Has there ever been such a controversial programme launch as the Etsy Star Seller Badge?

The backlash about the new Star Seller Ratings has been pretty extensive from all sectors. I’m also sure that we’ll see many iterations of the programme before it settles down into an accepted, well respected measurement of a Seller’s performance.

In this article I’m not going to go into all the rights and wrongs of the criteria, instead I'm going to focus on the measurement and how your qualification is calculated.

If you want to read a great critique of the whole analytical science behind it, this is a fabulous article written by a statistician who explains it far better than I can.

An Analyst's Review of the Star Seller Program

So, how is your Star Seller % Calculated?

The intention of this article is to explain how Etsy calculate your numbers and how often they’re updated. I'll show you how to measure your own performance, check your numbers on Etsy and see what you need to do to qualify next time round.

Or (as in my case) explain why there is no way on earth you’ll qualify for the next round so you can put it out of your mind until things change.

Find out even more about your Etsy Finances and exactly how your Payment Account works.

What is the Etsy Star Seller Programme?

According to Etsy, “Star Seller is a way to recognise and reward Etsy sellers who consistently provide an excellent customer experience.”

You can find the exact details of the terms and conditions in this Etsy article

To be eligible to be considered for a Star Seller Badge, you must first meet all the criteria below for the 3 months being considered for review:

10 orders,
Around 300 USD in sales depending on your shop currency (before postage and taxes)
Been on Etsy for at least 90 days since your first sale.

When was the Star Seller Badge Launched

The programme was launched on 1st September 2021, based on your performance for the 3 months June - August 2021.

It is then refreshed on the 1st of each month based on your performance in the previous 3 months.

What are the Star Seller Criteria?

There are 3 criteria used to measure your performance and to qualify you have to receive 95% in each of the following 3 areas.

Message Response Rate

Etsy is asking that you respond to messages within 24 hours from receipt of the 1st message.

If you receive 2 separate message threads from the same person you need to respond to both of them
You can implement auto-responses
If you buy something from another Etsy Seller and they send you a post purchase email - that counts as well so send back a response - even if just a quick “thanks”.

I’ve just found this one out myself. In the past, I've always sent a courtesy message to all my customers just to check they are getting on along ok with my spreadsheet templates. Unfortunately these all now count in the Star Seller Measurement, so my lovely customers now all had 1 more email to reply to, even though I didn’t actually need a response!!!

5 Star Reviews (Updated early 2022)

When the programme first started, it was a real all or nothing calculation with only 5 stars counting for anything. Basically:

5 star = good,
4 or 3 or 2 or 1 star = bad.

The good news is that this has now changed to be an average of all the reviews you receive which is big improvement. You need an average of 4.8 to get your badge.

Tracked Orders

OK so probably the most controversial of the Star Seller measures. The intent behind it is good, to measure delivery performance but unfortunately the way it is being measured leaves a lot to be desired.

I won’t go into the rights and wrongs of this but just give you the facts of what is measured.

Etsy measure whether you have dispatched on time and included tracking on your order. There are 3 outcomes for an order:

Qualify - If you despatch on time and send your order tracked with the tracking information added to Etsy

Fail - If you send an untracked order, even if well within the due date it will fail the test. This also applies to digital order sent via email (although I have a workaround for this down below)

Excluded - Some orders are excluded from the measurement. For example, digital items set for instant download and orders below a certain value in some locations (£10 in UK). Unfortunately in the US all orders must have tracking entered or have a shipping label purchased on Etsy.

How do the Star Seller Numbers work? -

This is the part I want to really focus on as I know there is a lot of confusion about these calculations. I'll try to keep it simple:

For messages and tracked orders, each criteria is calculated as a % and you need 95% to pass, which means:

If you receive 100 messages, you need to answer at least 95 of them within 24 hours.
If you send out 100 qualifying orders - you need to despatch 95 of them on time and input tracking information or buy a shipping label via Etsy.

For reviews you need an average of 4.8 across all your reviews for the previous 3 months.

What timeframe is used?

All the Star Seller calculations work on a 3 month rolling calculation and your qualification is reviewed on the 1st of each month.

Ok, but what does that actually mean? I see a lot of questions about this on Etsy Facebook groups and in the forums so I'll try to explain.

The qualification on 1st October 2021 was based on your numbers in July, August and September 2021.
If you didn’t earn your Star Seller Badge on 1st October, the next chance you have to qualify is 1st November.
To qualify on that date, Etsy will look at your performance in August, September and October.
This means that whatever happened in July is forgotten so those numbers have disappeared.
Your performance in August and September is fixed and cannot be changed.
The only numbers you can influence are those for the current month, in this case October

Where do I find my Star Seller numbers?

You can only find your report on the desktop edition of Etsy. Go to your Shop Manager and you’ll find the link on the left hand side.

You’ll see the % rating for the current period and also a link to see the previous period.

Messages

If you click on the arrow next to Message Response Rate, you get more detail on your performance. You can also export the data into a csv file to download to your computer. (More on this later).

