Storque articles: Etsy News

Join the Etsy Facebook Community: New Etsy Fan Page & My Etsy Application

2009-11-19T15:20:00-05:00

More Etsy fun on Facebook! Become a fan of our Facebook page and install the new My Etsy application.

Show Some Love for Our Brand New Facebook Page
Check it out here and click the Become a Fan button. If you're already a fan, well then hey, aren't you too cool for school! We redesigned the page to give new visitors a better sense of what Etsy is all about.

We'll be featuring lots of gorgeous items on there, plus you can get a snapshot of what's going on at Etsy through blog feeds, videos and lots of other enticing bits.

Stay up-to-date about special promotions.
Find out about events and get reminders.
Share photos with us.
Join the lively discussions on our Facebook wall.

Get the New My Etsy Facebook Application
Install the new application called My Etsy, which automatically feeds in your most recent 21 Etsy Favorites and 5 favorite sellers to a special tab on your Facebook profile or your fan page. It's a great way to support handmade and share your good taste. You don't have to have an Etsy shop; the app can tell if your Etsy account is shopping-only and will default to your faves.

Here are some ideas for fun ways to share your picks by using this app:

Load your Favorites up with your holiday wishlist and share it with your friends and family.
Transform your Favorites into a Treasury list — along a theme or color palette. We might even feature your list on the home page of Etsy, our Community Hub or The Storque.
Fill your Favorites with some items you think a friend would like and share it with her.
Bloggers, with the new My Etsy app, you can pull in an RSS feed of your blog to your My Etsy tab, a great way to share your blog and your favorite Etsy items together.

We want to see what you love! Once you've added the tab, link to your page or profile on Etsy's wall here. We'll be searching for fresh items for a special Gift Guide, so use the app to show us your picks.

Here's a sample of what the app looks like:

If you're a seller, check out this how-to with tips for using the new My Etsy Facebook app to promote your business: Seller How-To: Plug in the My Etsy Facebook Application. Here are some reasons why you should install the app:

Get notified if your item is featured on Etsy's home page or in a Gift Guide.
Build out your business' fan page with your latest items automatically.

More Options for Facebook
The new My Etsy Facebook application joins our suite of options for sharing the Etsy experience on Facebook:

Use Facebook Connect to post your newly listed items and Favorites to your Facebook News Feed.
Look for the Share link on item listing pages, shop pages and public Favorites pages for an easy way to post to Facebook and other sites.
You can also use the original Etsy Shop Facebook application to show off your items or Favorites and see a sampling of the Etsy items your Facebook friends are adding to their Favorites.

The application updates about once an hour, so if your Favorites or listings don't appear immediately, that's why. If you're having other technical difficulties, make sure to check out our Help section.

What are you waiting for? Get set up!

More Social Networking Posts

John Allspaw Joins the Etsy Team

2009-11-19T00:27:00-05:00

One day in early 2005, I got a call from a friend and former colleague asking for career advice. My friend was considering a role running site operations at a fledgling Internet company that was creating a whole new way of connecting people on the Internet. They were a small but inspired operation running in a data center in Vancouver and the site was starting to really ramp up. The company needed his unique blend of good humor, playfulness, creative spark, world-class technical chops, and unmatched ability to get things done. I was already an early adopter and major fan of the company he was considering and told him it seemed like a solid bet. The company was Flickr, and the friend was John Allspaw.

Fast forward to the present, and after five very successful years at Flickr, John and I talked recently about another career move, but this time it was a little closer to home: John will be joining the engineering team at Etsy as VP of Technical Operations, responsible for the site operations, database, and quality assurance teams. I think his reasoning for making the move from Flickr to Etsy illustrates just what a great fit John is for Etsy:

“The reason I stayed here for five years wasn't for the vesting or the accolades. It was because I worked with people who *care* about building something that people *care* about. This also happens to be the same reason why I chose my next step: Etsy. They care, and it shows.“

I couldn’t be more excited for someone with John’s incredible experience to be joining Etsy. Before Flickr, John and I worked together at Salon.com and IDG/InfoWorld. He then went on to Friendster, one of the earliest social networking sites. Once he got to Flickr, John built site operations from 20 servers in a small Vancouver data center into a cultural phenomenon spread across six data centers around the world, with 40,000 photos being served per second and four billion photos being managed. Over four years, traffic to the site grew 40x while the number of users grew tenfold. All the while, John and the excellent team he built were the ones turning the knobs and pulling the levers to make it all work along with the developers at Flickr.

