Etsy is generally my preferred method to shop online, and I usually stop there first for whatever I need before heading elsewhere. Even though I am not selling right now, and not super keen on a lot of the changes that have happened to the user experience in the last six months, I still like to peruse the site almost daily. Now, when you log into Etsy, you’ll see a curated home page based on the people you follow (formerly known as circles) and your favorited items (formerly hearts… good times!). If you’d like to shop outside your circle (ahem, following), you have to use the good ol’ search, either recency or relevancy. As someone who has never quite nailed down relevancy, I can’t see exclusively shopping this way. Why? Because a ton of shops that may or may not be exactly what I’m looking for basically do not stand a chance in the search if they have not tailored their tags and keywords accordingly. Whether or not a product ends up being relevant to me, I still want to know my options. Usually this ends with searching through fifty pages of listings just to find an item. Because I never quite got it down, and I do believe I had a pretty great product, I wouldn’t want to miss anyone else in the same sitch. Not only that, but sometimes I’m simply in a shopping mood, or the mood to do a blog roundup for example, so I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for.
Treasuries used to be my go-to for this kind of window shopping. Sure there are currently 1251 treasuries curated on Etsy in this moment, but treasuries are not the focal point of Etsy like they once were (sadly the mourning period has long gone, I think!). This leaves two other options for shopping: colors – which have pretty much been a tool since Etsy’s inception and I totally forgot how fun it was, though admittedly I never use it, – and the people you follow.
My favorite way to shop on Etsy is this: choose an item from my favorites or home feed I love, based entirely off its vibe: the color, style, even the photography of the piece, and go from there…
I don’t necessarily want to buy shoes, but this pair is so cute (and on sale, PS!). As it turns out, lots of people have fairly curated favorites lists. As shoppers, we tend to gravitate toward a certain style of product. So, next I head to this item’s favoriters, all 1688 of them, opening the list in a new tab:
There I have a catalog of 1688 people who may be into the same thing as I. If I feel like relaxing and discovering some lovely new products, I’ll spend an hour scrolling through these accounts until I find a few that match my aesthetic. Just based on this product alone, I discovered these pieces:
oversize winter coat by atuko
50s iridescent glasses from foresterco
oil slick tee by clashist
porcelain wall hanging by redravenstudios
…All from shops I’d never seen before. If you’re shopping for a gift or browsing for new discoveries, this is the way to go. But if you have a single item in mind, be warned… You may go in looking for shoes and end up with 50s highball glasses!
