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!!

This is what I'm looking for:

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:

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!