Transparency
How ShopAtlas uses the Etsy API
ShopAtlas is built on Etsy's official Open API v3, under Etsy's API Terms of Use. This page explains exactly what each permission we request is used for - in the same plain language we'd want as sellers ourselves. One principle governs all of it: a seller's data is used for that seller alone. It is never mined, aggregated into research products, sold, or shared - and the seller can export or delete it at any time.
Read your shop and listings
shops_r · listings_rTakes the daily snapshot of your own shop's listings - titles, descriptions, tags, prices, quantities, states, and photos - plus shop-level stats. This is what builds your version history and per-listing trend lines.
What it's never used for: We never read other sellers' private data. Each seller sees only their own shop.
Read your sales totals
transactions_rReads your own order counts, amounts, and dates so your timeline can show how sales moved after a change. Aggregate numbers only.
What it's never used for: We never request, display, or store buyers' personal information - no names, no addresses, no emails. We do not request access to the buyer email field.
Identify your account
email_rReads the email on your own Etsy account so we can create your login and contact you about your account.
What it's never used for: Never used for marketing without your consent, never shared.
Apply the edits you approve
listings_wUpdates a listing's title, tags, or description when - and only when - you have reviewed the exact before-and-after diff and clicked confirm. The same permission powers one-click restore: putting a listing back to a previous version you choose.
What it's never used for: Never used autonomously. No scheduled edits, no bulk rewrites, no AI acting alone, no changes of any kind without an explicit per-change confirmation from the seller.
Why we request write access at all
ShopAtlas's core promise is that any change to a listing is reversible. Without write access, a seller who wants to bring back last month's better-performing title would have to copy each field out of ShopAtlas and paste it into Shop Manager by hand - slow, error-prone, and the moment mistakes happen. With write access, a restore is a single reviewed, confirmed, exactly-as-stored update.
The same applies to improvements. When a seller decides to fix an underperforming listing - a clearer title, more accurate tags, a fuller description - ShopAtlas lets them draft the change, see the precise diff, and apply it in one confirmed step, with the previous version kept. It is functionally the same edit the seller could make in Shop Manager; ShopAtlas adds the record, the measurement, and the undo.
Every write is seller-initiated, previewed, individually confirmed, logged in the seller's own history, and reversible. There is no automation mode, and we do not build one.
Why this is good for the marketplace
Everything ShopAtlas measures points sellers toward the same outcome Etsy's own guidance encourages: accurate titles, honest and complete tags, clear descriptions, and well-maintained listings. When sellers can see which improvements actually helped, they make more of them - and make them confidently instead of fearfully.
Better-kept listings mean buyers find what they're actually searching for, fewer disappointing clicks, and more completed sales. Sellers grow, buyers have a better experience, and the marketplace gets healthier. That is the whole thesis of the product.
The term “Etsy” is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. This application uses the Etsy API but is not endorsed or certified by Etsy, Inc. Questions about any of the above: hello@shopatlas.app.