More Etsy sales just by responding to reviews? It's possible!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Should you respond to 4 and 5 star Etsy reviews? I say HECK YEAH, and this video will tell you why responding to reviews, even good ones, can help to make people trust you more, and might even increase your Etsy sales.
**CLASSES AND FREE HOME-BASED BUSINESS TOOLS, including my EShop Success Program, now on Teachable: classes-by-a-c...
**ETSY BLOG ARTICLES: artisanshopper...
**JOIN THE CHANNEL:
/ @karabuntin
**TEST TURTLE to 33777 TO GET NOTIFICATIONS ABOUT LIVES STARTING
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**SUBSCRIBE to this channel and click to get notifications about weekly RUclips lives on Home-Business and Etsy seller tips topics: / karabuntin
**WANT TO START YOUR OWN ETSY SHOP? Use my affiliate link to get 40 free listings: etsy.me/30W1J34
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Get my eBooks and planners for Home-Based Business owners: www.amazon.com...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
** MY FAVORITE BUSINESS TOOLS: acaketoremembe...
**FACEBOOK GROUP: / homebasedbusinessandet...
**HAVE YOUR ETSY SHOP REVIEWED by Kara or watch other shops' reviews: / karabuntin
**SUBSCRIBE HERE: / karabuntin
**PRODUCTS THAT I USE IN MY ONLINE BUSINESS:
DYMO 4x6 LABEL PRINTER: amzn.to/3rLAwt0
DYMO LABELS: amzn.to/3qS5Irh
SHIPPING SCALE: amzn.to/35iuicL
**READING LIST:
All of these are books that I have read and found valuable for one reason or another as far as my business goes. I don't follow any business "gurus" or motivational speaker types, but these are all books that I've enjoyed reading and thought they were good for business takeaways.
Audible: Free trial of Audible, plus free books: amzn.to/33MpjQZ
Freakanomics: amzn.to/32q9lvn
Think Like a Freak: amzn.to/3KzSbg2
Buy*Ology: amzn.to/3rF4yih
Steal Like an Artist amzn.to/35lvLiB
Show Your Work: amzn.to/3KAiL8I
Company of One: amzn.to/3FU92Xn
Time Management From The Inside Out: amzn.to/3fSLlUC
Organizing from the Inside Out: amzn.to/3u0hmCm
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: amzn.to/3ImhGj0
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade: amzn.to/356eAkG
Thinking Fast and Slow: amzn.to/343K0aP
Nudge: amzn.to/33H9yL6
So many updates...Etsy support told me that the greyed out button on the respond to review is because we can only respond to 3 stars and below. However, I tried what someone said, and if you go to the shop's homepage you can scroll to the reviews there, and it still works. Someone else tried logging in and logging out and that worked. So take advantage of this as long as you can, because it very well could be a glitch, but this is one that works in our favor.
ahora mismo Kara, he podido responder a reseñas de 5 estrellas
I hope it still works! I was just going to go and try! Hopefully they won’t delete the responses if it is a glitch
It does work and I happily spent about half an hour replying to every customer that left me a review in 2022! Sadly I can't respond to any reviews that were made before the 1st of January 2022! Is that happening to you as well?
@@fleetwooddesign4236 according to Etsy rules, we can't respond to reviews older than 100 days. I had some older ones and can't respond to them either.
Also, I'm genuinely excited when a customer leaves a good review and has nice things to say. It's always felt a little weird that I can't respond and at least give a "thank you" or a "so glad you love it!" type response. I feel like I'm dropping the conversation.
Good point!
Ditto!
So glad they have added this function back, it saves having to message everyone because then the customers feel they have to answer to a thank you message! I felt this wasn't as good, so i love this function
I totally agree! I don't like to send unnecessary messages to people so this is better.
Ohhhhh yeah that makes sense!
💖 Thanks so much for the heads up. This is so great, I love thanking my customers... and now publicly, yay!
Any time!
