Etsy Becomes Corporate

'Etsy' is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft supplies and tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old.

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. 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' (actually it's "eh, si"). 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. Etsy passed $1.7 million in sales in May 2007. On July 29, Etsy had its one-millionth sale and anticipated its two-millionth sale would occur mid-December 2007. In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy, an increase of 43 percent from October 2007.

The goal of Etsy from day one was to launch a platform that would enable crafters and makers to share what they loved making, while making a profit. Clearly, this was happening but not without problems. Out goal today is to determine how the corporatization of Etsy changed the companies mission.

Questions

1. What was the intent behind the creation of Etsy? Was Etsy successful at accomplishing the original goal? Explain your rationale.
2. What caused the transition from Etsy as a shop for makers to a corporate business for profit? Why did this change the culture of Etsy? There are a multitude of factors but the creator of Etsy, Rob Kalin, points to one specific cause.
3. What specific changes have come from the pursuit of profits at Etsy? Shipping costs is an example.

Sources

• https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/9/4/20841475/etsy-free-shipping-amazon-handmade-josh-silverman