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Etsy's Exciting Surge

Have you ever heard of Etsy before?

Etsy was one of the fortunate companies that were able to benefit from the pandemic. The e-commerce website was launched in June 2005 in Brooklyn, New York. It was inspired by a group of friends that wanted a place where they could sell their handmade crafts online. Etsy is an online e-commerce site that focuses on handmade or vintage items and craft suppliers. On their site, they offer a wide range of items for consumers to search for. These items include jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor, toys, food, art, etc.

I wanted to see how profitable the company has been so I did a search over Yahoo Finance to see its growth over the past five years.

Looking at this chart there was not a noticeable increase until the year 2020. From the trend line, it appears that Etsy is now entering the growth phase. I think the company will continue to see growth throughout this upcoming year, but not at the level of volume it has been at. The vaccine has become more widely available, and consumers are starting to do more activities outside of their homes.

How did Etsy gain success?

They were the go-to destination for facemasks, and they were my go-to destination as well. I purchased facemasks off their site and was happy to be supporting small businesses during these hard times. Etsy is a website site full of independent sellers. These sellers on the site understood the demand for masks and were able to make these new necessities. Facemasks were responsible for bringing new customers to Etsy, resulting in $740 million in sales for these items. I do not think they can maintain this advantage in the long term. I say this because there is a high supply of masks at this point and people have already bought what they needed.

On the marketing end, Etsy has increased spending on digital forms such as search engine ads. The company has also doubled its spending for more brand-focused ads such as TV commercials. I think that Etsy is smart for increasing its spending on marketing activities. Consumers are aware of Etsy and now is a perfect time for the company to capitalize on that.

Etsy had 81 million active buyers in its fiscal year, and it is going to be important for the company to hang on to those customers. If it weren't for the customers Etsy would not have been able to achieve this level of growth so quickly. Moving towards the future, I think that Etsy will be in good shape. They offer a wide selection of items and even have included reopening-friendly categories that include personalized clothing and wedding décor. However long the pandemic ends up sticking around for I think that people will continue to use Etsy for all their unique and creative needs.

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Future of Retailing

What does the future of retailing look like?

It has been evident that the pandemic has impacted the way we conduct business. For example, many companies had to rethink their distribution strategies to offer more online, in-store, at-home delivery, and much more.

This past week DeSales University's Council for Retail and Sales hosted a video conference with Scott Eckert, a Walmart senior vice president who is in charge of its No. 8 store. I had the privilege of attending and heard him speak on the innovations happening at Walmart right now.

Store No. 8 was formed in 2017 as part of Walmart's larger initiative to shape the future of retailing. To many people's surprise Store No. 8 is not a physical store, but more of an incubation center. They partner with start-up companies to test, learn and rehearse their ideas. If the idea does not work they change their plan around quickly. On the other hand, if the idea is a success they will then implement it on a larger retail space.

How is Walmart responding?

In order to respond to the changes occurring, Walmart has been investing in new technology across its supply chain. In the presentation, Eckert talked about a new in-home delivery service that Walmart is going to start rolling out. The company is trying to make it more convenient for consumers to get their groceries delivered. They have created a membership-based service that consumers can purchase. The service will allow for an employee to literally enter their homes or garages in order to stock their fridge. He mentioned that employees would be equipped with body cameras in order to ensure safety or if there was a problem they could easily go back and check the footage.

I am curious to see how consumers are going to respond to this new service that is going to be offered. I personally would feel uncomfortable about someone else entering my home to stock the fridge, but everyone has their own preferences. I could see this working well for a family that has a fridge in their garage because that would eliminate the person from having to walk into your home. I think that if consumers are willing to try a new service it will end up saving them time and energy. It may take some time for people to get comfortable with this idea, but I think that Walmart is trying something new and should be recognized for its efforts. Would you be willing to sign-up for Walmart's in-home delivery services?

I also have included the link to their website in case anyone would like to learn more about Store No. 8.

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House Plant Hype!

2020 is the year that will go down in infamy for being the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. If this year has taught us anything it is to expect the unexpected. In these times of uncertainty, it has become clearer than ever the need for self-care and navigating this new "normal".

Mental health has been an area of concern since the start of the pandemic. People having to isolate themselves due to lock-down restrictions, others having to switch to working from home, and students having to pivot online has brought forth new challenges. People are feeling fear, worry, and stress which are all normal responses to a potential threat. The pandemic has affected everyone's daily life and there has been a big emphasis placed on self-care.

Self-care is defined as the practice of taking action in order to preserve or improve one's own health. To take action people, for example, have been buying indoor plants. I know personally, my mom and sister had bought house plants when the pandemic hit and really have found joy in taking care of them. I also have noticed the growing number of Facebook groups that have been created for plant parents. Communities of people have been connecting with one another and sharing pictures of their plants and asking for advice if they accidentally neglected one. I did a search on Facebook Groups just to see the amount of interest in indoor plants.

I was honestly surprised the see the number of people that have joined these groups. People have been meeting up with one another to buy, sell, and trade plant clippings in order to spread the plant wealth. Plants have been costing people anywhere from $5 and can reach upwards to $300-$1000+. There is definitely potential in the plant market and I think that people will continue to purchase plants once restrictions have been eased. I am curious, have you purchased a plant in the past year?

I wanted to get a better idea of people's interest in indoor plants just to see if it will be around more long term, so I did a Google Trends search. I wanted to see how frequently people have searched the term indoor plants over the past three years, and this is what I found.

From looking at this chart you can tell that in early 2018 there was a low volume of searches for the term. It was not until March 2020 that there was a noticeable increase in the term frequency searched. This matches up with when everyone was on lock-down and the term indoor plants started gaining public interest. The trend seemed to take a dip at the beginning of 2021, but I think with the weather getting warmer the trend will grow. My hope is that you learned more about the plant market and maybe it even inspired some of you to go out and buy a plant of your own!