Store Score Blog

Video Reviews on Etsy: Why They’re So Rare and Whether They’re Worth Encouraging

Written by

Store Score Team

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Etsy has let buyers attach a short video to a review since 2022, and it’s one of the only pieces of user-generated content on the platform a seller cannot hide, delete, or ask Etsy to remove without filing a policy violation report. Most sellers never see one. A shop can run for years, collect hundreds of five-star reviews with the occasional photo attached, and never get a single video — not because buyers dislike the feature, but because almost nothing in the post-purchase flow tells them it exists. That absence is the actual story: video reviews aren’t rare because they don’t work, they’re rare because almost no seller asks for them in a way that fits how a buyer actually unboxes a candle or hangs a print, and the sellers who do get a handful end up with a trust asset that a text review or even a photo review can’t match — audio, motion, and an unscripted reaction, sitting permanently on the listing page next to the Buy button.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Most advice about Etsy reviews treats “review” as one thing with one lever: get more of them, keep the average above 4.8, respond fast to the bad ones. That’s broadly right, but it skips a distinction that matters once a shop has a healthy review count and is looking for the next real improvement — not all reviews carry the same weight with a browsing buyer. A star rating with no comment is a data point. A written review with a sentence or two is a data point with context. A review with a photo is evidence. And a review with a short video, audio included, a real person’s hands and voice reacting to the actual product — that’s closer to a testimonial than a rating. Etsy treats all four the same way in its published star-rating math, but a buyer deciding whether to trust a shop they’ve never bought from does not treat them the same way at all.

This piece is about the video review specifically: what it technically is on Etsy, why most shops that would benefit from one never get one, the 2022 policy change that took away a seller’s ability to hide them, and — the part most “get more reviews” advice skips — what actually has to happen in a buyer’s day for them to pull out a phone and film an unboxing instead of just typing four words and tapping five stars. None of this replaces the fundamentals of getting more reviews in general, which a separate piece on this blog already covers in full. This is about the specific, rarer asset sitting at the top of that same funnel.

What a Video Review on Etsy Actually Is

Etsy added buyer-uploaded video to reviews in mid-2022, after a limited test earlier that year, rolling it out through the Etsy app. A buyer leaving a review gets the same options a photo review has always offered — a star rating, written text — plus the ability to attach a short video clip instead of, or alongside, a photo. The clip is capped at 30 seconds and can include audio, which is the detail that separates it from every other piece of content on a listing page: a seller’s own listing photos are static, a seller’s own listing video has its audio stripped by Etsy on upload, but a buyer’s review video keeps whatever sound was recorded — a kid’s reaction to a gift, a “wow, this is so much nicer in person” said out loud, ambient room noise that makes it obviously unscripted.

The feature launched iOS-first through the Etsy buyer app, with Android support following later. By now, any buyer on the current version of the Etsy app, on either major mobile platform, can attach a video to a review they’re leaving from their phone. It is not available when leaving a review from a desktop browser — a buyer reviewing from a laptop sees the standard star-and-text-and-photo review form, no video option, which quietly caps the pool of possible video reviewers to whatever share of a shop’s buyers review from their phone rather than their computer. Once posted, the video sits exactly where a photo review would: on the listing’s reviews section and on the shop’s aggregated reviews, playable inline, with no separate “featured” placement or algorithmic boost that Etsy documents publicly. It is not weighted any differently in the shop’s star average than a five-star review with no media at all — the lift it produces is entirely about buyer psychology, not about any extra points Etsy’s scoring gives it.

Why Video Reviews Are So Rare, Even on Shops With Hundreds of Reviews

Etsy doesn’t publish a breakdown of how many reviews include a photo versus a video versus text alone, so no one outside the company can state an exact platform-wide rate. But the shape of the problem is visible just from walking through established shops’ review sections: shops with 300, 500, a thousand reviews commonly show a meaningful minority with photos — often somewhere in the range of one in ten to one in four, depending on the product category — and then zero, one, or two videos in the entire history of the shop. That gap isn’t about buyers disliking video. It’s about four things stacking against a video ever getting made, each one trimming the pool of buyers who could leave one down to almost nobody by the time they reach the review form.

