Item Sold On Etsy – Display Or Hide the Listing (Easy Guide)

Why would sellers want to display or hide sold items on Etsy?

Well, as a seller, hiding your sold items is a great way to prevent customers from getting angry when they try to order one of that item.

Although there is a little notification under the item that it is sold out, most people tend to forget that part or ignore it before they email the seller.

Furthermore, you can make your shop look a little cleaner to the customer, instead of seeing “sold out” all over your front page. This may encourage customers to move on from you to someone else.

How do you hide or display sold items on Etsy?

According to Etsy Help services, you can hide and renew sold out listings in your shop manager under “listings” and then click “sold out.” This will allow you to hide or show those items. You can renew listings under “Orders and Shipping” in your shop manager.

If you do decide to hide these items that are sold out, however, you may not get the chance for customers to see that those are your bestsellers or that many customers have interest in your shop!

Can I See a Stores Sold Items?

You can see a store’s sold items when the seller deems it necessary.

For example, if the seller doesn’t go into their account and choose to display their sold-out items, you will be able to see them. However, if they do choose to hide them, you will not.

There is not a way for a buyer to override that choice that the seller made.

If the shop chooses to show their sold items, you will be able to see that they are “sold out” or only have a few in stock left.

Items That Have Already Been Sold

If you’re looking for unique, vintage items that can’t be renewed after-sale, you can go to an Etsy shop’s number of sales at the top of their shop screen and click on it.

Once you do, you can see the number of items that someone has sold over time and what those items might be.

This is especially good for vintage shops to see what they’ve found in the past to get an idea of what they may find and sell in the future. However, you MUST go to their number of sales over time to see this.

Furthermore, shops have the ability to opt-out of being seen in that screen. Many shop owners won’t opt-out, but if they do, you won’t see anything.

Can I Search for Sold Items in General on Etsy?

There is not really a way to search for sold items on Etsy at this time. This is because there isn’t a filter on Etsy’s search system that allows you to search for something that is “sold.”

Furthermore, you can Etsy search for a “sold item,” but you will find search results like:

• Most Sold Shop Items for an Etsy Store
• How to Sell Bestsellers in your Shop
• Handmade “For Sale” Signs

and more.

The better way to go about this is to go to shops that you like and frequently buy from and try to see which items are usually sold out or low on stock.

You can also check their sales over time to see what they have sold and how many – though you’ll have to do the math yourself.

With this research, you can start to see the trends of what people are hoping to get out of their Etsy experience.

Can You Display Your “Sold-Out” Items in Your Shop?

You can always choose to show the “sold-out” items in your shop!

Like we mentioned before, going to your shop settings will allow you to choose to display your sold items to your customers.

By showing which items are currently sold, you are able to let customers know what is popular in your shop. This helps give you an air of credibility and shows that you have plenty of sales.

The problem with this, though, is that if you have too many items out of stock, many customers will choose better-stocked shops over your own when looking for their perfect product.

So while you don’t want to look like you can’t make a sale, you also don’t want half your shop to say “sold out.”

Make sure you’re keeping up on your inventory as much as possible, and make informed choices about when to show and when to hide your items.

Already Sold & Vintage Items

You cannot show the items you have already sold and can’t renew.

For example, if you are a vintage shop and you sold an antique teddy bear – unlike any other – you aren’t going to be able to renew that listing.

Therefore, that listing is gone from your shop entirely, except for the “sales over time” amount that customers can click on.

Customers can click on the number of sales your shop has had over time and scroll through all those sold items to see what you’ve sold in the past, but these items can’t show up in your shop again.

All items on Etsy shops HAVE to be for sale; otherwise, Etsy will ask you to remove that listing.

How Do I Make my Etsy Sales Private?

Just like turning on your sales items to display in your shop, you are capable of making those items private.

• Go to “Shop Manager”
• Then “Settings”
• Then “Options”
• Then click on “Sold Listings.”
• Then you can decide to hide them from there!

Now, keep in mind, you CAN’T hide how many sales your shop has gotten over all-time. While you ARE able to hide your products sold in your shop on your display page, you can’t hide the part of your shop that shows your sales over time.

While this isn’t clear in the Etsy Help center as to why not, it is something that must be kept public.

Can You Hide the Number of Sold Listings on Etsy?

When you decide to hide your sold listings, you do have the option to choose which ones are hidden and which ones aren’t.

While there is a setting option to make sure that ALL sold items are hidden from customers, you don’t have to use that.

Instead, the way that it works is technically that you can choose which ones to “renew” and which ones to leave listed as “sold out.” This will decrease the amount of “sold out” listings on your shop

If you don’t have the inventory to renew those listings, you should just hide it. However, if you do have the inventory, but not for other listings, you can pick and choose which ones will get renewed.

Having less sold out items in your shop is better than more than ten or fifteen.

With five select items listed as “sold out,” you’re in much better shape to communicate to customers that you are getting sales and that people like your product, without looking like you don’t pay enough attention to your inventory.

Does Hiding Your Sold Listings Hurt Sales?

As we’ve mentioned before, hiding your sold listings can accidentally communicate to customers that your shop doesn’t get a lot of traffic.

They may think that you don’t have many sales because your product isn’t good or that you aren’t a trustworthy seller.

This isn’t always the case, but it does have that potential.

Alternatively, if you don’t hide your sold listings, having too many sold items on your shop can discourage a customer from continuing to shop with you – no one wants to get attached to an item that they can’t buy.

While it is possible to lose out on sales because of these two factors, you also have to consider that every customer is different, and may take your sold out items into account differently.

Furthermore, if you aren’t renewing your listings automatically or frequently, you will end up with a shop front that is covered in “sold out” or “only three left in stock” notifications.

Not only is this not pleasant to look at, but customers will decide to pass you by.

Are There any Extensions That can Show Sold Items?

There are a lot of extensions on browsers like Chrome and Firefox for Etsy shops – usually for SEO optimization and analytics.

There are even extensions to help you manage your shop better than the Etsy algorithm and system allow you to.

However, at this time, there doesn’t seem to be an extension that shows a sold item. There is an extension, “Etsy Sold!” for Chrome that shows you how much a sold-out item costs on Etsy.

This is because sold out items don’t show their sale price once they’ve been sold out.

Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be a solution to this problem as of the time of this article.

Maybe in the future, there will be an easier way to navigate Etsy sales.

References:

Renew or Hide a Sold Item – Etsy Help

“Etsy Sold!” – Chrome Extension