I waited to write about this as I thought it might be a temporary test Etsy is running, and it still might be, but this is quite a big deal for digital product sellers. It has been happening for at least several weeks.
What is happening?
When a customer does a search on Etsy, for example ‘wedding invitation’, Etsy is pre-selecting a filter for Physical items.
If you are a seller of digital wedding invitations, this is obviously a concern.
Etsy is pre-filtering search results to Physical items only for search terms such as ‘wedding invitation’.
It is possible for customers to turn this filter off. But although the filter is prominent, some customers might just scroll down and not notice it.
I did a lot of experimenting with search terms and found that if a customer does a second search, adding clarifying words like:
- digital download
- Canva
- template
- editable
the search often remains filtered to Physical items 😔 I wanted to give you a list of which words to use so that Etsy would turn off the filter, but unfortunately it was too inconsistent.
Why are they doing this?
Etsy haven’t announced this change, so we can only speculate. I imagine that for some products, physical and handmade products are being overwhelmed by a larger volume of digital items.
I don’t disagree with the logic, but the implementation is a problem as obvious searches for digital items are still having the Physical items filter pre-applied.
The good news
There are two pieces of good news though.
- If the customer adds one of those qualifiers from the list above (such as ‘digital download’) on their initial search, then Etsy does not apply the Physical items filter.
- For some types of products, such as wall art, Etsy does not apply the Physical items filter (at least not during my testing). So this issue might not apply to your digital product.
What you can do?
If your products are affected by this, make sure you include words that indicate to Etsy and customers that your product is digital. This could help boost your visibility when the filter is not applied and provide clarity to customers.
I would sprinkle these words through your title, and make sure at least one is included near the beginning, in your first phrase.
As always, don’t mess with titles on your bestsellers though.
In general, try not to panic. We still don’t know if this is a test, and as Etsy has never announced this, it could be a feature they are still working on improving.
You could also contact Etsy to raise this issue so that they can pass your feedback on to the relevant team.
What not to do
More importantly, don’t start listing your digital items as physical items to try to work around this and get more visibility.
I can already see sellers doing this. Not only is it deceptive, but it is also likely to confuse customers and lead to mistaken purchases, a poor customer experience and bad reviews.
Final thoughts
It is concerning for digital sellers that Etsy is pre-filtering some searches to Physical items only. This feature, presumably aimed at helping customers find what they are looking for more easily, is implemented in an inconsistent and illogical way. My advice for affected sellers is to not panic, but to ensure that your titles contain keywords to indicate that your products are digital, to attract customers who are looking for this. You can also voice your concerns with Etsy.