American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. As of 31 Etsy valentines day gift for him 2021, Etsy had over 120 million items in its marketplace, and the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods connected 7. Each listing will remain on the shop’s page for a maximum of 4 months, or until someone buys the product. The prices of products are set by the shop owner, but Etsy claims 6.

Living, Jewelry, Women, Men, Kids, Vintage, Weddings, Craft Supplies, Trending Items, Gift Ideas, Mobile Accessories, and more. When a buyer views a product, they can choose to view the positive percentage feedback of each seller to determine the reliability of the shop. Once a buyer finds a product they would like to buy, they click “Add to Cart”, and that product is added to their virtual “Shopping Cart”. The buyer may then either continue shopping, or purchase the selected item. Etsy has received criticism for its handling of customer data and privacy.

Most sellers are women, who tend to be college-educated and in their twenties and thirties. Etsy sellers range from hobbyists to professional artists who use the site to make a living. Etsy’s main office is in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and it has hosted open crafting classes in the “Etsy Labs”. The site’s technology, customer support, marketing, PR, business, and communications teams operate out of this office. Etsy was one of the main members of the Handmade Consortium, a 2007 effort to encourage buying handmade holiday gifts.

Etsy has partnered with the retail chain West Elm to sell some Etsy products in its stores. The site was launched in 2005 by iospace, a small company composed of Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik. The initial version had taken two and a half months to build. Later Jared Tarbell joined the team. Kalin said that he named the site Etsy because he “wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. In Italian, you say etsi a lot.

And in Latin and French, it means ‘what if’. In Etsy’s first year, it attracted attention for frequently adding new tools and functionality to the site to help sellers gain exposure and traffic, including Adobe Flash-based visualizations and a taxonomy of categories with tags. At the same time, however, some Etsy sellers expressed discontentment with how Etsy was handling complaints about stores. In July 2008, Rob Kalin ceded the position of CEO to Maria Thomas. Some longtime Etsy employees left the company in August 2008, including founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire. In April 2009, users organized an “etsyday” promotion on Twitter that brought extra attention to the site.

In March 2010, Kalin said that the company is profitable and “plans to go public, though not until at least next year”. In March 2011, Etsy “introduced a Facebook-style social networking system called People Searchto help buyers and sellers connect with each other and become friends”. By doing so, Etsy made any past purchase with feedback easily searchable, which caused many complaints. Etsy then made changes to the site to better guard information regarding users’ purchases.

In July 2011, Chad Dickerson, CTO since September 2008, became CEO, upon the firing of Rob Kalin. Etsy had been criticized in the past for inconsistently applying its rules about items having to be handmade. 40 million in Series F funding, and announced the company had become a B Corp. This B Lab certification lapsed in 2017.

On October 1, 2013, Dickerson held an online Town Hall Meeting to announce that Etsy would now permit factory-made goods and drop shipping, provided the seller either designed or hired designers of the items, disclosed to Etsy their factory, disclosed that they used factories and took “ownership” of the process. In that meeting and afterward, Etsy claimed the meaning of the word “handmade” should be redefined to encompass factory made. At the time the acquisition was the company’s largest. 93 billion on its platform, which has 54 million members. Shortly after the IPO in 2015, a group of investors filed a class action lawsuit against Etsy claiming fraud. In April 2020, Etsy issues a call to all sellers on the site to start making cloth face masks to combat COVID-19. In most locations where Etsy Payments is not available, new shops are unable to on board to Etsy.

As of April 26, 2021, most sellers opening new shops on Etsy are required to on board with Etsy Payments, which brings limitations on creating new shops in some countries. In June 2022, Etsy announced the upcoming August launch of a purchase protection program for buyers and sellers. The company stated that an item that arrives damaged, does not arrive or does not match a description, will be refunded in full for the buyer. 25 million to cover the refunds for cases where the seller is not at fault for item damage or loss.

In an interview in August 2013, CEO Chad Dickerson emphasized the importance of human interaction and meaning from creativity in regard to his perspective on Etsy. Dickerson described the website as “a platform that provides meaning to people, and an opportunity to validate their art, their craft”, and after spending time with Etsy users, Dickerson learned that “all commerce is about real human interaction”. In 2008, Etsy received a B Corporation certification but later lost it in 2017. This certification was a recognition of the company abiding by transparent and accountable practices, which includes environmental practices. Asked about competitors, Etsy’s European CEO said, “As far as I am concerned, the more people highlighting the value of supporting micro-producers and buying handmade and vintage directly from them, the better. In 2011, in an effort to add social networking features to Etsy, the company implemented features that allowed users to search other users’ buying histories and to trace their purchasing transactions.

On October 1, 2013, Etsy changed its policy to allow sellers to outsource production to third parties and factories and to use shipping or fulfillment services. The new rules allow products to be labeled “handmade” as long as the original idea for that item—or its “authorship” as C. Dickerson says—comes from its respective seller. The move has prompted at least one Etsy competitor to distinguish itself by committing never to sell manufactured items. In September 2015, Etsy made further changes to its manufacturing policy with the launch of Etsy Manufacturing, a marketplace allowing sellers to connect with outside manufacturers to fabricate their products.