5 Star Ratings

Again, hit the arrow to see more detail. Unfortunately there is not an export option available at the time of writing to see your detailed data. You see the total number of reviews for the 3 months being considered. This then breaks down (in %) the various ratings you’ve received.

On-time Dispatch and Tracking

This is probably the most complicated one to qualify for as there are 3 separate components to the measurement. You need to meet all three in order to qualify. As with your messages, you can export this data to see which orders have qualified / missed.

Last Review period

If you go back to the front screen you can also click on “Last Review Period” to see your results for the previous 3 months.

You can’t influence any of the ratings shown here, but you can at least see how you performed.

You don’t get the same level of detail but you can export your messages and order data to download onto your computer.

How do you qualify to be an Etsy Star Seller next month?

To see if you can qualify for the Star Seller badge next month, you need to delve a little deeper into your numbers. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it may be the case that no matter what you do this month it may not be possible to qualify next time.

Let me show you my data to explain what I mean. Looking at the Current Review Period, I am doing ok on message response and reviews butI have a problem with my order tracking.

Most of my products are digital templates that are delivered as instant downloads. These are excluded from the measurement of Star Seller. Even though I had 147 orders in August and September, only 8 of them were counted for Star Seller. These were custom orders that I dispatched via email.

I now use a workaround to get them counted as tracked (details below), but I didn’t start doing this until part way through August and so my first order that month didn’t count.

October Score

I had 7 orders pass and 1 order fail.

My % score was 7/8 *100% = 87.5% (rounded up to 88%).

These 8 orders will still count towards the November qualification so we need to look at the impact of any orders I dispatch in October.

November Score

Assuming that all the orders I send out in October meet the criteria:

If I have another 5 qualifying orders this month, my new score will be:

12 / 13 * 100% = 92.31% (I would still fail!)

If I had 10 qualifying orders this month, my score would be:

17 / 18 * 100% = 94.44% (still a fail!!)

To reach the 95% threshold on 1st November I would need to have another 11 qualifying orders before the end of this month.

18 / 19 * 100% = 94.7% (hopefully rounded up to 95%)

Given that I only had 8 orders counted in the last 2 months this isn’t very likely!

The good news is that the order that affected my numbers from the start of August will disappear for the following review date (1 December) and so I should finally be in with a chance of qualifying.

The point I am trying to make is that I can put Star Seller out of my mind until December and just focus on making sure I do everything I can to keep my numbers clean in October. There is no point in worrying about what happened back in August as I can’t change this.

Secret Workaround for emailed digital items:

According to Etsy, if you sell digital products but dispatch them via email rather than as an instant download then these will negatively impact your Star Seller performance.

“If an order includes items listed as a physical item and meets the value requirement, tracking or a shipping label purchased on Etsy will be required. Since digital listings listed as physical items are not actually shipped, orders for these listings will negatively impact your Star Seller shipping metric.”
Etsy terms and conditions

In reality, this can mean that there is no way to qualify as a Star Seller!!

This seems a little unfair to say the least as it affects a large number of sellers who may be doing everything right but due to a fault with the Etsy system are excluded.

The good news is that there is a workaround to get around this. I saw this in an Etsy Facebook group (thanks to whoever posted this!!) and have been trialling it for the last 2 months. I’m delighted to confirm that it seems to work well.

Workaround Details

When you have sent your digital files to your customer via email, go into the order on Etsy and mark it as complete as normal; then

Select “Other” as your shipping / delivery company
Type” Emailed” as the “name” of the Shipping company
Add the date emailed in the tracking number field e.g. 20221011 for an order completed on 11th October 2022.

In my dispatch note to my buyer I also add the comment. “The tracking number below represents the date your files were emailed to you.”

How to keep track of your Star Seller figures and check your progress

The best way to keep an eye on your numbers and to determine if you are likely to qualify next time around is to download and track your performance on a simple spreadsheet.

Download your data each month for your message response and Order tracking information
Add up your figures for each month and enter them onto the spreadsheet
Manually count your reviews and group between 5 star and other
Add up for each month and enter them onto the spreadsheet
Add up your monthly figures on a rolling 3 months basis
Check your current month progress each week
Work out what you need to do to hit / maintain for qualification next time
Don’t stress about what you can’t change

For more help on getting started with your Etsy bookkeeping, be sure to sign-up for your free Etsy Bookkeeping Checklist.

Etsy Star Seller Conclusion

Please don’t worry about the Star Seller Programme. Some great Sellers haven’t got a badge and "at the moment", it doesn't make any difference to performance.

I’m also sure that there’ll be many changes to how the programme is tracked and measured over the next few months as it gets fine tuned and refined.

That said - I do think it’s important to know how it’s measured and understand where you stand. Knowing your Numbers gives you the confidence to understand exactly where your Etsy shop is, and where it’s going.

Once you have the knowledge, you can decide what action you want to take.

Whether you’ve already earned your badge, are hoping to get there in the next couple of months or have come to the conclusion that you’re never going to get one, this isn’t the most crucial aspect of your Shop.

It’s far more important to just keep doing what you’re doing and to give your customers a great experience - even if Etsy don’t agree!

Sarah x

All Etsy Posts: