I've been doing a little market research lately.

It started out as keyword research, but my search results on Etsy are yielding pages and pages of the exact same item. 

For example, I searched for Tigers Eye Bracelet. Tigers Eye is one of those stones everyone knows about. Even non-rock people know what Tigers Eye is.

What did I find? Page after page of the exact same bracelet. 

Rounds beads. Strung all in a row. Bead after bead. A single row of beads. 

Oh, yes, some have one other bead - like a skull. A few have a second stone - but the same size - like Hematite. Or Blue Tigers Eye.

Page...after...page...after...page...

Isn't Etsy supposed to have unique handcrafted items?

Hundreds of the same item in my search results - and I have yet to see anything  I would look at twice. 

Iis this what the public wants? To buy a bracelet they could get in a trinket shop for under $5? 

Where's the artistic vision in that? Where's the creativity? 

It's disheartening to say the least. When you invest your time and creativity to make a superior product that is genuinely one of a kind, and instead the search engines give the consumers page after page after page of the same cheap, simplistic product.

This is page 8!!

Cheap Simplistic Tigers Eye Bracelets

This is what I'm looking for:

Unique One of a Kind Tigers Eye Bracelet

So I added "unique one of a kind" to "Tigers Eye Bracelet" and I did get unique and one of a kind bracelets.

One single page.

So I tried "Artisan Tigers Eye Bracelet" and got 5 pages of bracelets.

This was on page 4:

Artisan Tigers Eye Bracelets

I'm afraid Etsy might be dying.

What about you?

What are you looking for? 

Are you finding it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!