Could a new gifting feature spotted by an eagle-eyed reader be the “big news” Etsy teased out last Tuesday? We asked Etsy last week, but it did not respond to our inquiry and subsequently turned off the feature.
Sellers began commenting about Etsy’s teaser on a thread on the Etsy discussion boards on Tuesday, which grew to 24 pages by Sunday evening. Some sellers were apprehensive about what Etsy was planning to introduce; some were hopeful, while others were annoyed that it was an announcement about an announcement – and that the news had yet to be announced.
One seller said it might be confirmation of a rumor that Etsy planned to run a television commercial during the Super Bowl, which set off a discussion about who Etsy was targeting and what might be the message of such an ad. (AdAge published an article last month, “Etsy Expected to Make Super Bowl Debut in 2024.”)
When sellers saw a banner at the top of the Etsy website with the message, “Something exciting is coming! Download the Etsy app to stay tuned,” sellers thought there must be more to the announcement than news that it would be running a TV commercial.
Speculation about what the news might be included a loyalty program; a new “discounted reseller section to compete with Temu; or a new site just for Print on Demand goods.
By Thursday, sellers had spotted the Gift Mode feature (which was available intermittently and turned off on Friday). The page said: “If you need gift ideas for anybody – and we mean ANYBODY – in your life, you’ve come to the right place. By answering a few simple questions, this fun gift finder will suggest the perfect presents based on the occasion, the person’s interests, and more.”
A seller who played around with the Gift Mode feature while it was still available shared their thoughts in this post. (The shopper enters who they are shopping for, the occasion, and the recipient’s likes, and Etsy returns a selection of items.) One underwhelmed seller wrote, “If that was it ( I highly doubt it ) then these people would celebrate opening an envelope.”
One seller wondered how a Gift Mode would attract new buyers – “I really don’t understand how showing more gifts to people who already come here to buy gifts would equate to more and new buyers,” they wrote.
One seller said Etsy had asked them to participate in a survey that indicated the marketplace might be thinking about offering a fulfillment service for sellers similar to Amazon FBA (“Quick survey: Are the items in this listing ready to pack and ship when you receive an order?”).
While it might seem odd for a marketplace like Etsy to offer fulfillment services for unique goods, some sellers of handmade goods who sell on Amazon Handmade use Amazon fulfillment. The seller who encountered the survey said, “From a business standpoint it would make more sense for them to open a warehouse then it would to spend $8 million on a 30 second Super Bowl ad.”
Sellers also discussed the teaser announcement on Reddit.
