Online shoppers are expecting big deals this week thanks to Amazon’s sales event for Prime members, and Etsy is among the retail companies looking to capitalize on the pre-holiday season sale.
Etsy is funding a promotion in which buyers can save $10 on orders of $40 or more in the US, UK, Canada, and Germany beginning Monday and running through Wednesday.
Before last month, this was unprecedented – usually sellers must put their items on sale in order to benefit from a promotion, but Etsy explained in Sunday’s announcement: “You’ll keep your full earnings whenever you make a sale during the promotion.”
Etsy ran a similar promotion that ran September 15 through 17, 2023, where it gave buyers $5 off eligible orders over $25 using a special code at checkout. With this week’s promotion, Etsy will reveal the code on Instagram on Monday.
While Etsy noted it was offering an even bigger discount to shoppers, there’s also a higher minimum purchase requirement.
eBay similarly relies on sellers to put their items on sale, but in 2018, it ran numerous sitewide or category-based flash sales where it funded the discount. That’s an approach that eBay’s new CEO rejected in 2021 in favor of turning buyers into “lifelong enthusiasts.”
In announcing this week’s sale, Etsy wrote, “Our recent promotions were so successful, we’re doing it again,” and it said there was an increase in average order value during the sale period “based on an internal Etsy analysis from October 2023.”
As it did last month, Etsy told sellers they would not have to take action to take advantage of this week’s promotion, but it did suggest sellers take advantage of the promotion by turning on its new Share & Save feature and share their listings on social networking sites.
Sellers discussed the promotion on the Etsy discussion boards in this thread. One seller wondered if Etsy would only promote the sale on Instagram. Another said, “At least they’re using our fees for something that could possibly directly benefit our shops for a change.”
One seller used the promotion opportunistically to shop for supplies: “I made 7 sales last time and they all used the coupon code. Also got so much traffic and shop admirers. I used the coupon code several times to get materials, this time I’ll get some materials again, it’s a great deal.”
