Handmade marketplace Etsy plans to overtake major retailers this holiday season

Unlike most large retailers, Etsy will not deal with issues involving suppliers and distribution centers in the pre-holiday season.

Large retailers are actively preparing for a difficult holiday shopping season, as online trading is now experiencing a real boom. An increase in purchases before the holidays is likely to lead to massive delivery delays, stock shortages, and other logistics problems. 

However, Etsy's management, reporting on the third-quarter results, stressed that the online sales platform was favorable and that most of these problems could be avoided. Etsy's main features, which proved to be the key advantages in the current situation, were small goods, lack of suppliers, and distribution centers.

Sellers at Etsy are mostly small companies, most often from one person, who do not need to rely on delivery from multiple factories. There is no need to deliver goods through different distribution centers and complex logistics systems to fulfill their orders. Also, buyers at Etsy are accustomed to longer delivery times for orders and traditionally begin early holiday shopping. That new online shopping situation equalized the company's capabilities with such significant players as Amazon. It allowed Etsy to count on more than a successful holiday season.

The third quarter of 2020 was unexpectedly successful for the company as well. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the company showed significant growth, with profits more than doubling than the third quarter of 2019 to $451.5 million. It is emphasized that this growth was mainly due to a surge in sales of face masks, with 24 million items sold through the platform in the third quarter alone.

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