Etsy - Star Seller & Visual Design

Etsy is a global online marketplace connecting millions of independent sellers with buyers looking for unique, handmade, vintage, and creative goods. The Star Seller program was designed to be a key trust signal for buyers and an incentive for sellers to maintain high standards, but it wasn’t landing.

Etsy’s Star Seller program was meant to reward merchants for excellent customer service and reliability, but sellers were confused by the criteria, frustrated by metrics they believed were inaccurate, and unsure what they needed to do differently. Adoption was lagging, complaints were mounting, and the badge wasn’t driving the buyer trust it was designed to create. On the consumer side, the shop home experience was inconsistent across web, iOS, and Android as each platform had evolved its own design system independently, creating a fragmented brand experience.

I started by working through thousands of pages of research: UX testing videos, product documentation, legal requirements, seller interviews, and merchant complaints. I audited every page of the consumer site across multiple languages and device variants to map the current state. The seller-side issues were the most urgent because unclear program parameters and metricswere causing confusion with sellers so I tackled those first. Then I moved to the buyer side, conducting a full audit and redesign of the shop home to consolidate three separate device-based design systems into one consistent experience.

An updated seller dashboard with clearer metrics and integrated FAQs so sellers could understand exactly where they stood. A revised program overview with straightforward copy that demystified the criteria. On the buyer side, designs for a platform-agnostic shop home experience that unified the look and feel across web, iOS, and Android, with deeper integration of Star Seller status to build buyer confidence.

The seller dashboard updates led to a measurable decrease in merchant complaints and an increase in program participation. The shop home redesign was completed and validated in testing, but was deprioritized due to a broader shift in product priorities. The underlying design system consolidation work informed subsequent platform updates across Etsy’s consumer experience.