Who Buys On Etsy? Understand Audience & Demographics (Statistics)

According to an article by Fortune.com, (see link in the description below), as of 2015, 86% of Etsy sellers were women.

Even today, the crafting worlds seem to be dominated by women or those who identify as female and have created an online atmosphere of breathtaking creations that help these women to supplement their income.

While not all Etsy sellers are female, the majority of Etsy buyers tend to be.

What’s the typical audience on Etsy?

Between the ages of 18-35, Etsy customers make up a large number of Millenials, with outliers of older generations who love to buy their crafts from the online creative community. Of those Millenials, many Etsy customers are female; the top categories on Etsy are for bridal parties, brides, and weddings.

Etsy’s 86M+ active users come from 200+ countries.

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Typical Demographic Profile of Etsy Buyers:

According to statistics that were active in 2015, the majority of sellers on Etsy identified as female – a whopping 86% of them.

This may have influenced the marketplace going forward, and creating a culture on Etsy that has a bit more of a feminine design element to many of its products.

While there are male sellers on Etsy that sell products that are marketed toward females as well, the majority of sellers are females marketing to females. This has made the buyer demographic young and female by the result.

According to Statista, an online statistics tool, as of 2017, 81% of all buyers on Etsy were female, with only 19% of them being male.

Of that 81 % of females, 15% of them were younger than the age of 25, and the majority of Etsy buyers were between 25-40 years of age.

(See reference links below for more information)

Typical Etsy Customer?

The average, and typical Etsy customer in 2020, then, based upon this evidence, would be young people between the ages of 18-35 who identify as female.

This means that if you are going to sell to someone on Etsy, you could either sell to the average buyer on the site or branch out and try to find your niche demographic!

Who Are Etsy’s Target Market and Audience?

Etsy’s target market and audience are young women with money to spend.

The air and culture of handmade, vintage, original designs, and bright color pallets are huge pulls for Etsy’s market audience. While this is by no means the ONLY audience on Etsy, top-rated and top-selling shops tend to gear toward this market.

For example, shops that we’ve mentioned in previous articles like ModParty and CaitlynMinimalist are those that cater to women’s jewelry and bridal parties or wedding decorations.

These products are proactively purchased by female customers, too.

Because of successes like these shops, many others on Etsy are following their example and catering to the same sort of market and demographic.

How Many Sellers and Customers Does Etsy Currently Have?

Etsy is a gigantic marketplace to this very day with hundreds of thousands of shops, sellers, and millions of products on their site, with even more millions of customers generating traffic and revenue each year.

Active Users:

Etsy has 86.26 million active users, including 4.36 million active sellers and 81.9 million active buyers.
Almost 94 million people are active buyers on Etsy
There are 7.3 million sellers.

In 2018, Etsy sellers overall throughout the entire marketplace and the world earned 3.9 billion dollars in revenue. Of that amount, Etsy’s fees and service charges earned the company 604 million dollars.

The number of active sellers in 2018 was 2.1 million, with 39.4 million active buyers generating revenue for the site.

Quick Etsy Facts & Numbers

Revenue:

Etsy generated $2.5 billion in revenue in 2022, a 10.1% increase year-over-year.
Etsy’s revenue from mobile sales increased by 24% year-over-year in 2022.
Etsy’s revenue from advertising increased by 34% year-over-year in 2022.
Etsy’s revenue per active buyer increased by 9.3% year-over-year in 2022.

Losses:

Etsy had a net loss of $0.6 billion in 2022, its first annual loss in six years.

Gross Merchandise Volume:

Etsy’s gross merchandise volume remained stable at $13.3 billion in 2022.

Top Selling Categories:

Etsy’s top selling categories are Home & Living, Jewelry, and Craft Supplies & Tools.

Top Selling Countries:

Etsy’s top selling countries are the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Mobile App:

Etsy’s mobile app has been downloaded over 33 million times.

Average Order Value and Conversion Rate:

Etsy’s average order value increased by 5.7% year-over-year in 2022.
Etsy’s conversion rate (the percentage of visits that result in a sale) was 3.05% in 2022.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU):

Etsy’s Avg. revenue per user was $29.14 in 2022.

Global Reach:

Etsy’s active sellers come from over 200 countries.
Etsy has over 90 million items for sale on its platform.
Etsy has over 2.9 million active buyers in Germany, making it the platform’s
largest market outside of the United States.

