Etsy

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E
tsy is an ecommerce website that is headquartered in DUMBO, Brooklyn. It allows collectors and artists to sell their vintage pieces, unique and homemade products, and art supplies. It also connects artists worldwide, hoping to inspire a push for a small business-powered economy.[1] Etsy was created in 2005 by Rob Kalish and currently has over 19 million members. It is available in 150 countries and has offices in Hudson, NY, San Francisco, CA, and Berlin, Germany. [2]
This is a picture of the Current Etsy Logo used on their website

History

In March 2005, Etsy began as an idea of carpenter, photographer, and painter Rob Kalin. At the time, Kalin believed there wasn't a good way to sell his products and felt the responsibility to create one. On June 18, 2005, Etsy launched online with the help of Halm Schoppik and Chris Maguire. [3]

When asked where the name Etsy came from, creator Rob Kalin replied,"I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini's 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes.' And in Latin, it means 'and if.'" [4]

In August 2010, Adam Freed was named COO of Etsy. [5] He stepped down from his position in September 2012. [6]

In July 2011, Chad Dickerson was named CEO of Etsy after 3 years serving as Etsy's CTO [7] Dickerson is Etsy's third CEO since taking over the role from Rob Kalin who served as CEO from 2005-2008 and then again from December 2009 to July 2011. Maria Thomas Etsy's 2nd CEO, who served from July 2008 to December 2009. [8]

In May 2012, Etsy announced that it was raising $40 million dollars to expand their company worldwide.[9]

In October 2012, Etsy reported that it created three new optional safety features that would better protect its users. The first safety feature available will prompt a user for a second password that would be sent to the user's mobile phone every 30 days and every time a new browser is used to sign in. The second feature enables the user to sign out of currently signed in sessions from a different location.The third feature allows users to enable SSL for the whole site, further protecting sensitive and private information.[10]

As of October 2012, Etsy has over $436.9 in annual sales, 19 million members, 1.7 Twitter followers, 950,000 Facebook likes, 15 million+ product listings, 42 million monthly visitors, 1.4 billion+ page views, 800,000+ shops, and yearly transactions with 150 countries.[11]

Main Features

Selling

The products that can be sold on Etsy include arts supplies, handmade products, and vintage pieces. Vintage pieces can only be listed if they are a minimum of 20 years old. In order to sell products on Etsy, one must create a username and optional shop name. (The username cannot be changed once created) Creating a shop on Etsy is free, however each listing posted in the shop costs $0.20 USD. Each listing will remain on the shop's page for 4 months, or until someone buys the product. Etsy is entitled to 3.5% of the sale price of each listing. The sale prices of products are determined by the shop owner. Before a shop owner lists a product for sale, Etsy will show the fees he/she will be charged to make sure the shop owner is aware of the net profit they will be making. Shop owners are sent a bill at the end of every month containing the fees they owe and they have until the 15th day of the following month to pay the Etsy bill. [12]

Buying

When someone wants to search for a product on Etsy, he/she types in a product description in the search bar on the homepage of the website. [13] If the user would like to choose from a list of categories, he/she can scroll down on the homepage and click on the "Categories" link on the left side of the page. This will bring the user to a page of categories that include: Accessories, Art, Bags and Purses, Bath and Beauty, Books and Zines, Candles, Ceramics and Pottery, Children, Clothing, Crochet, Dolls and Miniatures, Everything Else, Furniture, Geekery, Glass, Holidays, Housewares, Jewelry, Knitting, Music, Needlecraft, Paper Goods, Patterns, Pets, Plants and Edibles, Quilts, Supplies, Toys, Vintage, Wedding, Woodworking. Each of these categories has sub-categories below them to help the user simplify the search. [14] When a user views a product, he/she can look on the righthand side and see the positive percentage feedback of each seller to see how reliable the shop is. Once a user finds a product he/she would like to buy, he/she clicks "Add to Cart" and that product will be added to his/her virtual "Shopping Cart". The user can continue shopping or purchase that one item. The user is then brought to a page where he/she can sign in if he/she has shopped previously with Etsy, or create a free account. There is also in option to sign in with Facebook, making the sign in/registration process much quicker. The total product and shipping costs are shown to the user prior to entering payment information so the user knows exactly how much is being paid. Products listed on Etsy can be paid either with a credit/debit card (Visa, Mastercard, AmericanExpress, or Discover) or with PayPal. [15]

Registry, Community, Blog

Etsy allows users to create wedding registries[16], join teams that share common interests[17], and read/create blog posts.[18]

Philosophy

Etsy's goal is to inspire people around the world to take the power from large corporations and put it in the hands of small businesses. Etsy hopes to create a flourishing environment where people with similar interests can communicate with one another, buy one-of-a-kind goods, and explore communities and products they don't know much about. Etsy also hopes to make people realize how commendable individual authorship is. [19]