John recorded his hard-earned knowledge in a well-regarded book about capacity planning for web sites (The Art of Capacity Planning) and became a favorite speaker at technical conferences – when you’re successful, everyone wants to know the formula. With all of that happening, he also found time to play guitar in an itinerant bluegrass band, filing in the gaps between the washboard and the banjo. And have two kids!

John will joining us officially in late January, bringing his know-how to help us make Etsy better. I can’t wait to work with John again. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming John to Etsy!

About Us series | Tech Updates

Holiday Kids & Toys Showcase: On Sale Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 12 p.m. ET

2009-11-18T10:30:00-05:00

Have your little ones finished composing their wishlists for the North Pole? Discover gifts that will set their wee minds alight with creativity. The Holiday Kids & Toys Showcase will be a wonderland of imaginative play.

Info for Sellers
Get your items ready! Think fun things for kids to do, play with or wear. In order to keep the Showcase on point thematically, items in the Showcase can only be from the following Categories: Bath & Beauty (e.g., top-level tag being "bath & beauty"), Books and Zines, Children, Clothing, Crochet, Knitting, Paper Goods, Toys, Vintage and Woodworking.

The Holidays: Kids & Toys Showcase goes on sale Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 12 p.m. ET.
Go to the Showcase Gateway to purchase a spot.
This Showcase will run from Monday, November 23, 2009 12 a.m. ET until Sunday, November 29, 2009, 11:59 p.m. ET.
For $15 USD, Etsy sellers can purchase a 24-hour spot, which will be linked from a prominent banner on Etsy's home page.
Sellers determine which item will be featured in your Showcase slot. Sellers must use the tool in Your Etsy > Promote > Showcase. Learn more about this process here.

Future Showcases

If you are thinking about planning for other Showcases that may be more appropriate for your items, here are some of the front page Showcases we will be highlighting:

Holidays Parties and Celebrations. On sale Tuesday, November 24, 2009; the Showcase will be live from November 30, 2009 to December 6, 2009.
- Think upcoming celebrations and festive decor, glitz and fun attire for these events.
Holiday Gifts for Her. On sale Thursday, December 3, 2009; the Showcase will be live from December 7, 2009 to December 13, 2009.
- Think jewelry, accessories, clothing, artwork, and bath & body products for women of all ages.

Holiday Last Minute Gifts Showcase: On sale Thursday, December 10, 2009; the Showcase will be live from December 14, 2009 to December 20, 2009.
- Think gifts with expedited shipping. Expedited shipping is the criteria for this Showcase.

What is this Showcase thing? For a general introduction to Showcase, read Matt's Storque article 13.5 Questions about the Showcase, and for deeper thoughts on figuring out if Showcase is right for you, see Beth's Showcase Deconstructed article.

Customer Care: Improving Etsy Support

2009-11-12T12:30:00-05:00

Etsy's Support Team is committed to providing the best possible service to the Etsy community. We are delighted to announce that we are launching a brand new Help section and a new set of internal tools for Etsy's Support Team.

As we have with other recent features, we are going to roll out use of the new Help system over the next few days instead of all at once. We appreciate your patience and participation as we get the new Help system up and running.

Here are the highlights:

Searchable Help. Wave goodbye to those long, clunky, list-style Help pages. For the first time, Etsy's Frequently Asked Questions knowledge base (FAQs) is searchable! View FAQs by topic on Help Home, or quickly find answers by searching for a keyword or phase.

Contact Etsy Support. The new Help site allows you to contact Etsy's Support Team via a web form, instead of leaving Etsy to use email. Super convenient! (Note: You must be signed in to your Etsy account to use this feature, and we're gradually rolling this out to members. Until you your account comes up in the queue, this section will direct to the old FAQ.)

