Etsy's Handmade Blog
TechUpdates: Shop Local
Story by adam, anda, daniellexo, jared, matt, TechUpdates
Published on December 18, 2007 in Etsy News 		Photo by

Foundling

Looking for sellers in your hometown? Check out Etsy's newest way to find people by location: Shop Local!






Shop Local is a Flash application that provides a way to browse the most recently updated shops by town, city, village, state, province, country, continent, planet, or other place you can think of. It searches the location field in sellers' profiles. (See this Storque article for directions on how to update yours.)











We're finding more and more people are interested in making purchases closer to home, whether to reduce their carbon footprint, support small businesses in their community, or to benefit their local economy. Use Etsy's Shop Local to connect with artists, crafters, and store owners in your town! Or browse the Storque Shop Local articles to see some great collections from sellers around the world.

If you're doing last-minute Christmas shopping, make sure to double check the sellers' shop announcements for info on shipping or to see if they offer expedited shipping.

Further Resources:
Check out some good reasons to shop local at Why Shop Local from Stay Local! The Buy Handmade Pledge lists some great resources as well.






Shop Local FAQ:






1. I'm not seeing my shop when I search for my town! Why?
First, make sure you've entered a location as it exists in your profile. See here for help.  






2. I filled out my location in my profile and I still don't see my shop! 
Shop Local displays the 100 most recently updated shops. This means shops that have listed, relisted or renewed an item. If there are many people in your location and you haven't listed anything in a long time, your shop might not appear. Go make something to list!






3. I know this particular shop is in my town, but I can't find it. What went wrong? 
Shop Local searches the exact word you're searching for, alone and within words. So "St Louis" and "Saint Louis" will return different results, and searching for "Kansas" may return "Arkansas." Try different spellings or abbreviations of your town's name to get a better idea of who's nearby.






You can also get creative with your place searches; searching for a state, province, country or planet will net everyone who wrote those terms into their profiles! If you try searching for "Earth," you'll get back everyone who has included "Earth" somewhere in their location.






4. I see a few empty shops. Why is that?
Shops may be empty but still active for a variety of reasons, such as when the user is on vacation or closed up for a craft fair. You can take a peek at their sold items if you're curious about what they've carried in the past. 






5. How often does Shop Local update?
As often as sellers update their shops, Shop Local updates with them. Listing, renewing and relisting count as updates to a shop.






 6. Why show only the last 100?
Technical limitations.  We will try to increase this number in the future. 






7. Why not use billing addresses to search for sellers more precisely?  I would like to specify country, state, city, or even a zip code?
We would like to offer more precise searches but cannot at this time.  Our seller's billing information is private.  We can only offer searches against the information that is voluntarily provided through a seller's public profile.  This is a latitudue/longitude coordinate and a location text entry.






With all of this in mind, go forth and shop local!

Tags ETSY NEWS, flash, international, Shop Local, shopping, site features, Tech Updates
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39 comments     Login to add your own!

Dec. 18, 2007 at 4:53 p.m. SandFibers

This is brilliant! Thank you so much.

Dec. 18, 2007 at 5:09 p.m. BluewaterStudio

FABULOUS!!

Dec. 18, 2007 at 5:12 p.m. ElenaMary

Wonderful and useful...Glad to see this feature!!

Dec. 18, 2007 at 5:13 p.m. ElenaMary

So useful!!
Thanks!!!

Dec. 18, 2007 at 5:37 p.m. ValerieTyler

I'm all about shopping locally--hence, a recent blog post on it and the beginning of a series of feature articles on locals.

http://artaddict.wordpress.com/2007/1...

Thanks for the tool--it'll make my search to find locals to highlight that much easier! There's certainly no lack of talent.

Dec. 18, 2007 at 6:34 p.m. BlackStar

Another great idea! Thanks guys.

Dec. 18, 2007 at 7:36 p.m. goodgirlsstudio

Love this! Just stumbled upon it on the front page & found some great local artists that I had never seen!

Dec. 18, 2007 at 8:06 p.m. Rosewebs

This is the most important feature that has been added yet. I hope you keep this one up.

Dec. 18, 2007 at 8:32 p.m. CollageWorks

This is awesome! Thanks a bunch :)

Dec. 18, 2007 at 11:20 p.m. RaeGun

This is so so cool. Thanks guys!

Dec. 19, 2007 at 4:19 a.m. tortillagirl

This is an awesome new feature!

Dec. 19, 2007 at 6:05 a.m. mellowbeing

It's a fantastic idea. I already found myself on the list :) I wonder if this would facilitate in person meetings to sell the items?

Dec. 19, 2007 at 8:05 a.m. deedledumpling

The "Shop Local" link Rocks!!!! Thanks so much for putting this on. What a great way to create and expand our Community.

