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Ever wondered about the difference between views and visits on Etsy? If so, you are far from alone. You see data on these in your Etsy stats. But a visit and a view sound like pretty much the same thing, right? Can you really use this information to improve your Etsy shop? Improve your Etsy sales?
Well, I’m Etsy Coach Starla Moore, and today we’ll be breaking this down. Along the way, I’ll have tips on putting this to work in your Etsy shop. And now is the perfect time of year to work on this. For most sellers, sales have slowed down. Use this time to improve your shop, well before the next holiday season. Because understanding the difference between visits and views can actually lead to getting more Etsy sales. So, let’s get to it.
What are visits on Etsy?
Visits represent the number of people who looked at your shop or one of your listings throughout the day. This information refreshes a few times a day. Go look in the top left corner of your Stats page. Right beside the date range you’ll see a time stamp showing when your data last refreshed.
Wondering why Etsy does this all refreshing? It’s to filter out noise caused by bots. A bot – short for robot – is a software program that performs automated, repetitive, pre-defined tasks. Bots typically imitate human user behavior. On Etsy they are designed to go around just clicking on a bunch of random things. (And thereby messing up your stats.) Something I’m sure we’ve all experienced at one point or another. When your stats just look a bit wonky, and the numbers don’t match up? That is probably due to bot activity.
You might also notice that by the end of the day, sometimes your numbers don’t appear to reconcile. Or maybe they even decrease over the course of the day. That’s because at the end of each day, Etsy filters out as much bot havoc as they possibly can. Therefore, your visit count might look like it’s going lower. But in reality, that’s just Etsy filtering out all the bots that have swarmed our shops.
So don’t be upset if you see that your visits go down throughout the day. No big deal. It’s just Etsy helping us out by getting rid of information that is never going to benefit us. Because bots don’t want to buy our stuff.
What are views on Etsy?
If visits reflect the number of people who looked at your shop or listing, what are views? Views are the total number of times a shopper looked at any of your other listings during their visit.
Let’s use an example. Say you are searching for a decorative wall clock on Etsy, and you click on one listing. Let’s say you really liked that product. So you decide to go to that shop owner’s store to look at a few more of their items. You click through five more of that shop’s listings.
This would count as one visit but a total of six listing views. Because on top of the original listing that you viewed – the decorative wall clock – you looked at five additional listings in that shop. This adds up to a total of six listing views and one visit.
How can understanding this increase your Etsy sales?
Compare your visit data with your average listing views. Doing so can be interesting – and useful! The difference between views and visits will show whether shoppers are actually sticking around to explore your shop a bit. Are they looking at any other items? Or do they just view one listing and bounce?
My advice: analyze these stats! Through them, you can observe what your shoppers are doing. And if you notice that visitors just aren’t staying to look around? Then I’d say it might be a good idea to go into your listing descriptions and start linking products that pair well with other products. Or are related in some other way.
For example, say you have a listing for a silver bracelet. In the listing description, mention that you have a matching necklace in your shop. And be sure to include a clickable link to it! This encourages shoppers to explore your shop more. And makes it easy for them to do so.
Aim to add to every listing some links to other listings you have. One that’s in the same design, or the same materials, or in the same product line.
Haven’t filled all 10 of your product image slots? Great! Fill them up with pics of related items you offer in your shop. Then, somewhere near the top of that listing description, mention them. “Matching earrings shown are available separately; links below.”
You could even include a picture that shows the matching pieces together. Just be sure to make it abundantly clear that these other pieces must be purchased separately. Best practice: add a text overlay to any pics that show related items. Just to clarify.
Cross-selling and upselling
There’s a name for this practice in marketing. Two names, actually. Cross-selling is when you show customers offerings that complement or supplement the item they are purchasing. Like adding a link to a listing for earrings that match the necklace they’re currently viewing.
Upselling occurs when you encourage a customer to add on services, or purchase a more expensive model. On Etsy, “add-on services” could be offering to customize or personalize a piece for an additional charge. Or a shipping upgrade. Or linking a necklace made with glass beads to a listing that has the same design made with gemstones.
Hope this has helped you figure out the difference between Etsy views and visits. I’ll close this post with some other eRank articles on what you can do to improve your Etsy shop – and improve your Etsy sales.
See you around!
Starla Moore, CEO – Handmade Alpha Academy
RESOURCES
Boost Views with eRank’s “Track Changes” Tool
Improve Your Etsy Shop Using Visibility Scores
Improve Your Etsy Shop with Visibility Scores, Part Two
Etsy Tags, Etsy Keywords: the Difference