As we’ve mentioned before, Etsy is going through a period of transition. The crafts and vintage marketplace is keen to define its role clearly in the ecommerce world. And in this new video from Etsy CEO Josh Silverman, there’s lots of interesting insight into how they’ve been developing search to improve the buyer experience. You can find the video below.
As Silverman says in the video: “In September, we introduced a major improvement called Context Specific Ranking, or CSR. Through CSR, we’re personalizing the search experience by using information about the shopper, time of day, and other context-specific factors to rank results in real time.”
“To give you an example, here are some before and after images to illustrate how this technology can deliver a better search experience for our buyers. This example shows a search for “laundry basket,” and the image on the right shows more relevant results delivered by our CSR improvements. The more personalized approach means that you’ll no longer see the same results every time you type in a search term.”
These are interesting times for Etsy and, whilst many sellers are unhappy with the developments, it’s fair to say that Silverman is ploughing a bold furrow that seems likely to pay off in the long term.
