Why Asking for Favorites on Etsy Might Hurt Your Shop (Not Help It)

If you’ve been around the Etsy world for a while, you’ve probably heard this tip:

“Ask your friends and followers to favorite your shop and listings—it helps the algorithm!”

Sounds easy, right? A little boost from your buddies to trick the Etsy system?

Yeah... no. That advice is outdated at best and completely wrong at worst.

Let’s break it down.

🚨 Etsy Cares About Conversion, Not Just Clicks

The Etsy algorithm looks at a combo of things when deciding how to rank your listings in search:

• How many people see your listing (traffic)

• How many people buy your product after seeing it (conversion rate)

If you drive a bunch of people to your shop who are just browsing or favoriting without any real buying intent, your traffic goes up—but your sales don’t. And Etsy notices.

A low conversion rate sends Etsy a signal that your listing might not be what buyers are looking for. So instead of boosting it in search, Etsy may drop your listing lower to make room for others with better conversion stats.

💔 Favorites Aren’t Magic

Sure, getting favorites feels good. But Etsy isn’t a popularity contest. A heart doesn’t equal a sale, and it doesn’t outweigh poor conversion.

If a real buyer favorites your item because they’re considering it and might return later? Great. That’s a natural, healthy signal.

But asking for mass favoriting from people who aren’t your actual audience or don’t intend to buy? That’s like putting lipstick on a listing—it looks better on the surface, but it doesn’t fix anything.

✅ What Actually Does Help?

If you want to improve your Etsy visibility, focus on:

• Creating clickable mockups

• Writing keyword-rich titles and tags

• Improving your product photos and descriptions

• Testing pricing and bundling strategies

• Driving targeted traffic from people who are likely to buy

That’s the kind of stuff Etsy loves—and rewards.