Etsy is a website dedicated to the buying and selling of handmade, vintage, art and craft-based items. According to a member of its product marketing team Heather Burkman, the Fine Jewellery browse section was launched in time for Valentine’s Day this year and highlighted more expensive jewellery items. Visits reportedly declined after the holiday.
“We've observed that Fine Jewellery is less popular as an individual browse section, and shoppers who visit it are less likely to purchase than those who visit other browse sections,” Burkman said.
Jewellery has the largest number of listings on the website and the Fine Jewellery section was initiated in order to explore new ways to shop the category.
“We learned a lot from Fine Jewellery, and we’ll apply those learnings to further explorations in jewellery and beyond.”
Etsy’s move may be an indication that people looking to buy fine jewellery are not likely to search for items on an arts and crafts style website, regardless of whether it contains fine jewellery.
Director of creative marketing agency TwoCents Group Simon Dell told Jeweller he believed Etsy’s decision was about realigning with its “correct” target market rather than a reflection that selling fine jewellery online was not a successful business decision.
“I would suggest that if people want to sell on there, they should make sure their product 'fits' with the rest of the vibe of the site,” Dell explained.
He said the website was ideal for start-up jewellery businesses that manufacture small scale, lower budge items.
Etsy has a dedicated site for Australia and New Zealand, featuring location-appropriate shipping and pricing information and – in addition to items manufactured overseas – also highlights local vendors.
In May 2012, Etsy raised $US 40 million in Series F funding which it says will partly go towards expanding its international markets, including Australia, France and Germany.
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