Etsy User Demographics – Who Shops at Etsy?
Etsy User Demographics – Who Shops at Etsy?
Understanding more about the typical Etsy shopper will no doubt help your marketing strategies for your shop. There are two ways the information could help – either try to appeal to that target, typical viewer or go completely off course and fill a niche.
Below are some statistics the HandmadeMarketing.org team found out about Etsy user demographics:
- How Many People Come to Etsy? According to Quantcast, Etsy.com reaches over 2.2 million people each month in the United States alone.
- Who’s Looking at My Shop. Quantcast found that Etsy.com mostly attracts a young adult female audience. In February 2009, Etsy saw male viewers account for 33% and female viewers account for the remaining 67%. Visitors ages 18-34 accounted for 43% of the total visitors to Etsy.com. In addition, 88% were caucasian, 69% had no children, 48% make less than $60,000/year. Interestingly, 62% have a college education under their belt. What does all this mean? Your typical Etsy.com potential buyer is a 18-34 year old college-educated white female with no children, who makes less than $60,000/year. Keep in mind this information was gathered in February 2009 and only includes the Etsy user demographics for those in the United States.
- When Do They Come? Potential buyers peaked in the month of December 2008. Our team attributes this to the holiday season. Lesson for next year? Make sure you are ready to go by November to prepare for those holiday shoppers!
- What Do They Like To Do? One way to connect to a potential buyer is to know what that buyer likes to do. Quantcast lists these top lifestyle activities for Etsy users:
- Hobbies and Collectibles (9%)
- Home and Gardening (5.2%)
- Home Decor and Design (5.2%)
- Parenting (4.9%)
- Home/Family (4.7%)
- Women (4.4%)
- Fashion/Cosmetics (4.3%)
- Fragrences/Cosmetics (4.1%)
- Jewelry/Luxury Goods (4.1%)
What does this tell us? If you sell an item that fits in the full list of categories Quantcast lists, make sure to do what you can to keep a potential buyer’s interest in your shop. An ugly banner or poorly written announcement page may drive a buyer away. If you do not fall into the lifestyle activities listed, you have a good idea for where to look for advertising to pull potential buyers into your shop. Advertising on a office supplies website may be in line with your Etsy shop items, but will that advetisement make it to the Etsy user demographic we are discussing?
- Where Else Do They Go? Why does this matter? Knowing where a potential buyer may do other shopping will help make the most of your advertising efforts. The typical visitor to Etsy.com will also visit JewelrySupply.com and they will often times shop at Anthropologie.com according to the site. These visitors also visit:
- Artfire.com
- WhipUp.net
- YouCanMakeThis.com
- Crocheville.orgKnitOnTheNet.com
- Dawanda.com
- InnerChildCrochet.com
- Beaducation.com
Using this information, an Etsy shop can target their potential buyers at the places they frequent most. More importantly, a seller can save advertising dollars they would have spent for sites that do not appeal to potential buyers.
Should this information change your entire Etsy shop marketing plan? Our team doesn’t think so.
We wanted to share this information because it’s difficult to find out what to aim for when marketing Etsy shops. Knowing the “average potential buyer” on Etsy.com may help your shop make better advertising and marketing moves, without wasting time and money on ineffective strategies.
However, keep in mind that these Etsy user demographics represent the average buyer, not necessarily your buyer. Does your Etsy shop specialize in unique items aimed to attract 60 year old affluent men? You may consider keeping on the same marketing course.
Keep in mind marketing toward the average potential buyer may increase sales. An easy way to appeal to the average potential buyer without re-creating your shop is to make gift-giving a breeze. Offer great packaging, customized gift tags, quick or even free shipping, and market certain items in your shop as primarily gifts in the descriptions.
What do you think of these Etsy demographics? What surprised you? Do you want to challenge any of the data? How will this information alter you Etsy shop marketing plan?
We want to hear what you think! Comment on this post or send us your handmade marketing tips!
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21 Responses to “Etsy User Demographics – Who Shops at Etsy?”
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Thank you so much for these stats. These will be very helpful in future advertising attempts.
Wooa…i had no idea! thank you. my shop is certainly a niche. i’ll stay on course, but i’m thrilled to know the demos.
