Etsy, the online marketplace for all things handmade, got its start in Brooklyn 11 years ago as a quirky alternative to anonymously and cheaply produced goods. It was personal and artisanal, a crafts fair of the obscure and mundane. Among the millions of items for sale: a taxidermied Siberian weasel, a vintage Underwood typewriter modified to work as a keyboard, and T-shirts that say “I Can’t Adult Today.” Four years ago, the New York company was certified by the nonprofit B Lab as a B Corp, which means it considers social and environmental pursuits as important as financial ones.
Now Etsy is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. It calls itself a tech company and its sellers “creative entrepreneurs.” And it has Silicon Valley-size ambitions. Etsy executives are no longer content to oversee a cheery outpost that stands aloof from the e-tailing mainstream. “Our mission is to reimagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world,” says Chad Dickerson, who was promoted from chief technology officer to chief executive in 2011. “We don’t want what Etsy is doing to be a marginal niche effort.” What Etsy is doing, he says, is humanizing each piece of the supply chain, including manufacturing.
First, Etsy had to reimagine the definition of handmade itself. Now a seller (about 85 percent are women) need only show “authorship” over an item’s design and development, take responsibility for how it’s put together, and be transparent about how many hands are involved. To this end, Etsy has allowed manufactured goods to be sold on the site for more than two years. In September the company introduced a program to help sellers connect with approved factories.
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