I am so happy they have done this! Quite often when people post a really good review or post a picture it is nice to say thank you!
And it's better to do it this way instead of sending people a bunch of emails.
@@KaraBuntin yes I agree o always stopped myself from doing that in case people found it spammy
I have always sent a thank you by email. will take some getting used to.
I have actually just gone through and put thank you mgs on the first page of reviews, you do have a point Kara that it means less clumpy mgs and adds a bit of value to your page too😊
@@prettydarnadorable Yeah, especially those buyers that post a picture with their review. That's a really good way to respond to them about how lovely it is on them or on their wall. Giving them a compliment right back.
Great advice and good sense. I communicate with quite a few of my customers via messages. I don't chase customers, some buyers message me if they're happy with something and I like to respond with a 'thank you'. This new feature means I can do that with all customers that leave a review; nice one, Etsy, for a change. I'm also liking being able to see listings that have sold from an Etsy ad where the ad was for a different listing (did I make sense there? 😄). Etsy is doing some good things just now .... should we be worried? 🤔😑
Probably
So glad you’re talking about this!! I just noticed it last week and I’ve left a number of THANK YOU messages to my fabulous customers!!! Yes!!
I know, it's a good thing...I need to go over and respond to reviews now!
That's a good point. I find some 4 stars reviews more likely to be trustworthy than all 5 stars when shopping.
I agree
Okay wait they give the option to respond on the homepage 😮 that’s so cool.
That is really exciting, Thanks! Every once in a while I get a 5-star that really makes my day and I wish there was a way to let them know without a convo because that’s annoying, and spammy.
On one particularly touching 5-star review I responded A YEAR later with a handwritten note when the buyer placed another order. She left another touching 5-star review mentioning that she was impressed that I remembered the purpose of her first purchase. I wanted so badly to reply to this sincere 5-star review because it really made my day but a convo felt invasive and off-putting.
I’m glad Etsy finally gave us the ability to do this!
I agree, it gets silly when you start sending a thank you card for a thank you card, basically. This is easier.
I am a new subscriber and I've been binge watching your videos! Im in the process of implementing much of the advice and knowledge you give in your videos, and within a week I've already seen my views and visits go up organically without ads. I am hoping this work I'm putting in translates into sales. Thanks for the knowledge you give!
Awesome! Thank you!
You know, I had not even paid attention to that tiny typing. And I am glad you spoke about 4-star reviews as well. Great advice! Every little bit helps.
Glad it was helpful!
Sounds like great advice! My only concern would be if this were just an Etsy test and the thank-you feature was only temporary. How would future customers feel if they weren’t thanked for reviews as others were, should Etsy stop the practice? While I love the idea of publicly thanking my customers, I would hate to start if it was going to stop all of a sudden.
If that happens then the ones that had a response will fall away fairly soon.
I was dithering a bit over this, but you've convinced me that it's a good thing. I also love the fact that you have Tesy floating above your shoulder in an angel/demon kind of thing....
I forgot to take her down, but i thought it was funny so I left it!
@@KaraBuntin Never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but.... she's kind of growing on me....
@@judithhughes8137 yesssssss
I like the little text pop ups you have throughout your video 🤗
Thank you!
Thanks so much for this little tip Kara. I just replied to a very nice 5 star review. BTW - since you mentioned that it can't be edited, I drafted it in Word first - then, after making sure that i was happy with it, pasted it into Etsy, including a nice little emoji. 😎
Great tip!
I’m so glad this is back. It always felt weird to not be able to thank 4+5 star reviewers for leaving a great review.
I think they realized that people were sending messages to doit, and this is probably to cut down on that considering all the privacy and spam laws that are changing as time passes.
