Improved product search
The ability to search within product categories and to introduce sub cats for each main product category. At present cannot find anything unless the seller has happened to use the keywords that I type into the search bar. For example I want to find soft toy crocodiles - at present I go through Dolls & Bears but once I'm there I cannot add crocodiles into a search box without it searching the entire site.
We’ve improved search: http://blog.folksy.com/2014/03/28/finding-and-sharing
This will be an ongoing process, but the search results are now paginated, various improvements have been made to the search algorithm to return more relevant results, and you can refine search by section/category/sub-category and by price.
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Anonymous commented
Would appreciate an update to this ESSENTIAL suggestion from Tech Support. Will this idea be rolled out before the end of 2014 or should I just move to etsy?
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Anonymous commented
I am getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of search functionality. I know for a fact that if I have left this website frustrated, angry and disappointed with the LACK of search functions then others have.
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Anonymous commented
agree with all the previous comments - Was considering setting up a folksy shop but after a search for one of the items I sell producing thousands of results I will be sticking with etsy. At the very least allow use of the "" function to search for all the terms used which would narrow things down a bit
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je commented
Just ready to list some felted wool bracelets, and after a comment from my friend who searched on Folksy for something specific and told me thousands of irrelevant items came up, I thought I'd try a search. I typed in felted wool bracelets and got nearly 24,000 items back, of which I think 3 only were bracelets on the first page, rest were hats, wool skeins, handbags, key chains. How the heck am I supposed to have anyone find my products who don't have time to waste looking through 24,000 listings!
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Anonymous commented
This feature needs to be rolled out immediately!
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heather leavers commented
have you added your vote to this other suggested feature thread for search? http://folksy.uservoice.com/forums/117463-suggested-features/suggestions/2711538-improved-product-search
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Anonymous commented
Your search function is terrible - please listen to the people on this thread!! It's really off-putting. I am considering setting up a shop as would prefer UK-based alternative to etsy, but will not do this until the search function is vastly improved.
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Annabel Potter commented
I too have wanted to buy something on Folksy but given up trying to search for it. This isn't good for a buyer or seller. As a seller people seem to find me more easily on google than Folksy itself!
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Anonymous commented
Absolutely! If I search for "needle felted owl" the search results return everything with those words, i.e. needle cases, ceramic owls, felted objects by the hundred. Actually, I am looking for a needle felted owl. I give up in despair - I don't have time to trawl through 234 or so pages. Search result returns are very important to potential customers.
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Anonymous commented
I find the search totally frustrating, I always run a check on what I've listed, and often I can't find my own items!
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Chris Brooks commented
I agree totally with all these comments, I would not have paid for my plus shop had I known there were all these problems, hardly anybody views my items. I also find that if I land on a seach that has 30 pages for example, i usually like to jump to page 10 or 20 to give those shops a fair chance, but you cannot select a page number on Folksy, you can look at pages 1 2 3 or the last one then work your way up or down from there, the sellers in the middle do not stand a chance
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Anonymous commented
Your search options really need looking at. There are too many unrelated products appearing on any given search and as a consequence I never get beyond page 10, because I 've lost the will by that time. It's a shame because not only is this frustrating for the prospective buyer but most certainly is a disaster for your sellers. You could make the site so much better for everyone with bit more thought and coding. I always end up giving up. Please address this.
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Anonymous commented
Dear Support / programmers
On Folksy, I just searched for "red wool hat" - apparently there are 50131 matches! Really?There is no sort facility, so I don't know if the listings are by price, location, relevance, or totally random, but the FIRST SIX are indeed red and hats, and appear to be wool - great!
The next nine are hats, but not red, then there are three items that are red, but not hats. Now come a couple of hats, not red, followed by three red wool items that are not hats, then oooh look, another 20 red hats that might be wool. Then rest of page is hats that are not red.
Shall I go to next page? Oh go on then, only another 50071 totally relevant matches to go!
So I get 8 red hats, then 4 that aren't, further down the page are brooches, bags, socks, yarn.70 of the first 120 items shown are NOT what I searched for. How many pages of irrelevant stuff do you think people are prepared to trawl through?
The same search on Etsy only gives me 4256 items, with search defaulting to relevancy, so guess what - EVERY item on the first three pages is what I searched for. But I can also refine down to accessories only, sort by price, select for women, or for men, shop location . . .
Please, please, fix this. You've been reviewing it for 18 months.
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Anonymous commented
As a buyer I cannot add my voice strongly enough to this thread. The lack of such basic search functions renders the entire site useless which means that, despite wanting to buy uk crafts and support small sellers I'm not purchasing anything - bad news for the vendors and folksy.
In this day and age you only have to look at ebay, amazon, etsy, notonthehighstreet to see what buyers and sellers want in terms of functionality. Folksy has a usp but at the moment you are absolutely incapable of capitalising on it - do not underestimate how much this is affecting your business.
It does not have to be all singing and dancing immediately but at least get onto some basic improvements immediately - months is absolutely not good enough. Frankly I could build a website myself and have better search functions that this.
For now you and your vendors have lost my custom and that of my ebay shop which I would consider moving but for this.
Poor show. Lilleybelle
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Anonymous commented
I'm looking for Xmas presents and am tearing my hair out because of the lack of a proper search function. Trying to search for jewellery holders and I get up everything that has 'holder' in it. I can't believe there's no way to narrow a search even down to categories. Back off to Ebay I think, sorry.
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claire commented
The search on here is useless. I just did a search for one of my own items - blue glass earrings, which were listed today. If I type in 'blue glass earrings' they come up on the second row of listings, if I type in 'blue earrings' my listing is nowhere to be seen, and I went back way past the date mine were listed! What is the point in paying to list if it doesn't even come up in a search! https://beta.folksy.com/shops/TheDragonflyLane
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Anonymous commented
Its so weird how something so basic to change is still going on as loads of people have already flagged this up! They obviously don't really care about their business, perhaps I will create one better instead?
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joannamaylemm commented
I would really like people to be able to search for my shop name too.
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Zoe commented
Also would be good to be able to refine results by price, or at least to order results by price.
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Sarah E commented
Seconded for searching within categories. Also advanced search to allow you to search in and mode for things that contain all words and not to exclude words. E.g. pink+knitted+hat-pattern to find all items that contain all of the words "pink", "knitted" and "hat" but don't contain the word "pattern".
If you want to compete with Etsy, you really need to help your buyers out here.