WOW this was VERY interesting reading! It was nice to see the break down’s of all the different categories. Thanks for the information!
Can you provide more information on this for the rest of us luxury jewelry fans?
I would agree with more women but I think I get more mothers at my shop because of my big bags or my reusable sandwich bags. People like reusable.
Thanks so much for the information. The shoppers may not be interested in my products. I’ll have to that some thought.
my steampunk jewelry is pretty niche… but most of my customers seem to be men shopping for gifts for their Signif. Others. At least of late. There are a lot of steampunks who do buy my jewelry – but there are still a fair number of women – who buy the most unsual items. Case in point – I had sales of a very unusual insect design – 2 were bought by women directly – and one was bought by a man for his GF. Some of the vacuum tube pendents were bought by men for themselves but only about 30%. Still – statisically it is quite in line with the figures!
thank you!
ClockworkZero
excellent information! Thanks!
Interesting for sure, however Etsy has a huge number of international buyers and sellers so it’s not a true representation of what is happening on Etsy as a market place. Still nice to know a few things.
This confirms what I had suspected about Etsy’s demographic. Nonetheless, very interesting and informative.
Thank you!
Tina
http://www.AdornMeJewelry.etsy.com
Very usefull information, thank you.
however…
how do you know about the white, female, <60000 income part? most likely, it’s from a form that the buyers had to fill – what was the responsiveness to that? how many buyers actually filled it: 80%, 50%, 20%? Maybe it’s only 18-34 year old college-educated white female with no children, who makes less than $60,000/year, that had the time and inclination to fill the form… I’m exagerating of course, but you should have added that info to the calculations.
And as Nat sais, I’m a bit disapointed that this was only done for the US buyers – I’m hoping you’re doing the international section as we post
I don’t even know the percent of international sellers on etsy, let alone the buyers.
Thanks for doing this, and please keep getting better.
Very interesting info. I am surprised that 69% do not have children considering the high number of baby and kid items on Etsy.
Thanks,
Emily
squaresofflair.etsy.com
Thanks for the great information. I for sure learnt something new being that I deal with jewelry and accessories.
http://www.artieno.etsy.com
Thanks for this. Any breakdown of geography of visitors? (I understand it’s only USA, but still useful). I’m asking because i’ve noticed a specific profile of my visitors as plotted by Google Analytics, and want to understand if this is a skew (to my particular shop) or general etsy visitors.
Thanks for the good info. I love stats! Would love to see a break down of days and times customers most likely shop. That would be interesting too.
Thank you again, debra.
dahlilafound.etsy.com
Thank You so much for tihis information!
Interesting information. I sell jewelry, too, so this is helpful. I also sell “gifts” that aren’t jewelry items, so it looks like I’m headed in the right direction. I love stats though. Speaking of which, I need to go check my personal Etsy stats now. haha -Flo
http://smokintunz.net
http://twitter.com/designsbyflo
http://designsbyflo.etsy.com
http://designsbyflo.artfire.com
I pretty much just dove into my etsy shop head first without taking the all important “demographic” into consideration. I foolishly assumed that anyone who likes handmade chose Etsy for thier shopping experience. I guess that was somewhat naive, although I was aware that mostly women were using the site I was unaware of the average group. Now that I look at the items in my shop I think that there are some things that fit that demographic and some things that do not. This really has been a great help to the constant improvement of my shop!
Great info! Thanks!
Thanks for the info! But I also think you should have added the international buyers as well, or at least more information about the US buyers. What days of the week do they shop the most? What time? What do they spend the most money on? Because even if they buy a lot of items, the items may be low cost items. In any case, this was very helpfull. Thanks!
http://www.mullberrycrafts.blogspot.com
This information was very helpful! My shop definitely pulls a young female audience, as I was reading I was like these are the people who I chat with each day in the chats! lol
http://www.tuscanblooms.etsy.com
thanks for the info!!
[...] distracted by the other talent. Let’s back that up with some data: According to an article on Handmade Marketing, the top sites that an Etsy shopper visits are Jewelrysupply.com Artbeads.com and Beaducation.com, [...]