This is a great video! I've already been responding to my reviews but, hearing your reasons why it's a good idea, many of those I hadn't thought of. I just did it to say thank you...and to lock in my good ones. But the other info you share here is amazing! Thank you 😊
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Kara. I've added a message "Thank you!" to my latest reviews. Copy and paste, copy and paste! Easy. xo
Perfect!
great tips. Many times I've wanted to just say thanks for a review, esp when they post pix of their kids in my hats. Glad I can do this now. Hope it stays!
Glad to help
Thanks for this tip! I just went in through my home page and locked in those 5 star comments! Much appreciated.
Glad it helped!
Thanks for the tips and advice. I just replied to all mine going back to mid-December. I noticed that I can't reply to reviews from Dec 12 and earlier. - Tammy
That’s the 100 days review period
The end cracked me UP!!!! LOVE THIS! Thanks again for great tips!
Caffeine is my motivator
@@KaraBuntin 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I always thank them for a review, but haven't done it in the review section. I guess i will start doing it there.
It's better to do it there than sending more messages to people, it gets spammy with all the messages that Etsy sends on top of that.
I really love your updates! I had no idea about this. I know you could respond to low rated reviews, but I think this is a good idea. I wonder if Etsy is trying to do it to prompt customers to leave reviews as the annoying notifications and orange dot didn’t work 🤣
People as you said want attention and might be more inclined to review if they’ll get a nice response back. Of course, there are still some shop owners who leave unhinged responses… even on Google reviews I’ve seen small businesses do it. That I will never understand. Calling a customer names, threatening (yes I’ve seen it), accusing them of stealing or even swearing in a public online place makes no sense as a business owner. It’s like people don’t think of reputation and that anything online can become permanent even after it’s deleted 🤷🏻♀️
Would love to see a dos and donts of customer service, I feel like some need a reminder lol.
There are some gems on Etsy.
Yes, you've convinced me once again. Love your last words!
Good! Haha
You are SPOT ON!
Thank you 😆
I could not do that on my reviews. I guess because I was on my phone! I will do it on my computer! Great to know!
It's not letting us do it today so it's either a glitch or they're taking it away already!
Great advice. If I ever start a business thiis is excellent advice.
Thanks for watching
Thanks for this tip... on my PC I was able to leave responses to reviews left in 2022, but the option wasn't there for 2021 which is fine. Now I know and I can stay on top of it for as long as it's available.
It only lets you do it for the last 100 days.
You might want to check again, I just not had the 2021's available :)
@@danasandberg6619 Someone else said that they could do it again too, so that's good news!
thanks, I never considered doing this before. it was easy to do
It's totally worth doing. A few people in my facebook group have had people edit reviews recently and change the ratings, so you want to lock them in when you can.
Thank you for your insightful tips. Going to respond now.
Glad it was helpful!
Very interesting, I will definitely do it. Thank you.
It's worth it
Excellent advice! Thank you Kara.
Glad it was helpful!
I am going to definitely try this! Thank you!
No problem!
thanks for sharing that, i went in and responded to all my reviews that i could, good tip.
IT's not letting me do it now, but the reply box is still there...I hope it's not a glitch
Thank you very much for your advice Kara , appreciate always...🤝👏
My pleasure!!
Truly great points in this video. From what I’ve heard, the customer that leaves the review isn’t notified when we post a response to it - is that correct? (Although I do understand your point that we’re really responding for all the customers that follow after.)
I'm not sure about that, but I think they might get a notification.
Thank you so much for this fantastic advice!!
No problem!
This was so helpful!! I needed to hear ALL OF THIS!!! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi from the UK. If people take the trouble to write us a 4 or 5 star review, a polite response and thank you should not be too much trouble no matter how busy your life is 🤔 Just sayin' 😉
It really doesn't take long.
I agree. Especially on etsy, we only get reviews on about 15% of the products that we sell anyway. It's not like on ebay where you get 10 reviews a day. Most of us are lucky to get 1 or 2 a week. Unless we sell hundreds of things a week, reviews are very rare. So we have plenty of time to leave an easy thank you as a response to the few that we get.
