Method

How we measure momentum

PrintMomentum shows how fast a t-shirt design is rising on Etsy right now. This page explains which signals we use, what the numbers mean and where they stop being reliable.

The short version

Etsy does not publish how many units a listing sells. So our speed score is not a sales number. It is a relative speed signal: it compares a design with every other t-shirt we follow in the same period and tells you how fast it is gaining attention right now.

The signals we use

• Climb in Etsy search: how far the design moves up for the same search during the period. A climb only counts when the design is also gaining favorites or views, and one huge jump is capped so it cannot dominate.
• New favorites: how many shoppers added it to their favorites in the period, and whether that is speeding up compared with the period before.
• New views: how many times shoppers opened the listing. Views count half as much as favorites.

Each signal is counted on a log scale, so going from 0 to 50 favorites matters more than going from 1,000 to 1,050. The total is divided by the length of the period, so today, this week and this month are each fair on their own. Reviews are not part of the speed score.

Where the data comes from

Only the official Etsy API: public listing data such as search position, favorites and views. We check it 6 times a day. No scraping of Etsy pages and no browser extension. For your own shop, you connect through Etsy’s official sign-in with read-only access.

What the 0–100 speed score means

• The score compares a design only with other t-shirts in the same period: today, this week or this month.
• 100 means the design is as fast as the 5th fastest design of that period, or faster. So a handful of designs always share the top score.
• The scale is logarithmic: 50 does not mean “half as fast as 100”. Use it to rank designs, not to do math with.
• A score for today can’t be compared with a score for this month.

Our labels: our own measurement, not Etsy badges

Momentum Leader

A design with a speed score of 100 in the period you are looking at, in other words one of the very fastest t-shirts we follow at that moment.

Fast Mover

A design whose recent reviews suggest about 25 or more sales in the last 30 days, or that gained 5 or more new favorites in the last 7 days. A design with no reviews in the last 30 days never gets it.

Both labels are calculated by PrintMomentum. Etsy has its own “Bestseller” badge; it is not available through the API, and we don’t show or copy it.

Estimated monthly sales

For other shops’ designs we estimate sales from the reviews of the last 30 days, assuming roughly 1 in 10 buyers leaves a review. We show it as a range, such as ~40–70, because it is an estimate, not a count. For your own connected shop, sales come from your real orders.

Limits you should know

• Etsy doesn’t publish sales, so every sales number for other shops is an estimate.
• We follow print t-shirt listings that show up in the Etsy searches we run, not every listing on Etsy.
• A new listing needs a few checks before it gets a score.
• Search results differ from shopper to shopper (location, personal results). We see one version of the search.
• A high score shows interest right now. It doesn’t promise future sales.
• Trademark warnings come from our own watchlist of protected names. They are not legal advice.