There are two details that paid Etsy research tools seem ready to gloss over (for obvious reasons!).
• Etsy does not give out the actual number of searches for keywords.
• Etsy does not give out the actual sales for individual listings.
Etsy doesn’t make these figures available to anyone—and that includes third-party Etsy research tools.
Which means…
Etsy research tools do not know the actual number of searches for any keyword, or the actual sale of any particular listing.
Unless, of course, you give them access to yours…
There Are Very Good Reasons Etsy Doesn’t Release Data.
1. Revealing individual sales figures would hurt both Etsy and its sellers.
Listings with strong sales performance would face intense competition at best, and at worst, malicious activity from unscrupulous sellers wanting to undermine successful listings. The end result would be to upset Etsy’s top sellers (who are generating the most revenue for the platform) prompting them to give up in frustration. Such transparency would also stifle originality and creativity on the platform as sellers would be incentivized to simply copy trending products instead of innovating.
It would also expose every seller’s revenue and profit margins—a significant privacy issue.
The bottom line: Disclosing actual sales data would hurt Etsy.
2. Revealing actual keyword searches would hurt too.
Knowing actual keyword statistics would motivate sellers to gravitate to the most popular ones. This in turn would create a log-jam of listings for that search phrase, increase price competition (which would drive down Etsy’s earnings), and lead unscrupulous sellers to manipulating their tags to exploit high volume searches—even if they’re not accurate for their listing. All of these would result in poor search results and less-than-ideal experiences for customers.
Etsy, quite sensibly, doesn’t release either of these key statistics (and is possibly not super-enthusiastic about Etsy research tools trying to do so either!).
Third-Party Etsy Research Tools Don’t Have the Key Data
Obviously, since Etsy doesn’t release keyword searches or sales for individual listings, it means the research tools must come up with their own way to estimate these actual numbers. They don’t tell us exactly how they do it other than to say they connect to Etsy’s API (Application Programming Interface) and use the data Etsy does release to run through their own “algorithms”.
We can assume that the information Etsy does release is carefully selected to NOT provide a way of getting at the actual data Etsy wants to keep hidden. So the two most useful parameters—keyword searches and listing sales—are guessed, and all tools strongly hint (or flat-out claim) that their figures are accurate.
The truth is, they don’t have actual data (other than the data we provide if we connect our shop). Therefore, arguably the two most useful features of the third-party Etsy research tools are based on guesswork.
Which would be fine if the guesses were accurate.
What Data Do They Have?
If a shop owner has not explicitly connected (authorized) a third-party Etsy research tool to access their shop data through the Etsy API, the API will only provide publicly available information about that shop. Specifically, without shop authorization, the Etsy API only exposes:
- Shop name and ID
- Public shop policies
- Public profile information the owner has listed
- Overall review rating and number of reviews*
- Basic listing information like titles, descriptions, images, categories for active listings
- Price and quantity* for active listings
*Many tools use these two metrics (or the changes in them) to help them estimate sales.
The API does not provide any private/sensitive data about that shop, such as:
- Detailed sales data, revenue or profit numbers
- Buyer information or order details
- Traffic data
- Search terms people used to find the listings
In summary, the API gives access to the same public-facing information about an unauthorized shop that anyone could see by simply visiting that shop’s pages on Etsy.com. It does not expose any of the shop’s private back-end data without the owner’s explicit permission.
It’s Not All Gloom and Doom
It would be wrong not to point out that connecting a shop to Etsy does have advantages.
- Unified access to your own shop’s data metrics. The tools can tap into your actual listing views, orders, revenues and other private data and provide, in one place, insights into your shop’s real performance.
- Personalized keyword/product research. With access to your shop’s data, the tools can help you analyze which keywords/listings are already driving your traffic and sales. This allows for more customized keyword and product opportunity research.
- Competitor analysis. The majority of tools offer data on other shops, like “estimates” of their sales, their tags, reviews, etc. This can help you benchmark your own performance and provide ideas for listings.
- Market analysis. The tools offer suggestions for market niches and trends.
- Shop/Marketing guidance. Tools can use your shop’s data to provide recommendations on keyword, listing and shop optimizations (eg.number of tags, images, titles, descriptions etc.), and to offer ideas for pricing strategies.
So there are some good things on offer too.