Friday 5 February 2016

Desperately Seeking Pippi

Here's a mysterious mystery, which may never be solved.
For months now, the stats for my vintage Etsy shop have been dominated by Pippi Longstocking. That's not Pippi Longstocking in the picture above. It's just a cute 1960s card which I've had in my shop. In the description, I said she reminded me of Pippi Longstocking. Here's another picture, and you'll see what I mean.
Now I can understand that the occasional Etsy shopper looking for Pippi Longstocking might click on the card to take a look, but they've been clicking in their hundreds! It's my most viewed item, week after week, month after month. Not only that, but the views far surpass any of my other items. Here are the stats for the last 30 days:
 
So you can see 'Pippi' is the top search term by a mile and a half and then a bit more on top! I'm going to call it 'The Pippi Effect', and try to sell this idea as a new marketing strategy.

But really, I'm completely baffled. How can an item that isn't even anything to do with Pippi Longstocking get so many views from the Pippi search? Why are so many people searching for Pippi in the first place? It's a cute card, and I guess the picture draws people in to take a look, but it's an odd one. The interweb is just full of weird happenings, I guess.
 
Disappointingly, despite the many views, very few people added it to their favourites, and nobody bought it ... until today!
 
So the mystery is coming to an end. The Pippi Effect is over. What will happen now? Well, for a start, I imagine the number of views for my shop will plummet. Unless people start searching for some other obscure character. Or maybe I can start the Bonkers Old Doll Effect?