Etsy “re-architected” its search engine to add a “Q Score,” CEO Josh Silverman told a Wall Street gathering on Tuesday – and it is telling sellers how to improve their Q Score to raise their prominence in search. The Q stands for quality, meaning the Etsy search engine doesn’t exclusively consider relevance anymore.
Sellers Must Earn Prominence in Search
Silverman said historically Etsy’s search engine had prioritized what buyers are most likely to buy. Now, sellers must “earn” their way higher in search exposure by delivering better customer service.
“Now we have a point of view on what sellers actually deliver the best and most delightful customer experience,” he said.
The CEO was speaking along with Etsy Chief Financial Officer Lanny Baker at the J.P. Morgan Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications conference in Boston on May 13, 2025. Silverman had discussed the Etsy quality score last year at Citi’s 2024 Global TMT Conference, as Etsy seller Kara Buntin discussed in the following video she published to her “Kara Buntin Tutorials” YouTube channel in September:
Buntin articulated the confusion others may be having in her video, since Etsy said as early as 2015 it was using various factors to influence search rankings beyond relevancy.
Every Pixel Tried to Get You to Buy Now
Silverman said Etsy also changed what it shows returning visitors. The most likely thing a shopper buys today is whatever they bought last, and Etsy had previously devoted screen real estate to past purchases as it focused on converting buyers. “Every pixel is trying to get you to buy now,” showing buyers versions of the things they had bought last. But that meant shoppers were learning nothing new about Etsy in their visit, Silverman said, “and we learned nothing new about them.”
“So we spent the second half of last year collapsing a lot of the screen real estate that was focused on driving purchases based on your most recent actions, and freed up a lot of screen real estate to show you things you didn’t know about Etsy,” the CEO said.
Shoppers will now see trends inspired for them powered by cutting edge Gen-AI “to pick the coolest products within each trend at a scale that we couldn’t have hired humans to do in the past.”
“We start to train you to understand all of the different things you can use Etsy for, and, we start to collect a ton more data about you, so that next time you come, Etsy is even more personalized,” Silverman said.
Agentic Search Lets Etsy Out of the Race to the Bottom
Silverman told conference attendees that “agentic search” is coming and that he believes it will be very beneficial to Etsy, which has been a “very early partner” for many of the companies developing AI shopping tools. “I think being at the table at the very early stages gives us a chance to help shape where this goes, and I think over time, it’s going to be very helpful to Etsy.”
Silverman said agentic search would help Etsy because it would expose the fact that many items are the same and it would show you the one that was the fastest and cheapest, but Etsy offers a genuine alternative. “So let everyone else compete in that race to the bottom over who’s willing to have the lowest margins or invest the most billions of dollars in fulfillment. Good luck to all of them.”
“I think there’s going to be a desire for choice, and I think Etsy’s going to often be a relevant choice,” he said.