Dec. 19, 2007 at 8:35 a.m. Corris

I think this is a fantastic idea! One good reason to update your profile: It makes it easier for reporters to find you. My blog (www.newsday.com/cheapthrills) features crafters and artists from NYC and Long Island, so this feature will help me zero in on Etsy shops in those areas. If you're a shop owner and you'd like to get press, it's a good idea to update your shop location from something made up like Planet Zernon to something real and specific like NYC or Brooklyn. I will definitely use this Shop Local feature. Thanks for making my job easier!

Dec. 19, 2007 at 9:26 a.m. hoverfly

Am very glad to see this tool -- Thank you!

2 wishlist items:

1. search within results: "scarf" within "Detroit"

2. search within 50 mi radius of my location -or- search multiple city names: "scarf" within "Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia"

Dec. 19, 2007 at 9:49 a.m. BethMillner

I also really like the tool, It would be great if it allowed for a zip code and different mile radius searches.

I find this to be a great new tool, now I just need to spread the word about etsy in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I think people are just starting to catch on!

Dec. 19, 2007 at 10:52 a.m. Vanessa

Thanks Corris, for your perspective as a reporter!

Dec. 19, 2007 at 11:18 a.m. boygirlparty

this RULES! i had no idea there were so many creative/amazing people in my city.

Dec. 19, 2007 at 11:29 a.m. wittyworkshop

Love this tool! Hope you'll leave it on the site after the Holidays!

Dec. 19, 2007 at 2:46 p.m. spugmeistress

love the idea, but the actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired. i have a ton of criticism but at the lack of a link to a forum thread i think it's best emailed...

Dec. 19, 2007 at 4:13 p.m. victorybooks

This is a great idea. I have always had my local identity details in my profile. When I look up Nelson New Zealand my shop is not there. Is it not up and running properly yet.

Jan. 31, 2008 at 7:50 p.m. DelectableDelight

I agree with hoverfly - I would like to be able to search for certain products within a certain area :)

April 22, 2008 at 5:23 a.m. petapossum

this would be great if I could actually go to the stores easily ie be able to click and go to that store but for some reason I can't... is it just me or is it something wrong in the set up?!

June 3, 2008 at 7:44 p.m. puplove

Thank you for this, it would be great if it had city, state and zip codes. A lot say just the city and it would be nice to see the state also.

Sept. 23, 2008 at 2:20 p.m. lwhelan

why is my shop local only showing the 3 or 4 most recently updated shops?

Oct. 3, 2008 at 7:39 a.m. autumnmistfarm

Hi, I'm new to etsy and just found the shop local. I think it's great to have the shops come up when you type in your state. Thanks

Oct. 9, 2008 at 10:40 p.m. Inged

Love to see more people from my city on ETSY !!!

Nov. 9, 2008 at 6:09 p.m. ausnicknick

Would be really useful to be able to search for items, i.e., clothes, jewellery etc within the shop local function. Unless I'm missing how I should be doing this already??

Nov. 14, 2008 at 1:36 a.m. sreidyzieglar

Yes!!!! I agree with ausnicknick! I would love to be able to be able to search for items or even just categories within the local function!

Nov. 19, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. newyorkclocks

better list something, I don't see my shop on the local list!@

Nov. 30, 2008 at 4:22 p.m. alankarshilpa

Shop local is a great idea. I was excited to find my works as well as other artists from Walnut Creek,CA. Some nice works from an artist in my area caught my eye. A Shard angel necklace made by Flower 7 in etsy.. She made it with recycled glass pieces retrieved from the dustbin of a glassblowing studio accented with fresh water pearls. Very nice.

Dec. 5, 2008 at 12:12 p.m. fenellasaunders

This does have limited usefulness as I cannot specify the type of item I'm looking for locally. Even categories such as jewelry would help a lot.

Dec. 7, 2008 at 2:12 a.m. MakeMinePretty

Great Info!! I LOVE ETSY!!!

Jan. 18, 2009 at 7:46 p.m. GiGisGifts

Its pretty cool! Thanks!

April 14, 2009 at 10:10 a.m. needles1


very helpful thank you

May 12, 2009 at 4:21 a.m. heavyphotons

There really should be some way to shop local but still browse categories, such as eBay's "Filter by location" features. I live in Australia, and the expense and environmental cost of flying things from overseas is horrible. But this means I cannot use categories at all.

July 19, 2009 at 4:59 p.m. chakramspice

I add my vote for being able to search by both category and location. Useful for when there are hundreds or thousands of stores in the area and/or you're looking for a specific thing and trying to get it as close to home as possible.

Sept. 5, 2009 at 12:49 p.m. rushcocoa

yes, add categories

Oct. 7, 2009 at 3:51 p.m. colorfulbellydance

I see several of you are asking for the feature I was just about to try to 'find'...that is how to search only the local shops for a specific item.

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