Much like the “Forbes 100” or “Time’s Person of the Year”, Etsy has its own way to recognize the best sellers on its platform. The Etsy Star Seller is the most prestigious award that you can get for your listings. Before that, you need to check a few boxes. What are those? How do you become an Etsy Star Seller? Here is all you need to know.
How to Become a Star Seller
In order to get the purple star and “cue the confetti”, you need to fulfill a few prerequisites. Etsy assesses a few criteria like response rates, shipping, selling rates, ratings, and feedback—the list goes on and on. Let’s start with the few important ones, shall we?
Quick Response Rate
In order to prove that you are a brand that cares about the customer, you need to be grounded. Sticking to your roots goes a long way. How do you ensure that with Etsy? You become responsive.
Exercising quick and helpful responses is one of the quintessential ways in which you can ensure that you become a star seller. Replying to your buyers with apt and correct information is an important metric. Doing it quickly? Even better.
There is a small caveat here though. Simply responding to your customer doesn’t cut it. In today’s age of cutthroat competition, Etsy specifically determines merit responses from those who are not. Etsy’s algorithm determines whether your response is prompt and helpful.
Other than this, the algorithm also measures how interactively the customer has responded to your message. Etsy also has to differentiate messages between buyers and non-buyers. But, as with most other software implications, this has drawbacks too.
First, the algorithm isn’t very efficient at determining quality from quantity. If you have a product that only has a handful of questions but is answered in-depth, the algorithm might not give it the due credit. On the other hand, if you have tons of messages, even moderate responses cut it. In order to establish good practice, maintain a balance of quality and quantity.
Second, the algorithm fails to understand whether the help provided was actually of some use. It cannot determine whether your message was of great help or not. In order to overcome this, always ensure that your responses are satisfactory. Assume yourself to be the customer, and respond appropriately.
Maintain 5 Star Rating *UPDATED*
Although you needed to maintain a 5-star rating to get the Star Seller, Etsy just revised it down to 4.8 stars.
Where quick responses fall short as a valid metric, 5-star ratings prove to be more reliable. Once your customer gets the product, they are asked to rate it on or after use. This is a relatively more accurate metric as it gives proper insight into the customer’s mind.
The intricacies of these 5 stars are provided by Etsy itself. Varying from unsatisfactory to exceptional, these stars provide great value to your product. At least as a first-impression metric.
This is where the inconsistencies start to seep in. No metric is 100% reliable, so the aim is to reduce the margin of error. After all, in order to be the Etsy Star Seller, there have to be strict checks. Coming back to this 5-star metric, the most important drawback is its subjectivity of it.
Customers might not fully understand the differences between one and five stars. What appears to be moderately sufficient to one can be sub-par to the other. There is honestly nothing much that you can do here, other than provide consistently good products.
The other window for inconsistency lies in the fact that 5-star ratings are almost always based on first impressions. In other words, there is no metric here to base long-term reviews on.
In order for this to not be an issue, your goal as a company should be to provide robust and reliable products. You won’t need poor long-term ratings if your product never goes stale, right?
Excellent Shipping Record
The bridge between reliable sales and healthy customer feedback is excellent shipping. While it isn’t a consistent metric (not like the above two), having an excellent shipping record would put your company in good light.
As soon as the customer’s requested product is shipped, it should ideally generate an ID and a tracking number. This should be available to both you and the customer. For the most part, if the product has an ID, it becomes easier to move it geographically.
The only inconsistency here is that not all products are created equal. Some do not even have a tracking ID. So while having one is a clear indicator of the product getting delivered, the lack of one doesn’t disprove otherwise.
Either way, your goal as a business is to ensure that all the products are appropriately labeled, and the customer has access to it. This would make you worthy of the purple star.
Why You Want the Purple Star
After all this, the pertinent question arises—is the purple star worth the hassle? Why do you even need it? Keeping this rhetoric aside, here is why you want it:
Stand Out from the Crowd
What differentiates verified profiles from regular ones on social media? You guessed it right—verification. That is one of the primary goals of sellers seeking that Etsy Star Seller badge.
Standing out from the crowd not only makes you more visible but also favors your sales and shipping numbers.
Get More Orders and Sales
Speaking of which, having that purple badge implies that Etsy has trusted you with the sweet sales numbers. In other words, buyers are more likely to purchase your stuff because Etsy claims you’re reliable.
This builds a great deal of trust between you and your fanbase. Not only that, but the more sales and orders you churn, the greater chances you have to get featured.
Greater Chance to be Featured
Getting featured implies that your page or business is shown on the busiest pages on the Etsy website. What better than Etsy itself helping you out with more traffic and influx? With the purple badge, you are both verified as the top performer as well as featured on the page.
FAQ
Star Seller vs Super Seller
There is a difference between being a Star Seller and a Super Seller. As you have read earlier, the Star Seller is Etsy’s top performer and gets the purple badge. The Super seller, on the other hand, is Etsy’s way of labeling sellers who have made more than 25 sales that are shipped on time, as well as have five or more reviews with the majority being 5-stars.
How Often is My Shop Evaluated?
Your shop will be evaluated on the first day of each month. This is done for criteria matching the Star Seller Badge. Additionally, daily stats get updated and refreshed a few times per day. If you are eligible to get the purple badge, it might take about 24hours to be displayed.
How to Track Your Record?
You will have to check your Etsy Star Seller Dashboard in order to track your record as well as progress. For this, after you sign into Etsy, you visit “Shop Manager”. From here, you select the “Star Seller” option.
Here you will find a couple of tabs. One contains information about the current review period, whereas the other has records of the previous month. Whether or not you have the badge this month is determined by records of the previous month.
With these toggles, you get insight into your shortcomings, if any. You can track your response times, shipping stats, as well as product ratings. Keeping a healthy track of all this makes it easier for you to strive toward the purple badge!
