The go-to site to buy quirky Christmas gifts for your friends and family is leaning back into its homemade, one-of-one vibe.
What happened: As Etsy struggles to attract customers with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Temu reigning supreme, the online marketplace is returning to its roots with new policies that raise the bar for what’s actually considered a ‘handmade’ item.
- Every product will now have to carry a label specifying whether it was curated, designed, sourced, or made by the seller. How those labels will be enforced isn’t clear.
- The company has seen sales and share prices plummet. Etsy stock is down 34% this year and down 80% from a 2021 peak.
Catch-up: Just two years ago, Etsy’s CEO insisted the platform could compete directly with e-commerce giants like Amazon. The company raised fees for sellers, loosened its policies around what could be sold on the platform, and let mass-produced items flood the site.
Why it matters: With more consumers, particularly younger ones, shelling out an extra buck for ethically produced, artisanal products, Etsy could become the home of a smaller, but still lucrative, chunk of the ~US$6 trillion global e-commerce market.—LA