Help History. You can view and update your questions to Etsy's Support Team — and see our responses — right from the Help site using the My Help History page. In addition, a copy of the response from Etsy's Support Team will be sent to the email address on file in Your Etsy > Account Info. (Note: You must be signed in to your Etsy account to access My Help History, and we're gradually rolling this out to members. Until you your account comes up in the queue, this section will direct to the old FAQ.)

Submit a Suggestion. Have an idea to make Etsy even better? Want to offer us your point of view about Etsy? Use this handy form to let us know. (Note: You can alternatively discuss your ideas with other members in the community Ideas Forum.)

Teach Etsy How to Help. The new Help site allows members to rate the helpfulness of each FAQ. This provides us with valuable information so we can continually improve our resources for you. The Help site "learns" which FAQs are the most popular and automatically keeps these near the top for easier access.

Better Admin Tools. Etsy's Support Team has a new set of internal tools that integrate directly with the Help site to better serve our community. Every message sent to Etsy's Support Team is read and responded to by a real person. This human touch is vital to provide personalized assistance to every member who needs help. As we ramp up to full speed with these new tools, we have the ever-present goal in mind of improving the quality and timeliness of our customer support.

You may notice this week that emails you receive from Etsy's Support Team will look a little different. You can now easily see both your question to Support and our reply as a discussion thread. In addition, you will receive a reference number for your issue to improve correspondence tracking.

If you've recently sent an email to Etsy's Support Team, don't worry! You do not need to resubmit your question through the new Help site. We will respond as usual. Currently, you can still contact Etsy's Support Team by email to support@etsy.com, abuse@etsy.com, billng@etsy.com or content@etsy.com. We will forward emails to these addresses into our new Help system. (Be sure to send your message from the email address on file in Your Etsy > Account Info.) Over time, we will phase out the use of these email addresses and transition to using the Contact Etsy Support web form to contact the different areas of Etsy's Support Team.

P.S. If you would like to receive breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox — then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Etsy International: We're Visiting Europe...Again!

2009-11-12T10:00:00-05:00

UPDATE: Just a friendly reminder!

[The following was originally published on October 31, 2009.]

Etsy International: We're visiting Europe...again! Nous retournons visiter l'Europe! Wir kommen zurück nach Europa!

English

I'm happy to announce that Matt and I will be making a quick trip to Europe this November 16-24. As you may have heard, later this fall we'll be launching localized blogs in Germany, France and the UK.

As part of this trip, we of course hope to meet with many of you. We'll be holding some informal open meetings, similar to what Maria and I did last spring, where people can come to learn more about our 2010 plans, share ideas, ask questions, offer suggestions, and enjoy some time with other Etsy members.

The basic information is below and we'll update it as specific details become available — for now just save the dates!

Berlin: Wednesday, November 18, 18:00-20:00 / Cafe Morgenland (note the day is now the 18th!)

Paris: Thursday, November 19, 18:30-20:30 / Cafe La place verte 105 rue Oberkampf

London: Monday, November 23, 18:00-20:00 / Columbia Hotel

Hope to see you on the road!

Français

Je suis heureuse de vous annoncer que Matt et moi allons faire un petit voyage en Europe du 16 au 24 Novembre. Comme vous en avez peut-être déjà entendu parler, nous lancerons plus tard dans l'automne des blogs locaux en Allemagne, en France et en Grande-Bretagne.

Nous espérons évidemment vous rencontrer nombreux pendant ce séjour. Nous tiendrons des rencontres ouvertes et informelles, similaires à ce que moi et Maria avons fait le printemps dernier, où les gens pourront venir en apprendre un peu plus sur nos projets de 2010, partager des idées, poser des questions, offrir des suggestions et profiter d'un moment passé en compagnie d'autres Etsiens.

Vous trouverez les informations essentielles ci-dessous et nous les mettrons à jour dès que nous disposerons de détails plus spécifiques. Pour le moment, vous pouvez noter les dates!

