The people who run the site are located all around the globe. These places include: Brooklyn, San Francisco, Berlin, Dublin, London, and Toronto and the site is accessible to anyone around the world. So, basically someone from China can buy a handmade shirt made by someone in Canada just with the click of a button. Etsy makes it very easy for people to access anything they want.
Etsy is unique because it is a place for individual people or small companies to sell their products to anyone in the world. It is different from EBay and Amazon because it the goods on Etsy are made by the people selling them. Etsy is not a place to sell your old cell phone or your used college textbooks. This is one of the reasons that I find Etsy to be so interesting. Each product sold on the site is sourced and produced uniquely depending on the seller. In some cases, the consumer can even customize what they want and the seller will create it by hand. Many of the products sold on here are handmade.
Etsy has a lot of unique items to offer that are created by individual artists and small companies. Supporting these people and buying their products can really impact their success. Probably even more so than supporting a huge company like Target or Macys.
I looked at one product in particular, which was this nameplate bracelet. It is being sold by a small company called Luca Jewelry. This company uses Etsy to sell their personalized jewelry. So, if a person see's this bracelet and likes it, they would purchase it with specific personalization instructions. Then someone would create this piece specifically for them. This is how a lot of the products are on Etsy. I think that it is very cool and gives everything a very unique, one of a kind feel that cannot be achieved through products from some larger chain stores.
I was mostly intrigued by this uniqueness of everything sold on Etsy. A huge amount of the goods sold on the site are created by hand which like I said before, gives it a very one of a kind quality. I also think it is really cool to be able to support these small companies and independent artists so easily.
I was mostly intrigued by this uniqueness of everything sold on Etsy. A huge amount of the goods sold on the site are created by hand which like I said before, gives it a very one of a kind quality. I also think it is really cool to be able to support these small companies and independent artists so easily.
Sources:
I absolutely love Etsy! I think the things on their sites are so beautiful, and I would much rather support them than a big retailer. I love how customizable everything is, and it is definitely unique. Their prices are even pretty reasonable on a lot of items. Good post!
ReplyDeleteEtsy is a very interesting retailer considering they sell many items that are handmade and many of them are so unique that only a handful of people actually make them. It’s also very interesting to learn that the people who actually run the site are from cities all over the world. I think it’s a great idea to offer these products to people from different parts of the world as well because it helps people reach different markets that they normally would not have access to. I have actually bought a few products from Etsy before mostly for Christmas presents for some friends and family. I had a very positive experience and the items I ordered came out perfectly. Etsy is definitely an online retailer that I would recommend to anyone. I really enjoyed reading your post again this week and you provided a lot of very interesting information about Etsy. Great post again this week!
ReplyDeleteHaving handmade items are definitely more interesting than having mass produced ones. As a seller I would love to see my work go to people all over the world!
DeleteI'm really glad you explored this company because after seeing my friend buy her wedding headpiece from this website, I was curious to what it was. I always try to buy items for my home and jewelry from craft shows because I love supporting local businesses vs. big retailers. I almost see Etsy as a big online craft show! I especially liked your links about how having a business on Etsy is exactly like having a physical business in real life, it takes work and dedication. What's even more amazing is that Etsy is offering entrepreneur lessons to small business owners. This would be some great information to include on your blog.
ReplyDeleteHere's a good article I found in reference to that:
http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2013/etsys-craft-entrepreneurship-program-launches-in-rockford-and-nyc/
Even though Etsy helps localize our economies should we be concerned about the products being Fair Trade or sustainability made? Do you think there is any way to regulate this?
Make sure to link your sources so we can easily navigate to them and to source your image with a caption. To encourage some personal voice, do you have any history of using Etsy and would you use it after learning this information?