Etsy, eCommerce With a Focus On The Unique
Etsy created this “electronic press release” to show how hand made products are created, shared, sold, and discussed on their community site.
All of the products are hand made and are unique, unlike the mass produced commercial products are sold. Think back a few years, this wasn’t possible, hand made items would be generally limited in distribution to local stores, craft shows, or maybe some type of catalog.
How is Esty different? While Craigslist is more impersonal, Etsy focuses on building community, relationships and even online events (like a virtual craft show). Ebay, which certainly has similar features, doesn’t cater to only these unique handmade items.
Now, the web provides access for anyone to share unique items, and benefit from a global storefront. Expect more of smaller, individual, and customized goods to be created, traded, and sold due to the web.
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[…] Let’s finish with a little video about Etsy (via Jeremiah) […]
i’m eager to see what Etsy does with the 27 million in venture money they just secured!
What a coincidence..the founder is the brother of a kid I went to high school with. I just sent this video to him.
They just accepted $17 million in funding after 3 years of working to form this p2p community marketplace for “home-wares.”
Wrote a small post on it & some of their proposed advertising ideas for 2008 that you can view here:
http://www.brentter.com/etsycom-gets-27-million-investment/
It’s a service i’ve used to get presents for friends on multiple occasions. You’re buying the product directly from the person who made it, which other than being cool in itself, also helps make sure that there is little to no chance that whoever you give the gift to runs into others with the same item (i.e. these aren’t your typical “Urban Outfitter” type vendors (well, most aren’t anyways), so the products offered are unique… and sometimes extremely strange, but then again, there’s a market for everything…
I love Etsy. I’ve bought most of my Christmas presents there and a custom present for my mom’s 50th.
The NY Times had a brilliant piece on etsy and the whole handmade-movement: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16Crafts-t.html
[…] Etsy, eCommerce With a Focus On The Unique All of the products are hand made and are unique, unlike the mass produced commercial products are sold. Think back a few years, this wasn’t possible, hand made items would be generally limited in distribution to local stores, craft shows, or maybe some type of catalog. […]