Berlin: Mercredi 18 Novembre, 18:00-20:00 / Cafe Morgenland

Paris: Jeudi 19 Novembre, Cafe La place verte 105 rue Oberkampf

London: Lundi 23 Novembre, 18:00-20:00 / Columbia Hotel

En espérant vous croiser sur notre route!

Deutsch

Ich freue mich Ihnen mitteilen zu können, dass Matt und ich vom 16. November bis 24. November in Europa sein werden. Wie Sie vielleicht schon wissen, haben wir vor gegen Ende des Jahres blogs in Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien zu veröffentlichen.

Als Teil dieser Reise hoffen wir natürlich viele von Ihnen zu treffen. Wir werden ein paar informelle Meetings abhalten, ähnlich denen von Maria und mir letzten Frühling. Kommen Sie einfach vorbei und erfahren Sie mehr von unseren Plänen für 2010. Es wird auch möglich sein Fragen zu stellen, Ideen mit uns zu teilen, Vorschläge zu machen oder einfach etwas Zeit mit anderen Etsianern zu verbringen. Die wichtigtsten Informationen finden Sie etwas weiter unten. Wir werden gegebenenfalls weitere Details hinzufügen, aber merken Sie sich erst einmal diese Daten.

Berlin: Mittwoch, 18. November, 18:00-20:00 / Cafe Morgenland

Paris: Donnerstag, 19. November, Cafe La place verte 105 rue Oberkampf

London: Montag, 23. November, 18:00-20:00 / Columbia Hotel

Man sieht sich bald!

UPDATED Friday, November 13, 12:00 p.m.

Etsy International Posts | Multi-Lingual Posts

Holiday Stocking Stuffers Showcase: On Sale Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 12 p.m. ET

2009-11-11T14:00:00-05:00

Before the stockings can be hung with care beside the fireplace's comforting glow, tiny gifts must be found to fill their depths. The Holiday Stocking Stuffers Showcase will provide an ample supply of pocket-sized gift ideas for everyone on your list.

Info for Sellers
Get your items ready! Think festive and unique items to fill those holiday stockings.

The Holidays: Stocking Stuffers Showcase goes on sale Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 12 p.m. ET.
Go to the Showcase Gateway to purchase a spot.
This Showcase will run from Monday, November 16, 2009 12 a.m. ET until Sunday, November 22, 2009, 11:59 p.m. ET.
For $15 USD, Etsy sellers can purchase a 24-hour spot, which will be linked from a prominent banner on Etsy's home page.
Sellers determine which item will be featured in your Showcase slot. Sellers must use the tool in Your Etsy > Promote > Showcase. Learn more about this process here.

Future Showcases

If you are thinking about planning for other Showcases that may be more appropriate for your items, here are some of the front page Showcases we will be highlighting:

Holiday Kids and Toys Showcase: On sale Thursday, November 19, 2009; the Showcase will be live from November 23, 2009 to November 29, 2009.
- Think fun holiday gifts for children of all ages.
Holiday Parties and Celebrations. On sale Tuesday, November 24, 2009; the Showcase will be live from November 30, 2009 to December 6, 2009.
- Think fun holiday gifts for children of all ages.
Holiday Gifts for Her: On sale Thursday, December 3, 2009; the Showcase will be live from December 7, 2009 to December 13, 2009.
- Think jewelry, accessories, clothing, artwork, bath & body for women of all ages.

Etsy Statistics: October 2009 Weather Report

2009-11-10T16:00:00-05:00

Here are some facts and figures for our marketplace during the month of October 2009.

The stats:

$17.7 million of goods were sold by our community in October; roughly 11% higher than September's $16 million.
That represents 1,065,475 items sold for the month, 10% higher than September’s 967,037.
1,659,220 new items were listed in the month, 8.6% higher than September's 1,527,969.
203,012 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, up 13,210, or 7% from September.
610,284,313 page views were recorded on the site this month.

(Sources: Etsy and Google Analytics.)

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Etsy community in October!

