Etsy Marketplace Sales Decline 4.7% in Q1 over Last Year

Etsy published its financial results for the first three months of the year on Wednesday. Etsy marketplace GMS (Gross Merchandise Sales) was $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2023, which was down 4.7% year-over-year and down 2.6% on a currency-neutral basis.

Consolidated GMS (Etsy also owns Reverb, Depop, and Elo7) was $3.1 billion, down 4.6% year-over-year and down 2.6% on a currency-neutral basis.

Etsy’s consolidated revenue was up 10.6% in Q1, compared to the first quarter of 2022, noting it reflected the fee increase that went into effect in April of 2022 (In other words, it was a reminder that Etsy had been charging lower selling fees in Q1 of 2022).

Active sellers were up 3.8%, and active buyers were up 0.4% (that’s more sellers fighting for virtually the same number of buyers as last year).

Etsy disclosed it had 5.9 million active sellers as of March 31, 2023. It also noted: “We continued to expand our Star Seller program with the number of sellers included in the program up nearly 80% year-over-year, and we introduced a Star Seller filter in our search, which led to increased purchase frequency and buyer spend.”

The Etsy marketplace grew active buyers by 1% year-over-year to 89.9 million, the first time this metric has grown on a year-over-year basis since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Etsy also stated, “We acquired 7 million new buyers, reactivated 21% more buyers than during the prior year period, and retained active buyers at levels above pre-pandemic rates on a trailing twelve month basis. On a quarterly basis, retention trends improved both from the prior year and the prior quarter.”

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman was quoted in Wednesday’s earnings press release:

“We are pleased that Etsy has once again delivered solid top and bottom line performance in the first quarter, maintaining the vast majority of our pandemic gains in the face of stiff macroeconomic headwinds.

“We’ve kicked off an exciting pipeline of product development and marketing initiatives to drive improved customer experiences and engagement in 2023.

“We believe that Etsy can be more relevant, more often, to many more millions of buyers around the world. So we’ll be focused on welcoming new buyers to the joy of Etsy, deepening buyer curiosity and engagement, instilling trust when transacting with us, and being the preferred platform for our sellers because we help them grow effectively and efficiently.”

The full press release is available on the Etsy website.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.