  • Platform gate. Video is app-only. Any buyer who reviews from a desktop browser — which is still a large share of Etsy’s traffic — never even sees the option.
  • Timing gate. A buyer has to still be holding the product, or close to it, at the exact moment they’re prompted to review, because almost nobody goes back to re-film something days after opening it just to attach a better review. Etsy’s review reminder notifications often land well after the unboxing moment has passed.
  • Effort gate. A photo takes one tap. A video that’s worth posting — steady, in focus, long enough to show the product — takes noticeably more intent, even capped at 30 seconds.
  • Awareness gate. The biggest one. Nothing in Etsy’s default post-purchase flow tells a buyer that video is even an option, and almost no seller’s packaging, card insert, or follow-up message mentions it either. A buyer who doesn’t know the option exists isn’t choosing text over video — they never saw the choice.

Stack those four gates and the pool of buyers who could plausibly leave a video review on any given order is small before a seller does anything at all. That’s also exactly why a shop that removes even one or two of those gates — mainly the awareness gate, which is the only one a seller has real control over — can see a disproportionate result relative to the effort involved. Getting from zero video reviews to one or two isn’t about running a bigger review-request campaign; it’s about making sure the handful of buyers already filming an unboxing for themselves, which happens more than sellers realize, know that Etsy has a place to put it.

Why Sellers Can’t Hide a Video Review Anymore

Before late 2022, sellers had a “hide” option for individual reviews that included a photo or video, letting them keep an unflattering image off the public listing without going through Etsy’s formal reporting process. Etsy removed that ability specifically for reviews with visual media, stating the change was about review transparency — buyers shopping on Etsy should be able to trust that the photos and videos attached to a shop’s reviews represent what buyers were actually willing to show, not a curated subset a seller chose to display. The written star rating and text portions of the review system were not affected the same way; the change targeted visual content specifically.

What sellers can still do is report a specific review — photo, video, or text — that actually violates Etsy’s review policies: content that’s abusive, that exposes private information like a buyer’s address or payment details visible in frame, that includes copyrighted material it shouldn’t, or that’s unrelated to the actual transaction. Etsy reviews reported content and removes what violates policy, typically within about 7 to 10 business days, though individual cases vary. What a seller can no longer do is hide a video simply because it’s unflattering, poorly lit, or shows a legitimate complaint on camera instead of in text. That’s the trade-off worth sitting with before actively encouraging more video reviews: the same policy that makes a great unboxing video permanently visible and unremovable also makes a mediocre one permanently visible and unremovable. The response, covered in the checklist further down, isn’t to avoid encouraging video — it’s to make the moment a buyer is most likely to film one also the moment they’re most likely to be happy with what they’re unwrapping.

The Trust Math: Text, Photo, and Video Reviews Aren’t Interchangeable

Etsy’s star-rating math doesn’t distinguish between review types — a five-star rating with no comment and a five-star rating with a 30-second video both count as one five-star data point toward the shop’s average and toward Star Seller eligibility. But a buyer evaluating an unfamiliar shop isn’t doing that math. They’re pattern-matching for signals of authenticity, and the three review formats sit on a rough ladder of how hard each one is to fake or exaggerate:

  1. Text-only review. Cheapest signal to produce, easiest for a skeptical buyer to half-discount, especially if it’s short and generic (“Love it! Great seller!”).
  2. Photo review. Harder to fake convincingly, shows the actual item in a real (if staged) setting, and is the format most “increase your reviews” advice already optimizes for — which is exactly why photo reviews get their own dedicated treatment elsewhere on this blog.
  3. Video review. Hardest to fake, carries audio and motion, and — because it’s rare — reads to a buyer as something the seller clearly didn’t orchestrate. A single genuine unboxing video next to forty text reviews does more to signal “real shop, real buyers” than forty more text reviews would.

None of this means a seller should chase video reviews instead of the broader review-count fundamentals — total review count and recency still carry far more weight in the published Star Seller and search-ranking math than any one piece of media does. It means video is a disproportionately high-value addition at the margin, precisely because it’s rare enough that most competing shops in a buyer’s search results don’t have one.

Worked Example: Two Similar Shops, One With a Single Video Review

Picture two small jewelry shops, both with 85 total reviews and a 4.9 average — close enough on paper that Etsy’s own scoring treats them as nearly identical. Shop A’s reviews are a typical mix: about a dozen include a photo, the rest are text-only, none include video. Shop B has the same count and average, same dozen photo reviews, but one of its reviews — a birthday gift order — includes an 18-second video of the recipient opening the box and visibly reacting to a necklace. Etsy’s internal math doesn’t reward Shop B for that video; both shops show the same 4.9 average and the same review count on their shop page.

