Quality and search visibility on Etsy

Etsy

Quality and search visibility on Etsy

Enhancing marketplace quality with search algorithm updates while helping good sellers improve.

Project Overview

In order to improve quality on Etsy, sellers need transparency and motivation.

I worked on a cross-functional initiative focused on defining quality for existing inventory, improving the discoverability of high-quality items in search, and providing sellers with greater transparency and control over their rankings.

As the design lead for the seller experience, I created a motivational search-improvement dashboard and tooling that drove seller engagement at rates more than double our original goal, improving the quality of millions of listings from well-intentioned sellers.

The Challenge

How might we elevate elevate high quality items on Etsy to ensure a great buyer experience and increase conversion, as well as repeat purchase rate and general brand perception?
How do we tackle the "messy middle" of inventory on Etsy for sellers that are not technically in violation of our policies, but whose shop, listing, and customer service signals are more likely to create a bad buyer experience?
How might we help well-intentioned sellers improve their shop and listings, while not helping bad-intentioned sellers game the system?
How might we position this program in a way that feels positive and supportive of sellers, rather than punitive and divisve?

Impact

Through exploratory research, design, and strategy, I helped shape our seller-facing program around search visibility - something we knew sellers were craving more information about. This approach led to neutral-to-positive feedback on the program overall (a major win compared to past launches) and drove more than double the adoption rate of quality improvement actions that we targeted, meaningfully improving the assortment of high quality items buyers see while shopping on Etsy.