Workforce:

Etsy has a global workforce of over 1,800 employees.

Most Expensive Item Sold:

The most expensive item ever sold on Etsy was a vintage automobile for $65,000.

Etsy’s Recent Decline

With the implementation of more Etsy seller services, such as “Pattern” and “Etsy Plus,” sellers are experiencing more fees with fewer sales.

This is largely due to the Etsy search engine, which we’ve exhaustively covered in our other articles, “How Quickly Do New Etsy Listings Show Up?” & “Why Do My Etsy Views Go Down? 8 Tips to Know,“.

Etsy is a less intelligent Google when it comes to finding shops, products, and the exact thing you’re looking for.

If you’re not someone like me who is constantly researching Etsy, you probably spend an hour searching over and over again in the Etsy search bar, trying to find information on the product you’re looking for.

This is because Etsy’s algorithm will pick up every single keyword, product description, and title tag that Etsy sellers paste onto their products and then show them to you.

Unless they are incredibly specific, buyers will spend upwards of one hour or more, not finding what they’re looking for, or they will settle for something else instead.

Etsy’s Future?

While the demographics and statistics for 2019 and 2020 are more difficult to attain than the 2018 results, which were some of the most positive, it is clear that Etsy may be on the decline.

2020 could bring about a much bigger boom than we expect, but right now, Etsy sellers and community members are working hard to get their sales back up from 2019’s decline.

What Are Some Interesting Niche Demographics on Etsy?

Niche demographics on Etsy are centered around specific social cultures that exist within the same age range of customers, even if they aren’t always female.

The millennial audience – male or female – exists within the Etsy sphere, as younger people are more likely to purchase from small business owners than large corporations on principle – if their funds allow it.

This is due to the “hipster” generation, those who are stereotyped to write on typewriters or only eat organically. While these stereotypes are usually supposed to insult millennials for being picky or overly dramatic, instead it stems from a real need to try and move away from corporate greed, and support the underdog of industry – the small business owner.

Men & Outdoorsmen

Men and women who love the outdoors or the natural world love Etsy for many reasons – woodworking and metalworking being the top reasons.

These Etsy shops create amazing creations of jewelry, keepsake boxes, charms, necklace amulets, symbols, and nameplates.

Furthermore, you can get wedding rings made from tungsten, deer antler, oak, pine, or any other wood, metal, or bone material you can think of.

This is a great niche market, and you find a lot of great, successful shops on Etsy within this niche. Giving it a try requires a lot of experience in metalworking or woodworking, but it is well worth it in the end.

Fantasy & Costuming

Also not necessarily geared toward young women (though young women love it all the same) is fantasy clothing and costuming.

Etsy is known for selling handmade shirts, sweaters or pants, but there are those on Etsy who also sell feather ear cuffs, elf ears, cloaks, armor, headdresses, Scottish clan kilts, and other fantasy costuming or heritage designs.

This niche market is a little flooded, but there aren’t many of them who are true professionals.

If you are good at this sort of creation or category, you could truly hone your designs, use the best materials, and stand out from the crowd in this fun and engaging niche!

Fake Food & Designs

This market is a huge one, but it is incredibly specific.

Fake food is a universal demographic product that many Etsy sellers create by the hundreds. From cake earrings to film set foods, these amazing crafts are a really cool niche market.

If you are someone who loves to sculpt, paint, and share your creations, this one might be for you!

Stationary & Stickers

One of the biggest markets on Etsy, stationary, stickers, planners, and other paper goods is completely universal and gives you a lot of options for creation and selling.

Many sellers won’t even sell the physical product, but instead, make money from instant PDF downloads or design downloads that customers can print at home. This saves you shipping costs and time!

If you are a graphic designer and are looking to sell many different products quickly to customers all around the world, this is the niche for you.

Should I Target the Main Demographic Audience With a New Etsy Shop?

Targeting the common demographic on any site is a safer bet than going rogue in a new niche.

However, it also means you have much more competition – even with a massive pool of customers you run the risk of getting overlooked by millions of potential buyers for other shops that have been there for years.

If you do decide to go into a less-known niche, you need to consider that your products will only have a small customer base, rather than millions of options.

However, your competition is much smaller, and you have the potential to become a big and successful shop in that niche.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you are studying the market that you want to sell in, seeing what sells, what doesn’t, and meet the expectations of your customers each and every time.

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