But a buyer comparing the two shops side by side, which is exactly what happens when both show up in the same search results for “custom birthstone necklace,” is not scoring them on Etsy’s internal formula. A buyer who clicks into both shops’ reviews sees, in Shop A, a wall of text and a handful of photos that look like every other Etsy shop’s photo reviews. In Shop B, they see the same, plus one video that plays an actual stranger’s unscripted reaction to a product nearly identical to the one they’re considering buying. That single video doesn’t change either shop’s star rating. It changes which shop feels more real at the exact moment a buyer is deciding whether to trust a stranger on the internet with a gift purchase — and that’s a conversion-rate effect, not a ranking effect. This is an illustrative comparison to show the mechanism, not a measured lift figure; no platform-wide data exists on exactly how much a single video review moves conversion for any given shop, and actual effects vary by product, price point, and buyer.

Can You Ask a Buyer to Leave a Video Review? What’s Allowed

Yes, within the same rules that already govern asking for any Etsy review. Sellers can ask buyers to leave a review, including mentioning that photos or video are an option, through order messages, package inserts, and shop announcements. What sellers cannot do is offer any kind of incentive — a discount, a free item, entry into a giveaway — in exchange for a review, a review with a photo, or a review with video specifically. That restriction applies identically across formats; Etsy does not treat “please leave a video” as a bigger ask that justifies a bigger incentive, because incentivized reviews of any kind violate the same policy regardless of what media is attached.

The practical version of “asking” that stays inside the rules looks like a neutral, general invitation rather than a specific instruction: something closer to “if you have a minute, a review helps other buyers find us — and if you want to share a quick photo or video, we’d genuinely love to see it” than “please post a video review for a discount on your next order.” The first is a request. The second is solicitation of a specific kind of review in exchange for value, which is the thing Etsy’s policy actually prohibits.

Five Moments Where a Buyer Actually Films Something

Because the awareness gate is the one a seller actually controls, the highest-leverage move isn’t a bigger ask — it’s placing a small, specific mention of the video option at the moments buyers are already most likely to have a phone in hand and the product in front of them.

  • The unboxing itself. A card insert that says something like “Etsy lets you add a short video to your review if you’d like — we love seeing how things arrive” sits in the buyer’s hand at the exact moment they’re most likely to film, before the product is put away and the moment is gone.
  • A gift-opening order. Orders flagged as gifts, or with gift messages, are disproportionately likely to be filmed by someone else — the giver filming the recipient’s reaction — without any prompting at all. These are worth a slightly more specific note in the gift message itself.
  • A custom or made-to-order reveal. Buyers who waited for a personalized piece are primed to document it; a brief note in the final “it’s shipped” message mentioning the video option catches them while anticipation is still high.
  • The follow-up message after delivery. A short, friendly follow-up a few days after delivery — well within Etsy’s messaging rules — that mentions photos or video as options, sent while the item is still new enough to be worth filming.
  • A shop announcement or About section line. A one-time, permanent mention that the shop loves seeing photo and video reviews sets a low-key expectation for every buyer who reads it, not just the ones who get a card insert.

None of these guarantee a video. They remove the one gate a seller can actually remove — not knowing the option exists — and let the buyers who were already inclined to film something find the button.

What to Do If a Video Review Is a Problem, Not an Asset

Encouraging video reviews means accepting that an unflattering one can’t be hidden the way it could before 2022. Two situations come up in practice, and they call for different responses. A video that’s simply negative — shows a real flaw, a shipping issue, a buyer who’s unhappy — is not reportable just because it’s unflattering, and trying to get it removed on those grounds won’t work. The right move is the same one that applies to any negative review: respond publicly, briefly, and professionally, and treat it as a trust signal of its own — buyers who see a seller respond well to a filmed complaint often trust the shop more, not less.

A video that actually violates Etsy’s policies is a different case: one that exposes a buyer’s personal information visible in frame, includes copyrighted music or content it shouldn’t, is abusive, or isn’t related to a genuine transaction with that shop. That’s reportable through Etsy’s standard review-reporting flow, and Etsy’s stated process evaluates and resolves reported content typically within about 7 to 10 business days. The distinction matters because reporting a video that’s merely negative, rather than policy-violating, wastes the seller’s time and doesn’t result in removal — Etsy’s transparency policy was built specifically to stop that kind of removal request.

