How ABaylorCat rewrote its gift box titles to say what's inside

ABaylorCat makes gifts for moments when someone wants to show up but can't be there. There are woven blankets: anniversary throws with a couple's names and wedding date, Bible verse prayer blankets, a "Will you marry me" blanket made for a proposal on the beach. There are "No Words Just Hugs" boxes with a candle, a soft blanket and crochet tulips, teddy bear care packages for a birthday or a get well wish, new mom boxes with cozy socks and baby booties, and personalized ornaments and platters for the holidays.

The shop is run by Julianne and Amy, with two cats, Weasley and Dumplin, as furry helpers. It has more than 3,700 sales and 870 reviews averaging 4.9 stars, and many of its boxes are made to be sent straight to someone else's door.

A care package can suit a lot of occasions, and the old titles tried to name all of them. One new mom box was a "New Mom Care Package, Pregnancy Gift Box, Postpartum Gift for Mom, Motherhood Social Club, Baby Shower Gift Basket". Five ways to say who it's for, and not one word about what's inside.

That matters more for gift boxes than for most products. A shopper comparing three new mom boxes wants to know which one has the candle and the blanket and which one has the socks. Etsy also cuts long titles short in search results, so the end of a long title often never gets read. With the occasions taking up the room, the contents were the part getting cut.

The rewrite happens in Alura's listing editor, where each listing gets a score out of 100 with separate grades for photos, video, title, description and tags. The grades show which part of a listing is thin, so the work starts there.

Julianne and Amy write the titles themselves, and on the gift boxes the pattern is simple to copy: the product type first, then what's in the box, then an occasion or two at most. The other occasions didn't disappear. They moved into the tags, and the tags picked up the contents too. One comfort care package used to carry tags like "healing gift" and "gift for her". Now it carries "crochet tulip", "cozy socks blanket" and "soy candle gift set" alongside "thinking of you" and "sympathy gift box".

Alt text is a different job. It's the short description of each photo that screen readers read aloud, and a shop full of gift boxes has a lot of photos. This is where the shop lets Alura's AI draft the words. Nothing reaches Etsy until someone clicks Publish changes, and Listing history keeps earlier versions if they want one back.

The same care carries into what happens after the order. ABaylorCat uses Alura's follow-ups, which prepare an Etsy message to the buyer when an order is placed, shipped and delivered, with separate versions for new and returning customers. The shop writes its own templates, signed by Julianne and Amy, and sends them through Etsy Messages from its own browser with Alura's Chrome extension.

The messages are written for gift givers. The order placed note says: "Whether you're sending comfort, encouragement, or a thoughtful reminder that someone is loved, we're honored to be a small part of that special moment." Returning customers get a version that opens with "Welcome back".

The rewritten titles are shorter, and they say what's in the box. A shopper comparing new mom boxes can tell from the title which one has the tumbler and the baby booties, and which one has the onesie with a teddy bear on it.

The occasions are still there, in the tags, so a shopper searching "baby shower gift" or "first time mom" can still find the box without those words crowding the title. Not every listing has had the full rewrite yet, so some longer titles still sit beside the new ones in the shop.

Julianne and Amy sell the gifts people send when words run out, and their advice follows from that. The person ordering is often worried about someone, or in a hurry, or both. Make their job easy: say plainly what's in the box, say when it ships, and write every message as if it might be read by someone having a hard week. A clear title and a warm note do more than clever wording.