Etsy: Optimism is Contagious

By: Rachel Tomlinson



It used to be that if you wanted to buy something handmade, there was no better place to look than an urban Saturday Market or a mothball-scented church basement.

But as new generations infiltrated the crafts industry, bringing hipster influences to traditional arts like knitting, it seemed only natural that the new craft crowd would move online.

Since 2005, Etsy has been the online destination of choice for crafters looking to peddle their wares. Etsy currently boasts 650,000 registered users, and the number climbs daily.

More intriguing than the site's numbers is what those numbers mean. With startling success, the young dot-com has helped launch a new breed of entrepreneurs on the world. And in doing so, a love affair has developed between a tech-savvy, profit-based business and people who have an unusual appreciation for glue guns and sharp scissors.

Anything but eBay
Etsy is sometimes compared to eBay, but Etsy is to eBay as your local independent bookstore is to Borders. You can maybe find the same things, but the experience is totally different.

Matthew Stinchcomb, vice president of communications at Etsy, said his company was able to learn from eBay's successes and failures. The biggest lesson was the realization that if they could build a thriving community, a thriving business would follow.

Etsy dived in. The company hosts book clubs, forums, workshops and its own newsletter.

The success of the site is determined by the success of the users, so Etsy does what it can to give crafters the business tools they need, like sponsoring workshops on topics like Global Microbranding that are webcast.

"Our goal as a company, one of our guiding principles, is to help people make a living making things," Stinchcomb said. "We want to provide them with all the information they need to achieve that goal to support themselves with their art."

Don't believe him? Check out the YouTube video he posted on how to buy & sell on Etsy.

Too much of a good thing
Ryan McAbery, 33, is a poster child for Stinchcomb's message. A veteran of the Saturday Market scene in Portland, McAbery once walked store-to-store in the Oregon rain trying to sell her wares. EBay was an option, but like other 21st Century artisans, she didn't feel right selling her painstakingly made items on what she called "the Wal-mart of craft sales."

Then she found Etsy. Within a short period of time, her problem morphed from how to make a living at her art to what to do once you've made it.

"It's very hard to run a business and be an artist at the same time," says McAbery, owner of Little Put Books. "Etsy helped bring me to a point where I'm actually running a business. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to balance everything."

That challenges isn't unique to McAbery. Antonio Gould, who taught the Global Microbranding workshop, noticed that most of the participants started off selling their crafts as a hobby, but the reach of Etsy meant they suddenly faced more demand for their items than they could produce.

Whereas their pre-Etsy sales may have been limited to craft fairs here and there, sellers now have the need for knowledge about things like insurance and commercial photography.

The sense of community and creativity on Etsy inspires her. "It drives that sense of artistic ego, in a good way," she says.

They like it when you hurt them
Not everyone is high on Etsy all the time. The site's forums include critical threads (like "Please let us have a shipping calculator!!!" and a petition to bring back page view counters).

To manage the complaints, suggestions and general gripes, Etsy has hired full-time employees who essentially monitor what members are thinking and saying about the site.

"If we do something wrong, it's actually their business so they're going to be vocal about it," Stinchcomb says. "We keep very meticulous notes on everything that people are asking for."

Don't look for them at halftime
Still, some sellers have criticized Etsy's marketing efforts as insufficient. But Stinchcomb says that the staff is happy with the results they've been getting and the way they've been getting them. Strategic partnerships– like holding a sewing contest in conjunction with Instructables– are one piece of the site's marketing plan. Etsy also sponsors events, such as New York's Renegade Craft Fair, and hosts regional street teams, members who get together to promote their wares and Etsy.

"We find these grassroots things are better than a $4 million advertising campaign," Stinchcomb says. "One, we don't have that kind of money, and two, I think it would be bad for our brand."

It's almost easier for him to say what the Etsy marketing strategy is not: a Super Bowl ad. "I can't see anything more antithecal to what we're about than that," he said.

Word-of-mouth is the crux of Etsy's notoriety. Stinchcomb estimates that about 80 percent of Etsy members learned of the site through word-of-mouth, and the site attracts 1,500-2,000 more members daily.

"A big ad doesn't yield as many results or as fruitful results as being out there and talking to people," Stinchcomb said.

Make money on the internet!
The beauty of the whole enterprise is that everyone stands to gain: Etsy wins when sellers promote their goods through the site, sellers gain when buyers like the site, and buyers win when they realize they can buy organic goat's milk soap from an artisan on the other side of the globe.

The genius of it isn't lost on McAbery. "It's the perfect pyramid scheme without being a pyramid scheme at all," she notes. Etsy "resonates with everyone who's involved with it," McAbery says. "(The employees) really love what they're doing."

Keep on keepin' on
The reason that Etsy is marketed and that people knows about it is that it's better than everything else," Gould says. "It's that simple."

Founder Rob Kalin recently said that the venture-financed site is "almost break-even" in profits, but with everything they've got in mind for Etsy, the money is going right back into the work. In January, Etsy announced it had secured $27 million in investments, a nice start on addressing more of those user-generated improvements.

There's more to come, Stinchcomb says. The site recently launched The Storque, a newsletter of sorts that includes everything from upcoming classes at the Etsy "labs" in Brooklyn to craft contests. Stinchcomb also coyly mentions that the Etsy team is working on site ventures involving music, film and publishing.

McAbery says it's that kind of vision that drives users to the site, and keeps them there. "I don't think that they have a ceiling," she said. "It's completely limitless because it's open to people who are creative and creative people are always coming up with new ideas."

Stinchcomb, sounding more like an activist and less like an entreprenuer, thinks it's not just the ideas but the conviction to bring them to life that is key. "I've always just been a firm believer in being true and honest to yourself," he says, "and it'll pay off in the end."


Rachel Tomlinson is a writer with a degree in Sociology and an unofficial minor in crafting. She spends far too much time in front of a computer, usually either trolling Etsy or adding objects of desire to her blog, World is Good.

See Also

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Flora Alchemy
Seeds of Inspiration