Etsy

Choose your search method

The drop down menu next to the search bar controls what type of search you preform. This drop down menu is contextual - meaning that the options available will change depending upon the area of the site you are currently visiting. For this guide, we'll explain how to search in Etsy's marketplace with the menu options on Etsy's home page.
Your options are:

• Handmade - Search items in the Handmade categories only. This search will include Handmade Supplies, but not Commercial Supplies or Vintage goods.
• Vintage - Search items in the Vintage category only. Vintage items are 20+ years old.
• Supplies - Search items in the Supplies category only. This search includes Handmade and Commercial Supplies.
• All Items - Search all items on Etsy, looking for matches using the tags (keywords) and titles associated with each item.
• Sellers - Search for a shop by username. (More on this below!)

Describe what you're looking for

The search works best when you use more than one search term. Try typing in at least 2-3 words that describe the item you're seeking.

Some descriptive terms to consider adding to your search: who it's for (e.g., women), color (e.g., black), size (e.g., medium), material (e.g., 14k gold), and technique (e.g., mosaic). Look at the tags (the blue words at the bottom of a listing page) on an item you like to get some ideas of other search words you can use (e.g., gocco).

Some examples of multi-word searches:

• instead of book - try blank book journal
• instead of toy - try felted toy cookies
• instead of yarn - try multicolor handspun yarn
• instead of ornament - try Christmas ornament

Narrow down your results

Sometimes even a multi-word search will return too many results. There are a few different ways to narrow down your search even further.

Exclude terms with NOT - If your search returns many similar items that are not what you're looking for, you can exclude a specific term from your search. Just add "NOT (keyword)" or "-" (minus sign) to the end of your search terms. You can use multiple NOTs if necessary, but usually adding more descriptive search terms will yield a better result.

Some examples:

• instead of blue glass beads - try blue glass beads NOT commercial
• instead of art painting landscape - try art painting landscape NOT reproduction
• instead of plus size dress - try plus size dress NOT pattern NOT maternity

Price range - Once you've started a search, you can narrow your results to a specific price range. Just enter a minimum and maximum value in the Price fields on the right sidebar of the search results page and click Show Items.

Use quotation marks for exact phrases - Multi-word phrases can be enclosed in quotation marks to force the search engine to find that exact phrase.

View and sort your results

You can toggle between gallery view and list view modes for search results. Gallery view shows large pictures of items along with prices, item titles and sellers' usernames. List view shows small pictures of items along with the item titles, sellers' usernames, dates when items were listed and prices.

You can choose to sort items by price or date listed in both view modes.

Search for a shop

To search for a specific shop, select "Sellers" from the dropdown menu. Since usernames do not have spaces in them, you can only search for shops with single words.

You can sort your results alphabetically by username, number of listings or date when the shop was last updated.

Advanced Search

You can also perform and advanced search by selecting the "Advanced Item Search" link in the left column of item search results. On the Advanced Item Search page, you can choose your search parameters by selecting or deselecting toggle switches from a range of options. You can select to perform your search within Handmade, Vintage, Supplies or All Items, as well as the categories specific to Handmade, Vintage and Supplies.

Additionally, you can choose the item attributes you would like to include in your search—item tags, item titles, item descriptions or the materials used to make the item. Select any or all to either narrow or expand your search results.

You can also filter your results by price, as well as sort by date or price.