Etsy is Beta Testing Stats

After years of pleading, Etsy sellers may finally be getting the ability to track traffic to their Etsy shops.

Etsy has always relied on the outside promotion of its sellers to bring in significant buying traffic, and the absence of any way for sellers to track this outside traffic was a serious gap in Etsy's service. The stats service will be based on Google Analytics, a platform many people are already familiar with, and which is a powerful tracking system that can provide highly detailed information.

Exactly which information will be provided has not been announced yet. At one point in the long discussion of stats on Etsy, founder Rob Kalin brought up the possibility that access to some stats info might be a paid service.

"Give us Stats!" has been a rallying cry for the Etsy-bashing bunch that is now flocking to Artfire, which offers stats only as a paid service. Artfire has been touting its stats as a major reason to ditch Etsy and make the switch. If Etsy can offer some real stats as part of their free seller accounts, Artfire will have lost a major marketing edge.

UPDATE: Within hours of Etsy's announcement, Artfire switched course and made shop stats a free service once again, and says it will be implementing Google Analytics as soon as possible.