I noticed something interesting. I have been making consistent daily $100+ sales in my shop until I received a 2-star review. I contacted the buyer and fixed the issue. The buyer then edited the review to a 5 star. During that time( took 4 days) I received 0 sales. Then all of a sudden as soon as the buyer edited the review I got 4 sales within the hour. I then started making the sales I was making before that 2-star review until someone left me 3- 1 star reviews with the words "DO NOT PURCHASE" on each listing. These are low cost digital products by the way. So now I am back to making 0 sales. What the heck is going on here? I can't even dispute the review as Etsy only gives you a few options. I did however reply to the 3 1-star reviews in a professional manner. It almost feels like it was done on purpose to bring down my sales or something.
I mean this is the the second time and both I noticed the huge drop in sales. Have you ever heard of this?
Yes, reviews do factor into search placement. I’ve seen listings go from page 5 to pages 1 immediately after getting a good review (i actually did a test on this one when someone i knew bought some things from me.)
Good idea!
Thanks!
I confirm I was able to respond to reviews using my desktop but not on the Etsy app on my android phone.
Apps suck in general.
3/31 Doing it from the shop homepage works! Thanks! FYI to all: you have to put in a comment for button to "un" gray out...
Thanks for the info!
Done!! Thanks again.
Thanks for watching!
I so much appreciate your comments about 4 and 5 stars and how uneasy one may be with a shop with nothing but five stars. But frankly, I think this statement takes away from us sellers who strive very hard to get, and eventually receive, five stars. Although I've had a few four stars, most of them, especially recently, have been five. This makes me pleased and it's sad to hear that buyers would be uneasy about this.
It’s just the facts! People tend to be suspicious because nobody makes everybody happy all the time.
Hi, I'm very late to this video but as a buyer (and seller) on Etsy, a shop that has nothing but 5 star reviews really encourages me to buy from it. If I see a 4 star, I'm wondering what it is that kept it from being 5. So, be proud of your 5 star reviews!! ⭐
Ok you convinced me!! 🤣😁
hahahaha
Excellent thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for your video!
You’re welcome!
Thanks for this video! I tried to respond to two reviews that I received last night, but it wouldn't let me post my response. Do you have any idea why it wouldn't let me post it? I can't even find where I can contact Etsy about it. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
I know, some people including myself are having trouble responding now. I'm going to try to contact Etsy today about it when the chat option shows up.
Thanks
No problem
Thank You :) Do you suggest responding now to all feedbacks?
Yes!
Great tips! Thank you=)
Glad it was helpful!
You mentioned you have 3 Etsy shops. Did you create an LLC or are you operating as a sole prop? Do you have a video about how you navigated that side of having an Etsy shop?
I have an LLC and DBAs for each business. I don’t take feel comfortable doing videos about that part of it because it’s legal advice!
I think there are some people who never leave 5 stars ⭐️ even if they are really happy with the item :)
Yep
I have the option to do that in my shop. So when you thank them, they will get an email notification? For those that I have already sent a personal thank you email, should I still do this on Etsy? Or skip them?
I don't' know but I assume they might get a notification that you responded. At this point I'd skip the people you already responded to, then start responding publicly only.
Good point!
I use to email a thank you until I found out that was not okay. I’ve always wanted to thank my customers. I have all 5 star reviews 😳
This is useful, then!
I wish I had a screenshot of the review left by a customer that bought an item as a gift. She returned it, almost immediately, leaving a 1star review stating it "wasn't black enough, and not what was pictured. Wrong size." I figured, well okay, and waited for the return to refund their money. She is emailing me every day about the refund, and getting... cranky. When it arrives, I can smell strong perfume thru the packaging. I open the bag and find the item is almost dripping with hair product! I contacted Etsy, told my tale of woe; Etsy refunded the customer and removed her one star review. I saw her on that Karencheck list later. Too bad she is an Etsy seller with loads of sales and not great reviews.
