If you want a crocheted sweater or a bespoke engraved cutting board but need help finding an artisan, you might turn to platforms like Etsy that connect buyers with artisans on their eCommerce platforms. 

The last decade has brought a massive consumer shift in mindset. Consumers today care about where their products come from, who produced them, and under what conditions they were made. They care about the impact of everything they purchase —on the workers and the environment. 

Many trends are responsible for the maturation of the artisan economy around the globe, such as the rise of e-commerce, a growing interest in the environment and sustainability, the demand for rare, unique, personalised items, and a desire to support the local economy and small businesses. 

Consumers care about sustainability, ethical consumption, and small-batch production and are looking for unique pieces with a story to add to their lives. 

There has been a massive demand for handmade products globally. Handmade or artisanal products are high quality and unique, making them desirable for people looking for one-of-a-kind products with a strong narrative. 

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The need for personalization and the recent movements supporting local businesses and artisans have also helped promote bespoke brands or handmade products.

Unlike mass-produced goods, handmade products have certain deviations, and no two products will be the same, adding to the uniqueness consumers seek in the products they purchase.

When consumers purchase a handmade product, they are also buying into the story and history behind it and building a deep connection with the artisan making the product while supporting craftsmanship and local businesses. Consumers are avoiding off-the-shelf pieces, and artisan goods are becoming a staple. 

According to a U.K. Crafts Council report, 73 percent of U.K. adults had bought a craft in 2019 —which amounts to almost 25 million handmade items. About 32 percent of today’s buyers are under 35 years of age, making the younger populations of Millennials and Gen Z the biggest craft shoppers today. There are 11,620 craft businesses in the U.K., with over 43,000 employees. 

Consumers often save crafts and techniques that face extinction and erasure by purchasing artisanal goods. And now, many big brands want to add a piece of the traditional method to their products. For instance, independent watchmaker Daizoh Makihara decided to use the traditional Japanese glass-cutting technique called Edo-kiriko for the dial of his first watch. He found eight companies that specialised in the method, but only one agreed to do it. This was Kyosuke Hayashi, the president of Mitsuwa Glass Kogei. 

In English, Edo-kiriko means “cut glass from Edo”: Edo is an old name for Tokyo, and kiriko is the name of the cutting technique. This partnership gave birth to the first edo-kiriko watch in the world in 2018. 

The weavers and artisans work hard to keep the rich Indian arts and crafts heritage alive. According to IBEF, the total handicraft exports from India reached $3.5 billion in FY20. With over 200 million artisans, India’s handicraft sector is the second largest employer after agriculture. 

While fast fashion is pressuring the environment with its heavy carbon emissions, water waste, and poor working conditions and treatment of workers, consumers are hungry for a better model that offers trendy essentials and accessories without harmful environmental and socio-economic impact.

eCommerce has enabled many skilled artisans and hobbyists to profit from their passion and talent. 

Consumer obsession and interest in handmade products have also seeped into reality T.V., and craft reality T.V. shows have become quite the rage. 

British reality show Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker is a furniture-making competition similar to a cooking contest that has captured the hearts of audiences worldwide. Every major network and various streaming platforms are in on the trend. Other similar shows include BBC’s All that Glitters, Netflix’s Blown Away, NBC’s Making It, HBO Max’s Craftopia, ITV’s Bling, and Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throwdown.  

The pandemic spurred the demand for handmade goods. Online platforms have fuelled much of this growth: in December 2018, Etsy, a U.S.-based online platform for artisans to buy and sell handmade goods, reported that there were 220,000 active sellers in the U.K. with a further 9,000 makers on Folksy, a U.K.-based online platform to purchase handcrafted gifts and original artwork, sold directly by the artists and designers who have created them.

Top handmade product categories on Etsy 

According to a report, the top handmade product category on Etsy in 2020 was home and living, with a 25 percent seller share, followed by art and collectables (21 percent), jewellery (15 percent), clothing (11 percent), accessories (8 percent), bath and beauty (6 percent), toys and games (4 percent), bags and purses (3 percent), weddings (2 percent), and books, movies and music (2 percent).

Etsy has three main sections in its online marketplace: Handmade, Vintage, and Supplies. Handmade represents 85 percent of sellers, Vintage represents 6 percent, and Supplies represent 12 percent of sellers.

Etsy, founded in 2005, now has more than 1.4 million sellers and 19.8 million buyers. Etsy focuses on handmade and vintage items and features over 5.4 million craft supply items.

