Our portfolio company Etsy launched a super cool feature called Shop Updates a few weeks ago that I would like to talk about today.
Etsy sellers have always been great marketers. They bring buyers to their shops on Etsy in a myriad of ways. I remember back in the early days seeing Etsy sellers promoting their shops face to face at craft fairs. They still do that, of course, and much more.
Social networks are an obvious place for sellers to reach new buyers and Etsy sellers are all over them. But it hasn’t been that easy for a seller to be creative on social networks. Posting a link to their shop on facebook, or tweeting or pinning their latest item is fine. But doing that over and over quickly gets boring for everyone.
Enter Shop Updates. They allow a seller to take photos of their items in the real world and share them on social networks and into the Etsy mobile apps with links back to their shops and item pages.
An example will be illustrative.
Glittery Moon Vintage has this porcelain vase for sale on Etsy.
She can post that image to facebook, pinterest, twitter, and instagram and get buyers to come and take a look.
But with Shop Updates, she can take a picture of that vase in the real world and post it to facebook or some other social net.
My favorite thing about this feature is the orange shopping tag that signifies that the shared image is “shopable” or “clickable”. You click on that orange tag and are taken to Etsy where you can look at the item and buy it.
These items also show up in the Etsy app to everyone that has liked your shop. Here’s a screenshot I took of my Etsy app this morning:
Here are some more details on Shop Updates in case you want to learn more.
So don’t be surprised if you start seeing orange tags showing up in your Twitter feed, your Facebook feed, your Pinterest app, and your Etsy app this holiday season. Shop Updates also show up in Instagram without the orange tag because Instagram doesn’t make their images clickable.
And when you see those tags, you should think about clicking and buying something unique and special for your loved ones this holiday season!