The worst customers are pretty frequently other Etsy sellers, because they know all the things that Etsy sellers are scared of.
So when you respond to a review whether it's good or bad, it keeps it from ever being changed? I didn't know that. So if a buyer leaves a good review and I respond with just a thank you, then they can't come back and change it later if they decide they didn't like it? And with a bad review, it's best not to respond until I know that it won't get changed? So don't respond until after I tried to have it changed by the buyer or etsy cause responding will lock in the review so it doesn't get changed? I haven't gotten too many reviews on etsy yet since I'm still a newer shop, so this is interesting info that I did not know.
That's right, once you respond the customer can't change it, and you can't edit your response.
Thanks for the great video! this. Are we sure this lock it ?
It says that it does before you leave a response.
love that you're in richmond! I'm born and raised in Virginia Beach (:
There are a lot of people in this area who are in this community…i know of a bunch in Richmond. We should do a Meet up
@@KaraBuntin id love to but I don’t live in the states anymore! Sounds super fun though (:
Thank you for the tip! Does the buyer receive a notification when you respond to their review?
I don't think so.
Love your channel! I started my Etsy shop in June and have 56 sales selling home decor (pillows and table runners mostly)- and most are fall themed as I am trying to position myself for Q4. Is that a good amount of sales so far in your opinion? relevant to this video: I have 8 reviews, all 5 star. Some with a comment, some without. My question: Do I respond to the reviews that don't have a comment, and just the rating? Or only respond to reviews that leave a comment? Thanks so much!
Definitely respond with a “thank you” to lock it in. And yes, that’s good for sales for such a short time.
@@KaraBuntin thanks for the quick response! I tend to overthink things... but last question. When I started I did not respond to a buyers question within 24 hours and got dinged for that. Learned my lesson. I have not responded to any of the reviews yet and some are over a month old. My question: does responding late to reviews count as "message response rate" I doubt it does--- but I don't want to respond to all of these reviews and have it count against me.
It doesn't have anything to do with star seller or message responses, so don't worry about that!
Seems like there's a time limit or something on responding. I went back and did the ones I could but more than a few months old and the option to respond wasn't there for those sales.
It’s 100 days
So maybe to reinforce the idea that 4 stars is good, we could say to those too something like "So glad you loved your purchase!"
Sure, it’s only Etsy that equates 4 stars with a bad review, and only because of the stupid and useless star seller program
What are your thoughts about replying to reviews that are a few months old? My shop is quite new still, and my orders and reviews all came around Christmas, but I'd like to respond to them. Would it be weird to do it now or look like I'm not on top of things? Or does the time factor not really matter since I don't have very many at this point? (I have 10-12 reviews and all are 5 stars.)
You can, but you don’t have to.
What molds do you sell? I make resin art and other projects.
I make fondant molds, so they work for resin but they don't give you a super smooth finish!
Thanks for the video. Is there an easy way to see just our reviews or to filter to see just our reviews. I can only find them in recent activity under dashboard and am hoping there is a way to see just the reviews without having to go through pages of "likes" entries just to find them.
You can do to the reviews page itself, but I do find it easier to go to the dashboard and do what you're describing because that way you don't miss anything.
@@KaraBuntin Thank you 🙂
I don't see this option yet to reply to a review so its shown...?
It should say "respond publicly to review" on the review if you're on a desktop computer.
I loved the end 😂
it was true!
Is it too late to respond to a review after 1 month or more? Would that be a bad look, if people see that I responded so late? I responded to my first reviews but not the last 4. I have 8 in total.
The customer doesn’t get a notification that you responded, so i would. Up to about a month is fine.
@@KaraBuntin I read about that, and when I go to a listings page and look at my previous replies, it doesnt show the date.
Only when I go to my shops page and scroll down, it shows the date of my reply.
Im just worried it would make people think that im not very active.
Im active every day though, my reason was more of a lack of decisiveness. 😅
Thank you for responding, even though this video is pretty old. :)
I don't see this feature on my store reviews. Is it necessary to enable it?
