Role
Product Designer
Type
Personal Project
Duration
4 Weeks
Platforms
Desktop
Etsy sellers often churn because they don’t know how or where to improve their shops. I redesigned the seller dashboard into a decision-support tool, combining KPIs, Tasks, Insights, and AI to guide sellers toward growth.
TL;DR
PROBLEM
When sellers can’t improve their shop, they leave.
Without clear steps to grow their shops, sellers become frustrated and churn. Etsy’s dashboard adds to the problem by showing minimal data and almost no actionable insights.
Current dashboard for Etsy sellers.
SOLUTION
A redesigned dashboard with AI-powered decision support.
I redesigned the seller dashboard to combine KPIs, Tasks, and Insights with an AI Helper, turning scattered features into clear decision-support tools that provide actionable recommendations and help sellers grow with confidence.
Redesigned dashboard.
BACKGROUND
Etsy is one of the world’s largest platforms for independent sellers, but it struggles with high seller churn each year.
Despite Etsy’s global reach and strong brand, it faces a recurring challenge: seller retention. Reports and community discussions show that many shop owners struggle to sustain their business on the platform, leading to high churn.
Etsy has seen a noticeable decline in active sellers.
PROBLEM
Running an Etsy shop is complex: sellers must balance product creation, inventory, customer engagement, and marketing. Yet when sales decline, many shop owners are left guessing what to fix. This uncertainty often leads to frustration and eventual churn.
Rather than acting as a decision-support tool, the seller dashboard leaves sellers uncertain about how to improve their shops.
A key contributor is the seller dashboard: while it shows basic stats and suggestions, it lacks clear, constructive direction on what actions sellers should take. Important features and insights are buried behind multiple clicks, and the information rarely translates into immediate steps for improving performance.
Users have shared pain points about the dashboard, captured from Etsy Forum.
Current seller dashboard: minimal data wihtout direction.
RESEARCH
To better understand seller challenges, I conducted interviews with a diverse group of Etsy shop owners, ranging from hobbyists to full-time sellers. These conversations validated frustrations I had seen in online forums and revealed how different types of sellers interact with Etsy’s current dashboard.
I interviewed a group of sellers with 3 goals in mind:
Identify friction in feature access
Understand which features sellers use most, and what pain points they face in using them.
Explore their perceptions of AI tools
Learn what sellers expect from AI and how they would like it to assist in their workflow.
Understand decision-making challenges
Discover what sellers struggle to prioritize when managing their shops (e.g., fulfilling orders, improving SEO, or responding to customers).
Conversations with Etsy sellers helped me further understand frustrations with the current dashboard.
Key Research Insights:
From these interviews and supporting secondary research, I was able to synthesize my findings into 3 major insights:
Tools need to be accessible
Frequently used features are buried behind clicks or spread across tabs, making daily management inefficient.
AI should reduce guesswork
Sellers are open to AI when it provides actionable, transparent suggestions that simplify decision-making.
Data analysis is time-consuming
Reviewing shop data is time-consuming and often inconclusive; sellers want decision-support, not just raw numbers.
SOLUTION FRAMING
I organized seller needs into four clear buckets: KPIs, AI Helper, Tasks, and Insights.
From the research, it became clear that sellers weren’t asking for more data, they wanted clearer guidance and easier access to the tools they already rely on.
To address this, I reorganized the essential tools into four clear buckets that would form the foundation of a redesigned dashboard.
AI Helper
Scannable, proactive guidance with the option to dive deeper.
Grouping essential features into four buckets: KPIs, AI Helper, Tasks, and Insights.
Wireframing the layout and prioritizing what matters most:
KPIs lead at the top, slightly larger to show overall shop health. The AI Helper sits nearby for quick guidance. Tasks are split into Shop Operations and Customer Care in the center to drive immediate action, while Insights rest in the bottom corner for deeper exploration when time allows.
Mapping the 4 buckets into the dashboard layout.
FINAL DESIGN
KPIs
The KPI section sits at the top to reflect overall shop health. I replaced Etsy’s default “Visits” with "Conversion Rate" to better show how effectively traffic turns into sales, making the metrics more actionable for sellers.
AI Helper
The principle was “scannable in under 5 seconds." AI should surface quick insights without distracting from urgent tasks. I weighed two options: a dedicated AI Insights card that ensures visibility but risks visual noise, and a chatbot that keeps the UI clean but requires more effort and learning curve.
I chose a hybrid approach: a compact AI card with 2-3 smart summaries, plus a “More Insights” button that opens a chatbot for deeper insights on the shop performance or even completing small tasks. This keeps AI visible, lightweight, and flexible for both casual and advanced sellers.
Tasks
The Tasks section covers core functions: Orders, Inventory, Messages, and Reviews. To go beyond raw number and data, I added AI-powered tooltips that offer insights like inventory forecasts or suggested replies. This transforms routine management into guided action, helping sellers focus on the right priorities.
The Insights section adds context behind shop performance, covering Traffic Sources, Buyers, and Ad Spend. This section explores different approaches to data visualization: a pie chart highlights traffic sources at a glance, a bar chart compares new vs repeat buyers, and a stacked bar chart breaks down ad spend by channel.
Insights
PRODUCT CONCEPTS
RETROSPECTIVE
Designing AI for the users.
This project taught me to design AI around real user needs: simplifying data and guiding decisions, not taking over the entire shop. Looking back, here are three key takeaways from the case study:
User feedback
Sellers responded positively to the final design, noting it reduced guesswork without taking away control.
AI as a copilot
AI should guide decisions with insights, not replace human control in shop management.
Market alignment
Etsy released a similar feature shortly after, showing the idea was on the right track.
