Etsy is an online platform that allows creators to sell mostly hand-made products to customers from all over the world. The platform has grown rapidly over the years, with more people selling and buying on the platform than ever before. Etsy recently introduced its star seller system last year, and this article will help you understand what it is and how it works.

The Etsy Seller System

The Etsy Seller program is meant to recognize the efforts of sellers who provide amazing customer service. This is mainly to improve buyer experience on the platform because certain perks come with getting the star seller badge on your profile.

The star seller badge is simply a way for sellers to recognise buyers who are in the program and therefore who provide amazing service.

Becoming a Star Seller

Etsy has set criteria for deciding who becomes a star seller. To become one, you must meet certain requirements for sales, orders, ratings, shipping, and messages. To become star sellers, sellers must:

• Respond to first messages within 24 hours
• Have a rating of 4.8 or higher
• Ship orders on time while ensuring they have tracking or labels from Etsy
• Make at least 5 sales worth $500

Etsy says that sellers have to meet these fundamental requirements over three months. After that, they receive a badge that shows customers that they are excellent sellers who provide great customer service.

Etsy calculates eligibility for all sellers at the start of every month. This means new businesses might meet the criteria while others might be removed from the program and have to work to get back in.

Other Badges

Shops that do not qualify for the Star Seller badge will still be given badges that show the metric they were able to achieve. Etsy does not make manual changes to badge eligibility or do calculations manually and so they cannot change the status for sellers.

Perks and Benefits of Being a Star Seller

Etsy provides various perks and benefits to reward sellers who have achieved star seller status. These sellers get live chat support within the shop manager. They get access to one-on-one chats with representatives from Etsy who help them deal with various issues with their customers, products, customers and the like.

Sellers get access to the live chat functionality for three months even if they don’t qualify for the star seller program and for each month that they qualify.

The status badges we have discussed above also apply even for sellers who don’t qualify for the program. They stay embedded on their profiles until they qualify again or lose them due to their metrics changing.

Messaging Tools

Another important perk is access to different messaging tools. The first is the auto-reply tool that replies to messages even when a seller is away. This helps ensure they maintain their quick message response metrics.

The second is thread messages. Instead of messages being all over the place, messages from individual buyers will be organised into a single thread for easier management.

Conclusion

The Etsy Star Seller program seeks to incentivise sellers to provide the best service to buyers on the platform. It benefits everyone as customers know they are dealing with great businesses and businesses can see their sales increase by being in the program.