As the novel coronavirus pandemic ravaged the world and severely damaged whole industries of business, it also helped crafty entrepreneurs grow their stores on Etsy.
With the sudden unexpected demand for cloth face coverings, to make a fortune selling on Etsy, you needed three things. First, you needed to be familiar with the garment industry — ideally, already working in it. Second, you needed to be based somewhere, where cheap, speedy delivery is available. And third, you needed energy, because shipping tens of thousands of masks a month with a tiny crew meant working late into the night, then getting up early the next morning to do it all again.
For those who went all in, the effort was worth it: some small Etsy shops became big businesses overnight, doing in excess of $1 million in mask sales since the beginning of the pandemic.
“It’s been a question of ‘When is it gonna end?’ When is it gonna end?’” said one larger seller. “And you’re put in this peculiar position. Because now I find myself looking at pandemic news, and it’s kind of… if the cases go down, mask sales go down.”
Between April and June, shoppers purchased $346 million worth of masks from Etsy stores, more than 5 percent of which would be pocketed by Etsy itself. It was an enormous surge for the site. Masks accounted for more than one out of every 10 dollars spent on the platform that quarter. For sellers, it was also a huge opportunity: a lucrative new market that existing shops hadn’t cornered. There was money to be made for anyone who wanted it — and for those who already knew the ins and outs of manufacturing, there was a lot of it.
More than 100,000 sellers started offering masks on Etsy during those three months, and most of them appear to be typical Etsy sellers: individuals, predominantly women, who make products by hand in their homes. Many had already been on the platform for years.
At the same time, other online retailers such as Amazon and eBay were busy cracking down on sales of face masks in order to prioritize hospitals. Amazon sellers complained that they had to go through a specific application process in order to get their listings approved, which rarely happened. eBay banned mask sales in March and didn’t start allowing cloth masks to be sold until May 1st. In the month eBay waited, 12 million masks were sold on Etsy.
So why wait? If you are an Amazon seller looking for a new business opportunity, head to Etsy.
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