Handmade gifts provide a personal touch and make the gift unique and personalised. This unique factor has driven platforms and brands that offer handmade products as popular choices during the Holidays. 

There has been an 80 percent jump in searches on the creator-driven platform Etsy for Holiday gifts in the past three months compared to last year. In 2020, CNBC reported that Etsy saw a 156 percent increase in search traffic during three months compared to the year prior for custom gifts.

Case Study: How Etsy carved a niche for the handmade sector using an e-commerce platform

The Overview

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Etsy is the largest online marketplace globally, connecting buyers to sellers of handmade and vintage goods and craft supplies. Etsy is built on a smart revenue model: it charges sellers a listing fee and a commission and upsells advertising services to push a seller’s products to boost reach. The company expanded through acquisitions, including Blackbird Tech for USD 32.5 million, Reverb in 2019 for USD 275 million, and the fashion resell marketplace, Depop in 2021 for USD 1.63 billion.

The company has competitors like Amazon Handmade, Big Cartel, Folksy, iCraft, and eBay. 

The Approach

Etsy took the value creation approach and narrowed its product offering to handmade or artisan-made products. While it has created a community of buyers and sellers, it moved its focus to buyers as the core market when eBay vet Josh Silverman took over Etsy’s reins. A year after hitting an all-time low in 2017, Etsy’s stock rebounded and grew; today, it stands at USD 119.74 a share. Defining and focusing on its key audience helped the brand grow. 

Once the brand identified its core audience, the buyers, it hiked the fees it charged its sellers from 5 percent to 6.5 percent. Even though 20,000 of its sellers went on strike, the company did not budge, and the results showed in the most recent third-quarter earnings in 2022, reporting a revenue bump of 11.7 percent over the same quarter of 2021, to USD 594.5 million. 

Etsy is also attracting more buyers to its platform via the mobile app. In 2021 alone, the brand reported a 45 percent increase in app downloads bringing 5.7 million new shoppers to download the app. The brand also leverages targeted, compelling email offers based on items favourited or shops browsed. The brand funded discounts and sent them to 18 million shoppers in 2021, and also provided discount technology allowing shoppers to discount goods from their shops. The brand also encourages buyers to follow more shops through sweepstakes and contests. 

The brand also offers multiple additional services to facilitate communication with sellers, on-platform transactions, and access to ratings and reviews. 

Etsy allows its sellers to voice their concerns with congress members and local and federal governments. And lastly, the brand continuously invests in retail technologies like machine learning via acquisitions. The brand has designed convenient distribution channels, upgraded buying and selling software and merchant services, and improved its social media presence to boost brand awareness. This month, Etsy rolled out a new image search feature to allow shoppers to find an object faster than with a keyword search. Users on iOS can now tap the camera icon and search for images by uploading a picture. Etsy then scours its platform to find products visually similar to the ones the user is searching for. Etsy plans to expand image search to Android app users soon.

The Results

Etsy’s impact on the artisan economy is robust. The most recent quarterly earnings report disclosed revenues had risen to USD 198 million, a 31.64 percent increase year over year. Etsy currently holds a market cap of just under USD 5.5 billion – quite a climb from its USD 1.1 billion market cap back in March 2017. The brand attracted 6.3 million shoppers in the third quarter of 2022, ending with 88.3 million active buyers on the Etsy marketplace.

In most developing nations, the handicraft industry is fragmented, lacking legal Intellectual Property laws surrounding its products, and artisans not getting fair compensation for their craft. 

In most countries, handcrafts are highly valued because of the high skill level and talent required and are sold in luxury stores at premium prices. However, although India has a rich culture and many categories of handicrafts, they still need to be given their deserved value and place. Ramesh Menon founded Save the Loom, a nonprofit community group to revive, restore, and restructure the handloom industry in India.

Many other such organizations are helping artisans overcome the many challenges they face. However, online platforms and eCommerce websites like Etsy, Folksy, Amazon Handmade, and others have helped create a viable worldwide path forward for the handmade industry. 

While not every product fits the artisan-made model, the lessons from this growing trend apply to all categories. Consumers want to feel connected to the story behind the product, how a product is made, and the feel-good impact on the environment and people after purchase.

For more insights into the shifting trends in online shopping and consumer behaviour around the globe, download our complete report, “The Future of Online Shopping.”