Etsy Local

In order to support its mission, Etsy has a search function on its site called "Etsy Local". Etsy Local allows users to search for and purchase products in the user's local area. This function can be found on the site by selecting the "Buy" tab on the homepage and then scrolling down and select "Shop Local" on the righthand side. The user then enters a product name followed by "in" and then enter the name of the city or country the user would like to buy from. Then a list of products corresponding to the user's search will be displayed. Users can also use the main search bar and then after searching a product, the user can scroll down and enter his/her location on the lefthand side. [20]

Etsy Labs

Etsy created Etsy Labs in order to educate people on how to create their own products and to help people interested in the arts to communicate with one another. Etsy Labs can be found in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brooklyn, Hamburg, London, Munich, Paris, Portland, and San Francisco. All of the creative workshops and events associated with Etsy Local are free of charge.[21]

Ethical Concerns

In efforts to make Etsy more of a social-network centered website, they decided to allow users to search other users' buying histories and trace their purchasing transactions. Etsy thought that this feature would allow Etsy users to connect to individuals with similar buying and/or selling histories. Etsy efforts to connect people violated the users right to privacy. [22]

Controversies

Ecologica Malibu

In April 2012, Etsy users began to demand the removal of Ecologica Malibu off its site after the shop was found to use a wholesale manufacturer. Users said that Ecologica Malibu went against the anti-big business values of Etsy.[23] C.E.O. Chad Dickerson replied to the matter in a blog post on the site where he said "Much of the information we learn from investigations can’t be shared with the larger community out of respect for the privacy of the seller being investigated, so there is a natural divergence between what the community sees when they report a seller and what we see as we go deeper on the case. … [T]here are times when available public evidence suggests that a violation of our policy is clear, and our investigations find that it’s actually not the case.” [24] Many users are still not contented by Dickerson's response.[25]

NAACP

In May 2012, the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP contacted Etsy in regards to their allowance of the sale of racist memorabilia. Etsy's site policy states that sellers can not post "Items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such views"[26], however Etsy continues to allow users to sell Gollywog Dolls and posters portraying African-Americans in a negative light. [27] When Etsy was contacted via The Grio, an NBC-operated African-American news site, Etsy's Adam Brown replied “We encourage our members to report or ‘flag’ items or sellers they feel are not compliant with Etsy’s marketplace policies, which they can do via a link on every listing or shop page...We can’t comment on private communications or on specific cases.". [28] A petition has been created in the hopes that Etsy will take down offensive merchandise off their site. [29]

Competition

Some competitors of Etsy include: DaWanda, Bonanza, Shopleaf, eFreeme, Ebay, TrEmbu, kollaborra, SilkFair, and GroopDealz. All of these sites feature homemade products, vintage goods, and/or art supplies.

Etsy's European CEO, Matt Stinchcomb, told the European news site Exberliner, "At first I was wary of the clones, but I have changed my tune. 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."[30]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/about/
  2. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/press/
  3. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/press/
  4. ↑ http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-22/living/website.name.origins.mf_1_skype-service-etsy-laser-pointer?_s=PM:LIVING
  5. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2010/introducing-etsys-new-chief-operating-officer/
  6. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/exec-changes-at-etsy-adam-freed-steps-down-from-coo-role/
  7. ↑ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/one-on-one-chad-dickerson-ceo-of-etsy/
  8. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2009/etsy-alumni-maria-thomas/
  9. ↑ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/etsy-raises-40-million-for-international-expansion/
  10. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2012/safety-and-privacy-first/?ref=about_blog_title
  11. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/press/
  12. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/sell
  13. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/?ref=si_home
  14. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/categories?ref=fp_nav_colors
  15. ↑ https://www.etsy.com/cart?ref=si_cart
  16. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/registry?ref=si_registry
  17. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/community?ref=si_com
  18. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/?ref=si_blog
  19. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/about?ref=ft_about
  20. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/local?ref=buy_page_nav_local
  21. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2009/all-about-etsy-faq-series-welcome-to-the-etsy-labs/
  22. ↑ http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/03/etsy-users-irked-after-buyers-purchases-exposed-to-the-world/
  23. ↑ http://www.dailydot.com/news/etsy-ceo-chad-dickerson-reseller-controversy/
  24. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2012/notes-from-chad-6/
  25. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/10206501
  26. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/help/article/483#prohibited
  27. ↑ http://www.etsy.com/search?q=negro%20collectible&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US&ref=auto5
  28. ↑ http://thegrio.com/2012/10/12/popular-craft-site-etsy-accused-of-racism-for-selling-sambo-golliwog-memorabilia/#s:etsy-golliwog-16x9
  29. ↑ http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-etsy-to-stop-profiting-from-prohibited-items
  30. ↑ http://www.exberliner.com/articles/five-questions-for...-etsy

External Links

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