Check on a desktop computer, it's there on each review, or it should be, at least.
Did you notice how you have the option to “post a public response” on some reviews but then the option isn’t available on other reviews? Why?
I don’t see that on mine
@@KaraBuntin wow! So you can respond to every single review? It’s so weird that some have the option on my account and some don’t. And they are all 5 stars so it’s not because it’s a different # of stars. Hmm. Etsy is so quirky sometimes.
@@KaraBuntin I think I’ve figured out why…seems like others aren’t able to reply to one’s older than 3 months. That’s about where I can’t respond anymore. Last reply I could do was Dec 23. I wish they would let us reply to all.
Awwww yesssss another video, another chance to use these emojis!
yeeha!
AWESOME video!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it
I don’t see an option on my to do that. I just got a lovely three star review today so I thought I’d try it but there’s no option to respond.
It's on desktop, not the app.
You’re right, I found it later. I meant to say five star review lol 😂 sorry mom brain. I responded and thanked her. I’m glad we can respond but I think it is a glitch.
my etsy shop does not let me put a thank you? is is because is a month ago old?
It won't if it's more than the 100 days. If it doesn't let you then don't worry about it, just do the new ones.
I have all 5 star reviews and only one 3 star that you have to dig for to see. Gee...I hope all the 5 star reviews aren't hurting my shop.
They’re not
lol.
What's SEO?
Search engine optimization
Is this option open to only new reviews or also old? If open to old, do u recommend I go back and reply to old reviews?
No, just start from about a week ago and do it going forward.
I checked to see how far back we have the option to reply to, and there were 4 pages of reviews that qualified. For me, this was going back to December 21.... 3 months from the date I checked it. I didn't count the actual number of reviews, but I'm assuming we have 3 months to post our response.
Is it weird to respond to ALL at he reviews I can? I feel bad for not responding to them from a few months ago.
I went back about a week but I'm not going to do more than that. I don't' know if customers are notified when you respond, so going back farther than that would be weird for them.
Should you wait awhile to response? Sometimes my customers like to leave a photo of their dollhouse bedding set once they have the room all set up.
Totally up to you. If your customers like to do that then you might want to wait.
Should we go back and respond to all of our old 4 and 5 star reviews
I only went back about a week but you can do the past 3 months before the option isn't available.
I was able to leave a comment on my most recent review but it won't work on the others even though they are less than a month old. I can write in the box but when I click to leave the comment it won't work. Anyone else having that issue?
Yes, box to click is grayed out. Review is only one day old.
It's not working today, I hope it's just temporary! Usually the respond to the review box isn't even there on the 4 and 5 star reviews.
Hope they didn't change their mind!
Etsy’s business practice of Offside Ads are predatory. The Offside Ads are hidden when you opened a shop. There is no option to select Offsite Ads and the 15% fee is outrageous.
I don’t like them, but you can opt out if you’re paying 15%
Not working for me, definitely a glitch :(
Try it from the home page instead of from the dashboard.
Not working today 3/30🙁. Oh well.
Try it from the shop homepage instead of the shop dashboard
Hola Kara! no tenía idea de que se pudiera hacer!! gracias! casi todas mis reseñas son de 5 estrellas, creo que tengo 2 de cuatro y alguna de 3 estrellas (tengo 91 reseñas). Suelo pedir a mis clientes cuando les envío sus pedidos que si les parece bien dejen sus reseñas públicas, a las que yo respondo con un descuento para la próxima compra, si quieren volver! (pero lo hago de manera privada, no les envío cupón de etsy, sino una foto o composición donde doy las gracias y el cupón) Suelen ser bastante amables, y si ellos quieren, las dejan, no insisto, por qué sé el tiempo que lleva dejar una reseña! también soy compradora! Pero a partir de ahora, también daré las gracias y escribiré si tienen problemas con el pedido! 🙂
Gracias!