Etsy Touts “Algotorial” Curation Blending AI & Human Input To Power Product Discovery
Etsy repurposes persona-based human and AI curated feeds for product discovery in bid to offer more personalized shopping experience with "algotorial" approach.
Chief Product Officer Nick Daniel debuted the new experience in a company blog post this week, calling it a meaningful step forward on their journey to a more browseable, inspiring Etsy.
Introducing a more browseable, inspiring Etsy
We’re reimagining browsing on the Etsy app, starting with a visually engaging discovery experience that is designed to inspire and delight shoppers and celebrate the creativity and craftsmanship of our sellers.Shoppers hungry for inspiration can now browse by curated collections on the Etsy app, based on trends, aesthetics and occasions. 2 These collections are distinct and varied, ranging from timely trends like “Island Luxe” to everyday aesthetics like “Modern Farmhouse.” Whether shoppers prefer the bookish vibes of the “Literary Girl” trend, or the bold prints of the “Maximalist” style, it’s easy to discover something special – or, to simply enjoy exploring the best of Etsy.
These collections exemplify the power of AI combined with human touch. They are curated by a team of Etsy experts who spot the latest trends and find high-quality items to match. After a collection is identified, our engineers use machine learning to expand it from roughly 50 human-curated listings to about 1,000.
Once expanded, we use large language models (LLMs) to make sure the full collection is aesthetically cohesive, represents a variety of products, and meets our standards for quality.
We call this blend of human and AI-powered recommendations “algotorial” curation. Rather than removing human expertise from our merchandising work as AI becomes more powerful, we’re leveraging these tools to amplify the expertise of our team and create a more personalized experience.
The trends someone sees and the items that appear highest within each collection’s feed are based on shoppers’ recent activity, including purchases and viewed items.
If that sounds familiar, it should - Etsy launched a similar AI powered discovery experience as Gift Mode at great expense with a Super Bowl ad and all early last year.
Liz Morton
Despite all the fanfare, Gift Mode has not had the impact Etsy had hoped for, leading to this latest attempt to push AI plus human curation as a solution for their ongoing and growing problem of lagging sales and active buyers.
But as Etsy has ramped up efforts using AI to boost search and discovery capabilities, users have noticed an increase in irrelevant results, leading to important questions about what happens when irrelevance turns to potentially harmful with sellers stuck in the middle.
Liz Morton
In one example provided by ecommerce consultant Cindy Baldassi, Etsy seller Marmalady, received a 1 star review from a buyer who says the lemon drizzle cake they purchased was advertised as vegan even though it has eggs in it.
In responding to the review, Marmalady clarified that the listing includes a full ingredients and allergens list, which does include eggs and milk products, but Etsy's poor search algorithm may nonetheless show non-vegan cakes in explicit searches for vegan products with sellers having no input or ability to control the results.
And a screenshot of search results showed exactly that: the Lemon Drizzle Cake in question comes up with searching the term vegan cake, along with other items which are not vegan, and if you keep scrolling, you'll likely even find some items which are not even cake.
Etsy refused to remove the review, which is wholly unfair since it would appear any confusion was caused by Etsy, not the seller, and the entire situation was outside of the seller's control, raising broader questions about marketplace accountability and liability - especially with products where an allergy could cause significant harm or even death to consumers.
The idea of marketplace liability is nothing new of course - since the dawn of the internet and ecommerce, legislators and regulatory agencies across the globe have wrestled with the subject, especially when it comes to sites like Etsy and eBay which historically have leaned on the fact they are "just a venue" for items sold by third party sellers.
While that "just a venue" stance is no longer true for eBay, it hasn't stopped them from forwarding that argument to defend themselves against a lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, seeking to hold the company liable for illegal chemicals, pesticides and emissions control cheat devices sold on the platform.
U.S. District Judge Orelia Merchant agreed with eBay, dismissing the case in a ruling stating that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects eBay from liability for items sold by 3rd parties on their site.
The DOJ had filed an intent to appeal that ruling last year, but has since requested and been granted additional time to decide whether or not they will move forward.
Liz Morton
Walmart is also pursuing a Section 230 defense trying to duck liability for massive organized retail crime, theft and fraud facilitated through their marketplace in a class action lawsuit filed against the company last year.
The victims of this sophisticated triangulation fraud scheme allege Walmart profits from and fails to prevent the digital shoplifting, saying the company is complicit in the crimes as they knowingly recruit and do not properly vet fraudulent sellers from China and have not taken action to stop the fraud even after it was reported to them.
Liz Morton
Corporations have very little incentive to do anything beyond Minimum Viable Compliance box checking exercises when they know they are legally insulated from liability and can afford to keep litigation tied up for years should anyone try to challenge the status quo.
Unfortunately, the current legal and regulatory framework has so far allowed these multi-billion dollar tech giants to avoid accountability for illegal activity on their sites.
Section 230 states:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
But this Etsy AI search example poses an interesting question - can companies be held liable when information does not come from another information content provider but rather from LLMs or other technology the company has put in place between sellers and buyers on their platforms?
Amazon, Walmart and other marketplaces can of course be expected to fight tooth and nail to preserve Section 230 as a "get out of liability free card."
If they lose, not only could they be subject to massive regulatory fines and product liability lawsuits, but it could also expose just how much of their publicly reported Gross Merchandise Volume/Sales over the years has been built on fraud, counterfeits and other illegal activity, potentially impacting stock prices and leading to shareholder action or SEC investigations as well.
But this is far from a US only issue - in fact Marmalady is located in the UK, which typically has stronger consumer protection regulations that may already apply to Etsy in this situation.
Irish regulators have already raised concerns about the company's compliance with the EU Digital Services act, naming Etsy among other social media platforms, online retailers and tech companies in a review of DSA compliance in September.
Liz Morton
And European regulators are also reportedly working on plans to take action against illegal and dangerous products sold on retail marketplaces like Temu, Shein, Amazon and more.
Prarthana Prakash
Etsy's "algotorial" framing leans heavily on emphasising there is still some human curation involved to try to overcome potential user resistance to AI, but that could also come back to bite them as the human involvement could also increase arguments for why the company should be held liable for consumer harm resulting from content that is clearly published by Etsy, not third party sellers.
What do you think of Etsy's AI powered product discovery experience? Let us know in the comments below!