Curious about how other months compare? Check out our past Weather Reports for more statistics.

DIY Wedding Crafts Contest Winner and Finalists

2009-11-04T14:00:00-05:00

Thanks to all who entered and voted in the DIY Wedding Crafts Contest with Etsy and Martha Stewart Weddings.

After carefully reviewing more than 3200 beautiful entries, a panel of judges from both Etsy Admin and the editors of Martha Stewart Weddings completed a secret ballot judging to select one winner and an additional 19 finalists. The winner and finalists are featured in an exclusive slideshow on Martha Stewart Weddings.

Congratulations to The DIY Wedding Crafts Contest winner, Ashley Anna Brown from fernanimals.etsy.com with her patchwork bird toppers, as seen above.

However, choosing a winner was no easy feat! Here are but a few of the talented finalists.

Better Together Wedding Topper by lollipopworkshop.etsy.com

Handmade Felt Bouquet by nestings.etsy.com

Wedding Sixpence Book by sweetscarlett.etsy.com

Bird House Boutonniere by HeartFelted.etsy.com

To see entries from the rest of the finalists, check out the DIY Wedding Crafts Contest slideshow on Martha Stewart Weddings. Thanks again to all who participated!

Looking for more Handmade Weddings posts? Check out our archive!

Wedding Invites and Favors Guide | Weddings Category | Wedding Attire Guide

Holiday Gifts for Him Showcase: On Sale Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12 p.m. ET

2009-11-04T10:25:00-05:00

Do the men in your life pose the ultimate gift-giving challenge? The Holiday Gifts for Him Showcase will be the go-to resource for innovative feats of masculinity. Dudes will be delighted to receive creative, out-of-the-box alternatives to the standard fare.

Info for Sellers
Get your items ready! Think cufflinks, geekery, artwork, woodworking, screen printed tees, jackets, and bags — anything appropriate for the men on our shopping lists.

The Holidays: Gifts for Him Showcase goes on sale Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12 p.m. ET.
Go to the Showcase Gateway to purchase a spot.
This Showcase will run from Monday, November 9, 2009 12 a.m. ET until Sunday, November 15, 2009, 11:59 p.m. ET.
For $15 USD, Etsy sellers can purchase a 24-hour spot, which will be linked from a prominent banner on Etsy's home page.
Sellers determine which item will be featured in your Showcase slot. Sellers must use the tool in Your Etsy > Promote > Showcase. Learn more about this process here.

Future Showcases

If you are thinking about planning for other Showcases that may be more appropriate for your items, here are some of the front page Showcases we will be highlighting:

Holidays: Stocking Stuffer Showcase: On sale November 12, 2009; the Showcase will be live from November 16, 2009 to November 22, 2009. .
- Think about all the smaller items that can fit into a holiday stocking.
Holidays: Kids and Toys Showcase: On sale Thursday, November 19, 2009; the Showcase will be live from November 23, 2009 to November 29, 2009.
- Think fun holiday gifts for children of all ages.
Holidays: Parties and Celebrations. On sale Tuesday, November 24, 2009; the Showcase will be live from November 30, 2009 to December 6, 2009.
- Think upcoming celebrations and the festive decor, glitz and fun attire for these events.

Talking Product: An Update on 2009 Site Feature Priorities

2009-11-02T15:00:00-05:00

Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest installment of Talking Product. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these posts, they are part of a regular series from my colleagues and me. Our CEO, Maria, started this series last year with her Talking Shop posts. In 2009, we’ve offered more posts by disciplines: Talking Product, Talking Marketing and Talking Tech. In June, all of us got together for a talkfest that we offered up as an audio podcast to more personally communicate with all of you about what’s happening at Etsy.

I am excited to offer you this latest update that covers the last few months. It also presents an overview of our priorities for the remainder of this year and into early next year, as well as a few general Product Team updates.

As a reminder from my previous updates, our first and foremost priority in recent months has been improving the shopping experience. We believe that among the most valuable things Etsy can do for sellers is attract buyers to the site, get them shopping and keep them coming back. While there is much work ahead and this will be a constant focus for us, we’re excited about some of the changes we’ve made so far and about the upcoming features we have in the queue.

