Five Ways to Optimize Product Pages on Etsy.com

I’m a new fan of Etsy.com. The site focuses on selling handmade products such as art, jewelry, photography and other products. It’s a great way to find very unique, well-made items for gifts…or yourself! Their Wikipedia entry describes them as a “crafty cross between Amazon and eBay.”

Recently I bought a very cool pin there and got to thinking about a few ways I would optimize a product listing page on Etsy. So I thought I’d put together five suggestions to optimize Etsy’s product pages to increase purchases. After all, sometimes a few small changes on a site can result in millions in additional revenue a year!

1. Highlight Scarcity:

One of the best things about items on Etsy is that they are, for the most part, one of a kind. That means if you miss out on buying it now – it’s gone forever. Communicate this to the customer! Beat them over the head with it! You need to let them know that if they don’t buy this now they’ll never find it again.

The current layout shows “Only 1 available” in small text under the Add to Cart Button. I’d improve that messaging and make it more prominent: “There’s only 1 of this item available! Hurry!” You can even test multiple variations of this copy to find which versions best communicate scarcity and maximize user incentive to buy.

2. Engender Trust:

When you buy something on Etsy it functions just like eBay. You aren’t buying from them but from an independent seller. In order to make the user more comfortable buying on the site I would highlight the seller’s feedback and positive ratings. In the current site it can be difficult to find plus it doesn’t even say “100% Positive” – it abbreviates the word “positive” (“100% pos.”).

Make the feedback / positive rankings more prominent and add an icon indicating they are a top ranked seller. This will do two things: lower a user’s anxiety about buying and encourage sellers to provide great service so they can maintain their top seller ranking.

3. Make the Buy Button Bigger and Put it Everywhere:

As a general rule all call to action / purchase buttons should be bigger. On Etsy I’d make the Add to Cart button as wide as the grey seller information box. I like that it is above and below the seller info but I would also add it to the bottom of each page at the end of the product description. Many users will scroll down to read the product description and in doing so will lose sight of the call to action button.

4. Clean up the Seller Information Box:

The goal of the product page should be one thing: To get the user to click on the call to action / Add to Cart button. With that in mind we’ll need to remove the extra links in the seller information box. Not including the Add to Cart buttons there are 21 other links in the seller info box. By removing non-essential calls to action we can increase the focus on the button that really matters: Add to Cart. I focused a lot on this in the mock up I made below.

5. Add Some Quirk!

For a site that focuses on one-of-a-kind, creative products the site’s look and feel are remarkably stiff. Why not have some unique messaging on the product pages? It could be a pop that shows for 5-10 seconds then disappears. The goal of the copy would be to get the user to smile. After all, it isn’t just important that the user like the seller – they need to like the user experience of the entire site as well. Here are a few examples:

• “You would look great in this!”
• “You have great taste!”
• “I agree, this is awesome.”
• “I was just about to suggest you look at this. Freaky!”

One of the things I love about e-commerce consulting and optimization is that the goal is to make the web better for companies and users. What do you think? Do you have other suggestions for Etsy’s product pages?

Etsy’s Current Product Page:

Optimized Etsy Product Page:

John Boyle has over 15 years of experience in e-commerce development. He works as an e-commerce consultant / optimization analyst at Webtrends and is dedicated to making the internet a more awesome place. He is looking forward to wearing the cool new Steampunk Aviator Pin he bought on Etsy while enjoying a cocktail this weekend. Be sure to say hi and connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn too!