A Checklist for Making Video Reviews More Likely

  • Add one low-key line about photo and video reviews to a card insert or packaging note.
  • Mention the option once in the shop’s About section so it’s visible to every buyer who reads it, not just the ones who get an insert.
  • Note it briefly in gift messages and made-to-order “it’s shipped” messages, where buyers are already primed to film.
  • Send a friendly, policy-compliant follow-up message after delivery while the item is still new.
  • Never offer a discount, freebie, or giveaway entry in exchange for a review of any kind, photo or video included.
  • Respond publicly and calmly to any negative video review instead of trying to get it removed.
  • Reserve Etsy’s reporting flow for genuine policy violations — exposed personal information, copyrighted content, abuse — not for reviews that are simply unflattering.
  • Make sure packaging and the unboxing moment itself look good on camera; a seller can’t control whether a buyer films, but can control what’s in frame if they do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a video review count for more than a text review in Etsy’s star rating or search ranking?
No. Etsy’s published scoring treats every review as one data point in the shop’s average regardless of whether it includes a photo, a video, or neither. Any extra impact a video has comes from how it reads to a human buyer, not from any documented boost in Etsy’s own algorithm.

Can a buyer leave a video review from a desktop computer?
No. Video reviews are submitted through the Etsy mobile app. A buyer reviewing from a desktop browser sees the standard star, text, and photo review form without a video option.

Can I offer a discount to a buyer in exchange for a video review?
No. Incentivizing any review, including with a specific request for photo or video content, violates Etsy’s review policies regardless of the format requested.

Can I hide a video review I don’t like?
Not anymore. Etsy removed sellers’ ability to hide photo and video reviews in 2022 as part of a review transparency policy change. A video can only be removed if it’s reported and found to violate Etsy’s actual content policies.

How long can a video review be?
Up to 30 seconds, uploaded through the Etsy app, and it can include audio — unlike a seller’s own listing videos, which have sound stripped automatically on upload.

Key Takeaways

  • Etsy video reviews are capped at 30 seconds, include audio, and are submitted through the Etsy app only — not available on desktop.
  • They’re rare even on shops with hundreds of reviews, mostly because almost nothing in the default post-purchase flow tells buyers the option exists.
  • Sellers lost the ability to hide photo or video reviews in 2022; only genuine policy violations are removable, through Etsy’s standard reporting process.
  • Video reviews don’t carry extra weight in Etsy’s star-rating math, but they read as a stronger authenticity signal to a comparison-shopping buyer precisely because they’re uncommon.
  • The highest-leverage move is removing the awareness gate — a short, specific mention at the unboxing moment, in gift messages, or in a post-delivery follow-up — not running a bigger review-request campaign.
  • Asking for a video review is allowed; offering anything in exchange for one is not.

The Bottom Line

A video review isn’t a feature most Etsy sellers should build a whole strategy around, and chasing one at the expense of the review-count and response-time fundamentals that actually move Star Seller status and search placement would be a mistake. But for a shop that already has those fundamentals in place — a healthy review count, a strong average, fast responses — a single genuine video sitting among the photo and text reviews is one of the cheapest, rarest trust signals available on the platform, and getting one is almost entirely a matter of making sure buyers know the option is there at the one moment it matters: while they’re still holding the product.

Video reviews are one input into a much bigger picture of how trustworthy a shop looks to a browsing buyer — alongside review count, recency, photo reviews, response rate, and a dozen other signals Store Score checks in a single pass.

Related Reading

About This Research

Store Score is a free shop-audit tool for Etsy sellers, built by StableCommerce, a platform for sellers who want to grow beyond a single marketplace. It scores a shop across four categories (SEO, pricing, presentation, and reviews/social proof) using only publicly visible shop data read through the Etsy Open API, and returns specific, ranked recommendations instead of generic advice.

The mechanics referenced in this piece — Etsy’s 2022 rollout of buyer video reviews through the Etsy app, the 30-second length and audio-inclusive format, the removal of sellers’ ability to hide photo or video reviews, the distinction between reporting a policy-violating review versus a merely negative one, the roughly 7-to-10-business-day review of reported content, and Etsy’s rules against incentivizing reviews of any kind — were checked against Etsy’s own public announcements, Seller Handbook guidance, and independent reporting as of September 2026. Etsy does not publish exact figures on what share of reviews include photos versus video, so the rarity described here is a qualitative, directionally-supported observation rather than a precise statistic, and the worked example is an illustrative model, not a measured result. Etsy’s features and policies are subject to change; sellers should confirm current rules in their own Shop Manager and the Seller Handbook.

Content reviewed and updated: 2026-10-01

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