So, what we have been up to lately?

Search

As I’ve indicated in past updates, improving the search and discovery experience on Etsy has been our top priority. We’ve made important strides in our efforts to improve Etsy's searching and shopping experience. Here are a few highlights:

Now when you perform a search on Etsy, you will often see links for recent popular related searches above your results. These related searches are actual searches recently performed by Etsy shoppers. They serve as suggestions for shoppers to refine their initial search or to stimulate ideas for successful similar searches. Related searches also offer sellers ideas to effectively tag items.
We made improvements to the way subcategories are suggested during the item listing process. Now, only those subcategories relevant to an item's top-level Category are suggested as item tags. This adjustment is helping to make the Category browsing experience more relevant.
We gave shoppers the ability to filter their search results by Category. This new feature provides shoppers a quick and easy way to narrow and refine their search results. Many Etsians tell us that this enhancement makes finding just the right item on Etsy easier and faster.

Checkout

We continued to work on making Checkout as smooth as possible, especially for new buyers. Our A/B testing framework allows us to test Checkout changes with a small percentage of shoppers, to make sure the changes will be understood and actually improve the user experience, before rolling the changes out to all shoppers.

We enabled new buyers to register on Etsy as a part of the regular Checkout flow. This was an important change since previously new buyers were required to leave Etsy.com in the middle of the Checkout flow in order to complete registration. The old process often resulted in buyer confusion.
We're currently A/B testing removing non-essential elements from the header of Checkout pages to focus shoppers on completing the Checkout process.

Seller Tools

Over the past few months, our new shipping tool with regional shipping options and the ability to rearrange items in your shop moved from the beta testing phase to full launch.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In the last couple of months, we’ve devoted a fair amount of attention to SEO. With the help of our friends at SEOmoz, Etsy developed a stronger SEO strategy and implementation plan. The most significant changes of the last few months are:

Giving sellers more control over your shop page title, Item listing page titles, and Section page titles
Canonical tags for improved search engine ranking for these pages
Updating shop URLs to be more search-engine friendly as well as changing to 301 redirects

We focused on shop and item listing page SEO and launched improvements, including tools to help sellers preview how their shop home pages and item listings will appear in Google search results. We believe that these changes are, in part, responsible for the continued strong traffic to Etsy.com.   In partnership with SEOmoz, Etsy also created the Etsy Guide to SEO.

SEO is an ongoing effort, and we'll continue to make improvements. We are grateful to Etsy sellers who actively participated in our Virtual Labs sessions on this topic and to those who are diligently using the guide to improve traffic to their Etsy shops.

Community

We recently launched a redesign of the Community Hub. The goal with this redesign was to provide clear, more immediate access to information for the Etsy community about important news, events and activities occurring on Etsy.

Many of you have asked us to communicate frequently and with as much relevant information as we can. Prior to the launch of the new Community Hub, Etsy had only one blog, The Storque. To date, The Storque has served as a resource for Etsy buyers, sellers, staff, and the general public. It showcases a lot of terrific content and information, but the content that’s most relevant to Etsy sellers is not always easily accessible. The Community Hub is a step in the direction of focusing our communications on distinct audiences. We appreciate your patience and your feedback along the way and hope that you find the new Community Hub useful.

What is in store for the remainder of 2009 and early 2010?

As the year winds down our main focus is on keeping the site stable for holiday shoppers. Starting mid-November and going through December, we will go into a bit of a code lockdown so as not to disrupt the buying and selling experience on Etsy. During this period we will only release changes that will not risk the performance and user experience of the site. This is a common practice for most ecommerce sites and one that we believe is critical. With that in mind, some of the updates below will launch before this lockdown while others will launch early next year. Also, some of the changes might only launch to a small subset of users, and then over time we’ll expand to all users. We’ll provide updates on the specific timing and plans for each of these items via the Forums, Community Hub, and The Storque as we get closer to each launch.

