Text
Etsy announces Spring updates to streamline and improve shop management, but sellers worry AI review summaries and alt text may harm their businesses.
In the latest update to the Seller Handbook, Etsy says they are working behind the scenes to make improvements to our platform that result in a smoother selling experience.
Improved listing creation
New photo tools in the Etsy Seller app promise faster uploads, easy editing, and time-saving custom photo filters.
Save time and streamline your workflow with new photo enhancements. Upload and edit your photos directly on Etsy.com or in the Etsy Seller app using powerful editing tools.
When you upload photos or videos in the app, they’ll process in the background—so you can keep working on other tasks without interruption. Plus, create and save custom photo filters to quickly apply your favorite edits to new photos to give your shop a cohesive look.
Sellers can now see all listing categories and subcategories directly in the Seller app, see which listings would benefit from a refresh, and a select group of sellers will also be included in a beta test of a new real time listing quality feedback tool.
- See all listing categories and subcategories directly in the Etsy Seller app, so you can accurately categorize your listings from your phone to help buyers find your items.
- Listing prioritization on the search visibility dashboard shows which listings would benefit most from a refresh, so you know where to focus first.
- In beta testing: Real time listing quality feedback alerts you to issues that could impact your search ranking—before you publish. This is an experimental feature, and is only available to a select group of sellers at this time for testing purposes.
Etsy is also creating a simpler, more focused Shop management experience, moving key information and to dedicated tabs, improving page loading speeds, and streamlining navigation.
They also say they are expanding and improving support - a line sellers have heard before but real world experiences may vary.
This update concludes with final points about improving Etsy Ad placement within search and testing layout changes to Shop Home pages.
What else is new:
- We've improved Etsy Ads placement within search to help every shopper find exactly what they're looking for.
- Shop Home layout updates are being tested to make your inventory easier to browse and shop—ultimately helping you make more sales.
While some of these updates may be helpful for Etsy sellers, known of them touch on one of the most common recent topics sellers have been expressing in the company's forums and across social media - concerns about how Etsy is using AI in ways that may negatively impact the buying and seller experience.
In the last few months, Etsy has been increasingly using AI to power search and discovery capabilities, with sometimes disastrous results.
Liz Morton
More recently, sellers are seeing AI being used to summarize customer reviews as well as automatically filling in alt text for images, equally questionable results, according to Etsy seller and ecommerce consultant Cindy Baldassi.
Fortunately, for those who find Etsy's AI misses the mark for alt text, Baldassi has provided helpful instructions for how to edit the text and remove any erroneous information.
What do you think of Etsy's Shop management updates and AI intrusions? Are there Shop features you'd love to see Etsy roll out next? Let us know in the comments below!
