Thursday, December 10, 2009

Business model example: Etsy - Mass customization of arts and crafts

Customization has traditionally been costly with plenty of long-tail producers and customers spread out over the world, too small to set up shop on the average city street without expensive pricing. Etsy aggregates the long tail in an online marketplace for handmade goods with the goal to enable people around the world to make a living making things. The company provides a platform for users to buy and sell items listed under broad categories and user-defined tags. Where Ebay attracts brand-name bargain-hunters, people go to Etsy looking for something handmade, something unique, and find more than 250 000 sellers from around 100 different countries. The company collects a 20 cents listing fee and a 3.5% commission on each item sold, and sells slots in a showcase (internal advertising program for sellers to show off) of featured items for $7 a day. Etsy offers workshops to help entrepreneurs sell their stuff on its platform and market their products using social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

No comments:

Post a Comment