Every now and then we come across a site that executes the principles of digital strategy in a particularly impressive way. Etsy is certainly one of those sites.
The enormous benefit of the all encompassing nature of the web is that you can find absolutely anything. The downside is that many sites offer so much content that navigating your way through even the better designed ones takes time, and often more time than we are willing to spend. Take eBay –I could find enough items I like on eBay to be bidding daily, if only I could find my way through the jungle of listings that, though right for someone, just aren’t for me.
But Etsy really helps me out. Etsy is a marketplace for handmade or vintage items, which personalises your information and recommendations in three ways.
You might like these
- The taste test. Etsy shows you 6 items, and you pick your favourite. Repeat this about 6 times, and the site learns your taste and offers you other products it thinks you’ll like. Much quicker than learning your taste over months from what you look at and buy.
- Google+. You can add someone into an Etsy circle on Google+ if you like their taste – Etsy will then recommend to you things that the people in your circle like.
- Facebook gift recommendations. Log in with Facebook, and Etsy has a look at your mates ‘likes’ and profile, and suggests what you might like to buy them.
It’s the best set of ‘getting to know yous’ and recommendations I have seen on a site. Have a look, play with the tools, and see if it gets your taste (and your friends’) right.
We run into information-overload all the time, for our patients and our HCPs – it’s the main reason we developed Bookbuilder. Amazon and Tesco have done versions of recommending for years. These examples are worth following if you are creating a site or information offering where your audience would benefit from a little help in sorting through your content to find the things they like. Remember, when you are planning a site, not everybody needs or wants to see the same thing.
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