Etsy, founded in 2005 by a team of three businesspeople, is an e-commerce site selling handmade and vintage items, as well as art and crafts supplies. Considered by many a "digital craft fair", sellers worldwide are given personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee of $0.20 per item. Etsy has been described in the e-commerce world as "a combination of Amazon, Ebay, and your grandmother's basement". It's clearly working for them: as of August 2013, they are reporting 30 million users and over $1 billion in total annual transactions. But instead of me telling you, hear it from the workers in Etsy's office located in Brooklyn, New York.
In terms of Web 2.0 strategy, they employ a one-to-one marketing approach. They recommend items to the user based on one's past purchases. Continuing with their charming and quirky branding, they refer to this section as "Handpicked Items".
Etsy does an excellent job of tackling the Principles of Wikinomics. Firstly, they excel at openness. They are incredibly transparent to their customers: in an August 2013 interview with CEO Chad Dickerson revealed their company ethos:
"At the end of every transaction, you get something real from a real person. There is an existential satisfaction to that."
They also recognize issues within the company that need to be resolved: for example, in April 2012, they announced steps were being taken to hire more women engineers to improve the gender balance of its team and to better understand their target demographic.
Additionally, external contributions are what drives the site as a whole. Without outside sellers, the website would fail to function as a whole. It is incredibly simple to sell, with Etsy charging $0.20 to post a listing and taking 3.5% of every sale post-purchase.
In terms of a hierarchy, Etsy on the whole follows a peering organization. Etsy has a definitive CEO, Chad Dickerson, and a few other upper-level managers, including a COO, CTO, and Vice President of Finance. Below them are directors, and after that the lines of "upper-level management" becomes blurred. Worldwide, there are approximately 400 Etsy employees, and the company encourages self-organization and open, continuous dialogue.
Sharing is an integral part to Etsy's strategy. By sharing their intellectual property with sellers internationally, the business is able to sustain itself while marketing the goods of others. Etsy acts as a wonderful resource for individuals worldwide to sell their items, ultimately sharing their technology and bandwidth. Even though e-commerce is a competitive business, even European CEO Philip Flynn is quoted as seeing the benefits of collaborating.
"As far as I am concerned, the more people highlighting the value of supporting micro-producers and buying handmade vintage directly from them, the better."
Etsy performs as a global marketplace. Although the company originated in America, their shop is accessible worldwide, and sellers are invited to offer worldwide shipping. They have employees around the world but they work as one, ultimately serving the same website. They have a standardized support hotline that can be accessed anywhere in the world, and the same FAQ section for every country.
As a major fan of Etsy, I find their business model to be innovative and effective. They have managed to combine the charm of artisan shops with the highly successful Web 2.0 business methodology while profiting. They are incredibly transparent in their business practices, which are seemingly very honorable and humane. Their webpage is easy to navigate and user-friendly, making it easy for users to buy and sell vintage and handmade items. Etsy has found their niche in the world of e-commerce, and they offer a service that is unmatched by similar websites.
