Etsy

Etsy is a global online marketplace with a clear and distinctive identity: it exists to connect buyers with sellers of handmade, vintage, and unique goods — the things you cannot find on Amazon or in a high street chain. Founded in Brooklyn, New York in 2005, Etsy has grown into a publicly traded company with tens of millions of active buyers and sellers in over 190 countries, generating well over $10 billion in annual gross merchandise sales.

The Etsy proposition is simple and powerful. For buyers, it offers access to one-of-a-kind items — handcrafted jewellery, custom clothing, personalised gifts, vintage furniture, art prints, and creative supplies — that have genuine personality and story behind them. For sellers, it provides a ready-made audience of shoppers specifically seeking this kind of product and willing to pay a premium for it. The discovery experience on Etsy — browsing through visually rich listings that tell a maker's story — is quite different from the utility-first shopping experience on mainstream marketplaces.

The seller community

Etsy's seller base includes millions of micro-businesses and independent creators, many of whom run their Etsy shop as their primary or sole source of income. Etsy's fees include a listing fee of $0.20 per item, a 6.5% transaction fee on completed sales, and payment processing fees. There is also an optional Etsy Ads programme that allows sellers to promote their listings within Etsy search results.

Etsy's growth and acquisitions

Etsy has extended its marketplace model through acquisitions: Reverb (musical instruments marketplace), Depop (social shopping for second-hand fashion, popular with Gen Z), and Elo7 (Brazilian handmade goods marketplace, subsequently divested). These acquisitions reflect Etsy's strategy of building a portfolio of niche, community-driven marketplaces rather than competing head-on with general merchandise giants.