When the quirky and vintage marketplace reported its financial results last week, they revealed that the last three months of 2017 were the first ever Etsy $1 billion quarter. During that period they saw, and this means sellers saw (because Etsy doesn’t sell its own products), total buying on the site exceed $1 billion USD. That’s quite a milestone.
You can read a little more about the specifics of Etsy earnings and expenses here. But some high level information is also available .
We’re starting off the new year at Etsy with a renewed commitment to investing in your success. We ended 2017 on a high note: For the first time ever, in the fourth quarter, our seller community sold $1 billion in goods in a single quarter. That represents 17.8% growth in sales, which we refer to as Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS), compared to the same time in 2016. It’s also a 33% increase compared to the previous three months of 2017. Growth for Etsy.com should translate into more sales for sellers like you.
– Kruti Patel Goyal, GM Etsy seller services
On another note, what is pleasing about Etsy, which Tamebay remains positive about, is that as the process of reinvention they are pursuing continues, they still retain a passion for their potential as a unique and interesting marketplace and don’t seek Amazonification. This comment from the CEO, from their earnings call, is rather fine and ambitious:
In a sea of sameness, Etsy stands for something special and the world needs that now more than ever. In fact we estimate that our total market opportunity is over $155 billion and this estimate encompasses just the online portion of our top six GMS categories in our core six geographies. We believe we have a long runway for growth and we’re acting with urgency to move faster.
– Josh Silverman, Etsy CEO
A strong and varied, mixed economy of marketplaces is very much to be welomed. And the first Etsy $1 billion quarter does demonstrate that there is scope for bigger players in the ecosystem, aside from Amazon and eBay. It is also, perhaps, evidence that Etsy has turned a corner in its process to reform and develop after some dodgy results in recent years post-IPO.
