Announcements Two Updates to Etsy’s Header

Today we released two small updates to the header area at the top of Etsy’s pages: we’ve removed the ‘Buy’ link and moved the ‘Sign Out’ link under ‘Your Account.’ In both cases, our goal is to simplify the site, so that people have less chance of being distracted or confused. Below I’ve shared some background on what we learned from testing these two changes, and what we believe the benefits will be.

Removing the ‘Buy’ page

When the 'Buy' page was added several years ago, it hosted features that have since been removed or can now be found elsewhere, such as under "More Ways to Shop" on the home page. Taking down this page reduces possible confusion for buyers who we would rather see taking a more direct route to items or a shop. We don't want people to hit detours on the way to finding sellers' pages! Since we know that wasting buyers' time with less-useful pages tests their patience (and have tested that effect here before making this change), we'd rather remove the possibility that people will get distracted by this link living at the top of every page.

Moving ‘Sign Out’ under ‘Your Account’

Most registered Etsy users stay signed into their account at all times, which makes it much easier and faster for them to favorite or buy items, send and receive convos, and use other site features that require registration. We want 'Sign Out' to be quickly available (hovering over the 'Your Account' menu), but not so prominent that users sign out accidentally or unnecessarily, given the benefits mentioned above. After testing this move, we know that members are easily able to get to 'Sign Out', which confirms that finding it there (which is similar to other sites' layouts) is intuitive.

Future changes to the header

We don’t expect the above changes to make a huge difference -- these are small tweaks. We are, though, always happy to find ways to make the top of every page of the site cleaner and simpler. We’ll continue to look at other ways the header can be clearer for both shoppers and sellers. If you have any feedback or suggestions related to other aspects of the Etsy header, please let us know.

Posted at 4:15 pm Jan 8, 2013 EST