Search and Discovery

Many shoppers, especially those new to Etsy, don’t know what they’re looking for when they arrive at the site. Maybe they are searching for a gift, or they know they’re going to find something they love at Etsy, but they’re not sure what. In addition, some Etsy shoppers describe their search experience on the site as “overwhelming” while others describe it as “addictive.” We’re looking to convert those who may feel overwhelmed into addicts. We believe a key to that lies in enabling shoppers to refine search results in various ways.

To that end, many of the features currently in development will be designed to give visitors a better view into the kinds of unique items available on Etsy and help them more easily refine the results displayed. We know that shoppers who perform a search on Etsy are significantly more likely to buy something than those who do not use the search function.

One feature in development is what we call Search Suggestions. This means that we'll suggest relevant search queries as site visitors begin to type a query into the search bar. These suggestions will be specific to Handmade, Vintage, Supplies, All Items or the Category page from which you search. The suggestions will be derived from Etsy’s search logs and will be displayed in a dropdown box as is the practice on many heavily trafficked ecommerce sites. We believe this functionality will help shoppers more quickly and easily discover items of interest on Etsy.   We're also dedicated to improving the overall search experience by focusing on improved handling of misspelled search terms, the page shoppers see when they perform a search with no results, and more.

Checkout

We remain focused on making Checkout as easy as possible for all Etsy buyers, especially new buyers. We're working on a project we call Guest Checkout, which will enable new buyers to check out on Etsy without first choosing a username and registering on the site. This type of functionality exists on many ecommerce sites and is generally an expected option for shoppers. By introducing it on Etsy, we intend to remove hurdles in the Etsy Checkout process.

International

Many buyers and sellers have asked for an easier way to communicate prices in currencies other than U.S. dollars. We plan to introduce a currency calculator on item pages so that shoppers can quickly (and without leaving the page) calculate prices in currencies other than U.S. dollars. The actual transactions will still occur in U.S. dollars.

Google Product Search

Many Etsy sellers use their Etsy shop RSS feed to schedule uploads of their items to Google Merchant Center, for placement in Google Product Search.

Later this year, Google is changing how sellers on marketplaces like Etsy upload items for placement in Google Product Search, and we're working with Google on a solution that will allow Etsy to automatically upload items from your shops into Google Base if you choose to opt in to the program. This functionality will be launched in beta form to a small group of sellers and will gradually roll out to the entire Etsy seller community. More details on this initiative will be announced soon.

Help

As mentioned in my last update, we have been working to launch a new Help site to make it easier for our members to find information more quickly along with a new set of internal tools for Etsy's Support Team. We’re pleased to report that this is about ready to launch. Please stay tuned to Etsy’s blog, The Storque, the new Community Hub, and to the Forums for further details.

Updates From the Etsy Product Team

We’re delighted to welcome Michael Craig to the team. Michael joins us as our design director focusing on user experience design. Among other things, he will focus on creating design standards for the site. Welcome, Michael, a.k.a. mcraig71!

We’re also thrilled to welcome two new babies to the team. Congrats to Beth, a.k.a. bethela, on the birth of her very cute son, Rowan! (MCR, who heads up Etsy's Sys Ops Team, and his wife also had a boy!)

We love to hear from you. You can find the Product Team on Etsy:

Sean is sean11
Tom is kutty
Eric is ericds
Beth is bethela
Amy is amydec
KC is okaysee
Jen is jendoo
Michael is mcraig71
And I’m saralouhicks

Lastly, but most importantly, we appreciate all of your input that you provide in the Forums, Storque blog comments, and in emails to Etsy’s Support Team regarding improvements and suggestions for the site. We take the suggestions from our community as one of the greatest considerations in determining our product roadmap, and we’re personally committed to make progress against them. We understand that it may seem that many long-requested features have not been prioritized, but we want to stress that we are listening, we appreciate your suggestions, and we are making progress.

There’s more ahead so please stay tuned. I’ll be back at the beginning of the year with another Talking Product post that provides an overview of our priorities for 2010. As always, your feedback is important, so I look forward to a continued dialogue around our priorities.   Thanks!