Etsy's new Region Filter-how to set yours

Mondo - the whole world in his head from Reclaim2Fame.etsy.com

The last couple of years it seems like every time you turn around Etsy is making changes. Some are kinda cool (treasury tweaks, coupon codes) while others are just silly (circles? really?). I know it is hard to please everyone, but I keep hearing from sellers whose shop views (& sales) continue to nosedive. And they are not happy.

Is seems like many sellers (1) see their shop traffic flatten, (2) wonder aloud in the etsy forums or on Facebook; then (3) Etsy admin announces the-next-big-thing-which-by-the-way-has-already-been-implemented-and-don't-you-just-love-it. Some sellers are happy with the changes..... but many are not & just want their traffic back.

Me? I just keep my head in the sand and blow the cobwebs off my inventory now and again. How is that working for me? It isn't. But that is a post for another day.

Today I want to make sure that if you have an Etsy account, you have heard about the new Region Filter.  If you have NOT set your new region filter to "Everywhere", when you are browsing the items you are seeing will be only from the country that Etsy considers your default location. If you would like to see more than just what is for sale in your country, you need to change your filter setting.

What does this mean? In the words of my favorite Swedish photographer Maria-Thérèse Andersson (Afiori.etsy.com): "Mine was automatically set to Sweden, then El Salvador! How the hell is a casual browser supposed to know these things when even we can't find them..."

In fact, it was Maria-Thérèse who pointed this update out to me last night. With my head in the sand policy, I'd missed the regional filter announcement.  How did she find out? She was looking for her newly listed items on Etsy's main page when she saw that everything listed for sale was from Sweden . In her words: "WTF?" So she popped over to the forums to find out what was up.

Here is her blog post about what happened: Ripped Off By Etsy

Plus a post from one of her readers, julocha from Moments of Perfect Clarity: Etsy: No longer where cool kids are

And a link to the official Region Filter Etsy Forum discussion: Set a region filter to view content and items near and far

Are you wondering - How do I change my Etsy Region Filter? Fortunately it is easy to set your filter, now that you know you have one:

• Sign into Etsy
• Roll over the words "Your Account" on the upper right corner of the page
• From the list that appears, pick "Settings" 

• Click on the Preferences tab

• Scroll to the bottom of the page and select your region that you want to view. Etsy had set mine to United States, but I shop globally so I changed it to Everywhere.

 

• Then click the Update Preferences button and you are ready to rock & roll. Easy peasy once you know it is there.

While you're setting your preferences, why not make sure they are all to your liking? I had no idea that there was a maturity filter automatically on. Nudity and art go together in my world, so I changed the setting to "show me everything" before punching the Update button.

So what do you think of this latest change to the Etsy shopping experience? I would love to hear from you. Are you a seller, worried about your items not appearing on a potential customer's radar? Or a buyer who is happy to select only your country and maybe save some money on shipping? Or do you just not care? Please, chime in. All comments are welcome.