Electric Business Open Platform Etsy: Literature and art is a kind of productivity

The Puji-she continues to talk about the open platform of the electric business. Everyone in the industry has gradually formed a consensus: open platform is the most important development direction of the electric business website, but the electric business industry is doomed to not be able to accommodate too many such platforms. Whether the United States or China, the real now do well, the future can do a good job of the open platform is very few. Electric business to do an open platform, most want to do the whole, become a large platform, even if not all, the choice is clothing, 3C digital and other market space, high standard of category, the result is often mired in vicious competition, no characteristics of the future to survive.

Etsy in the United States is a very distinctive site, it is positioned as peer-to-peer (person to person) mode, and ebay and Taobao Consumer-to-consumer model is very similar, but there is a certain difference; unlike the General Electric business open platform for the big, Etsy focus on handicrafts products, and the "manual" is very strict, its market is very fragmented, but there are a large number of fans, and 2013 turnover will be more than 1 billion dollars.

A brief introduction to the development history and present situation of Etsy

Etsy founder Rob Kalin is a literary man, there are paintings, carpenters and photography and many other hobbies, suffering from the lack of a good online platform to display and sell their works, Kalin United several friends in June 2005 to create a trade in handicrafts as the characteristics of the electric business platform Etsy. It should be said that Etsy early and not rapid development and expansion, on the one hand is the founder of the team's management experience is deficient, Kalin is a literary man, the pursuit of inner freedom, the CEO's duty is not very good performance, he in July 2008 to the CEO position to Maria Thomas, December 2009 Maria Thomas after leaving the responsibility of the CEO, but in July 2011 the CEO position to Chad Dickerson, in the post conversion process Etsy Many old staff have left. Etsy the slow development of the other reason is the financial tension, Etsy created a 400,000-dollar angel investment, 2006 a round to obtain 1 million, to 2007, the C-round financing is only 3.25 million U.S. dollars, so the scale of financing in the field of electricity is really very small, can not support rapid development.

In 2008 Etsy received $27 million trillion in D-round financing, and the pace of development was significantly accelerated. 2009 Etsy turnover reached 177 million U.S. dollars, 2010 301 million U.S. dollars, 2011 526 million U.S. dollars, 2012 895 million U.S. dollars, 2013 will be more than 1 billion U.S. dollar turnover. At present, Etsy has 30 million registered users, the number of active shops is 900,000 (the cat is currently 300,000 shops, jingdong about 30,000), there are 18 million merchandise number. Etsy's staff also from 2005 less than 10 people developed to 2009 60 people, to the present more than 300 people, still maintain a lean team size.

Survival in the crevice, differentiated positioning

Etsy was founded in 2005, when ebay had grown to a considerable size, and Amazon's Open platform (marketplace) was growing; Etsy knew it was hard to compete with ebay and Amazon, and the chances of a all-inclusive platform were slim. About art and crafts, ebay and Amazon on both platforms are involved, but not their main category; Moreover, handicraft it has particularity, submerged it in the boundless clothing, the electronic product inside, not only looks for the difficulty, their value cannot be manifested, is difficult obtains the real hobby handicraft user favor.

Etsy Crafts as their focus category, and ebay and Amazon to form a differentiated competition. In order to adhere to the original "handmade", Etsy only accept real individuals to become sellers, those who do not produce works only to act as a proxy business companies or individuals will be refused to open the shop, for antiques, Etsy requirements must have more than 20 years of history. Unlike ebay and Amazon's sprawling product architecture, Etsy really sticks to minimalist style, highlighting the unique features of handicrafts. In terms of fee policy, Etsy and ebay are similar, but the price is more affordable, the cost of each handicraft is 0.2 U.S. dollars, and then by 3.5% of the turnover charge Commission.

Community operation to enhance user's emotional identity

Etsy is different from ebay and Amazon in positioning, and the actual operation of Etsy has its own characteristics. People who like handicrafts, they need to form a recognition of such products, and the production of handicrafts, most of them have similar temperament (literature, slow Life, green). From the very beginning, Etsy has been attaching great importance to the gathering of handicraft enthusiasts and building up the network community to enhance the recognition of the parties. Etsy's network community includes a forum: a very open attitude, whether positive or negative user feedback, will receive Etsy's official response; set up a public chat room: Etsy set up a number of public chat rooms on the site, but also allows users to build chat rooms and password protection, This encourages the exchange between users, increase the internal degree of adhesion; set up a network hobby group: The Etsy Network Group feature provides a high degree of freedom, allows the initiator to set the theme, and provides the necessary resource support for the team to promote.

In addition to online, regular organization of related activities under the Etsy line. Etsy's founder, Kalin, is familiar with the large, professional and amateur groups of enthusiasts in big American cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, who regularly organise exchange activities and sell some of their own work. At the beginning of the founding of Etsy, Kalin adopted a comprehensive Word-of-mouth marketing strategy, focusing on the dissemination of Etsy brands through a variety of offline activities. These include the holding of sewing competitions, the sponsorship of traditional handicrafts fairs and the formation of various interest groups. Through such grassroots marketing, Etsy gradually in the arts and crafts enthusiasts to establish a reputation. Etsy later established a standing handicraft enthusiasts offline Exchange venues: Etsy Labs, regularly organize handicrafts D.I.Y activities, monthly Etsy also take turns to organize Etsy Meet & make activities around the world, attracting handicrafts enthusiasts to participate.

Short-term Etsy hard to copy to China

Etsy through the online and offline community operation, enhance the arts and crafts enthusiasts to Etsy recognition. Etsy is not a simple sale of handicrafts site, it is a literature and art, environmental protection, green life philosophy. China and the United States are in different stages of development, Etsy this provision of "upper" demand for the site in the short term difficult to replicate in the country. Chinese traditional crafts in decline, the related works or become a luxury, or to become roadside inferior products. Chinese people's pursuit of life has not yet risen to the spiritual level, and the lack of copyright awareness, real handicrafts will be a large number of imitation, creation is difficult to protect.

At present, the domestic do relatively good handicraft website is wow plug net, fun play nets, warm island network, etc., but they are most difficult to develop, first of all, to maintain the manual characteristics of goods is not easy, many sellers of large-scale products as a handmade goods in the sale, platform-side site is difficult to distinguish; Due to the small audience, the website platform side business value , some websites have been forced to introduce standardized apparel and electronic products to increase sales, but this will dilute the positioning of the platform itself. At present, China's handicraft market lacks both producers and purchasers, and needs to be nurtured slowly, and if a potential Etsy is to be selected in China, the douban of a literary concentration camp can assume such a role.

Universal Society (Puji-she) by the Huang (current product network research Director) and Zhang Junxiang Two people to maintain, directly reproduced popular social articles, please respect the original, be sure to indicate "author Huang, partner of product network, micro-Credit: Universal Society (PUJI-SHE)".