Etsy Inc. has tapped into the consumer craze for all things local, artisanal and authentic since its founding six years ago. The online crafts fair, where anyone can set up shop and sell handmade or vintage goods, has grown to 15 million members, up from 3.8 million in 2009, according to Etsy.
Yet a problem is hitting the site, which promises shoppers handmade items: Factory-made goods lurk on the site amid the hand-knit cupcake pin cushions, purses constructed of birch bark, and floral cotton iPad covers.
To try to keep its offerings true to its mission, Etsy is increasing the number of young detectives the company uses to police its website, sort of a CSI: Etsy team. (Etsy's CSI-related products include a "Future CSI" baby bib for $7.) The company calls the investigators the Marketplace Integrity and Trust & Safety teams. They spend their days scouring Etsy's site to uphold its rules: No factory-made goods,Find the cheapest chickencoop online through and buy the best hen houses and chook pens in Australia. items that violate copyright, or offensive material. They shut down sellers' shops that break its rules. Newly developed software is also used to police the site.
Tania Ginoza says she shops for items like vintage glassware, jewelry, art and letter press stationery about once a month from Etsy. "It's a really good feeling to support someone who may just be starting out with crafting and jewelry making," says the 43-year-old financial comptroller in Maui, Hawaii. "When you correspond with a seller a lot of times you are talking directly to an artist,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete?A Plastic injectionmoulding company," she says. "That's pretty cool because you can develop a relationship with an artist."
About 230 employees work in the company's Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters, which features a 10-foot-tall cardboard owl in its entryway, a huge bicycle parking area and colorful murals on the walls. A small section of the exposed duct work is wrapped with a sort of decorative duct tea cozy knit by an artist who sells on the site.
As Etsy grows, policing the site becomes more important,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. says Chad Dickerson, who replaced one of Etsy's co-founders as chief executive last summer. Consumers want "a sense of authenticity and buying from people who they know," he says.
Without the handmade shopping experience, "Etsy loses its core," says Mr. Dickerson.
Online sales of "handicrafts" like sewing, woodworking and making jewelry are expected to reach $2.2 billion in 2016, up from $1.4 billion in 2011, growing faster than the approximately $30 billion handicraft industry overall, says a report on Etsy by GreenCrest Capital Management LLC, a firm that analyzes private companies.
Etsy seller Jaime Core says the company sent her an email with a "long" survey asking about her items, specifically a soy strawberry candle. The survey requested the names and ages of anyone working with her in her candle-making business and for step-by-step photos of her production process. "I was flipping out," says Ms. Core, 26, from Orlando, Fla. About two hours after she sent in the photos and answers, Etsy responded by email: "Thanks for being part of the Etsy community," she says. It didn't close her shop. She says she doesn't know why her candles were flagged. Julian Wong, a manager of the Etsy integrity and safety teams, says, "We open up dialogues with sellers and most instances (well over 80%) result in outcomes like Jaime's."
Enforcing the rules is "sort of a crazy part of our business," says Dan Christofferson, marketing director of Etsy rival Big Cartel, a website in Salt Lake City, Utah., that helps artists and crafters create online shops.
Some cases are clear-cut.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. A shop of Nazi-themed T-shirts will be taken down instantly, says Mr. Christofferson. But when employees found a seller listing "molds of their naked body," company employees debated if the shop should be closed, says Mr. Christofferson. They decided it wasn't "real pornography," which violates the site's rules, he says.
In the last year, Etsy, by far the largest global online crafts retailer, almost doubled the size of its policing staff to 16 people. Most of its hires are experts in a specific area—say, handbag making or vintage goods—so they can "help us ask the right questions," of potential problem sellers, says Kruti Patel Goyal, director of Etsy's policing groups.
"Our team is now reviewing seven times more accounts overall each week" versus the same week last year, said Ms. Patel Goyal, in a February blog post on Etsy's company blog. Etsy declined to specify the number of accounts.
Yet a problem is hitting the site, which promises shoppers handmade items: Factory-made goods lurk on the site amid the hand-knit cupcake pin cushions, purses constructed of birch bark, and floral cotton iPad covers.
To try to keep its offerings true to its mission, Etsy is increasing the number of young detectives the company uses to police its website, sort of a CSI: Etsy team. (Etsy's CSI-related products include a "Future CSI" baby bib for $7.) The company calls the investigators the Marketplace Integrity and Trust & Safety teams. They spend their days scouring Etsy's site to uphold its rules: No factory-made goods,Find the cheapest chickencoop online through and buy the best hen houses and chook pens in Australia. items that violate copyright, or offensive material. They shut down sellers' shops that break its rules. Newly developed software is also used to police the site.
Tania Ginoza says she shops for items like vintage glassware, jewelry, art and letter press stationery about once a month from Etsy. "It's a really good feeling to support someone who may just be starting out with crafting and jewelry making," says the 43-year-old financial comptroller in Maui, Hawaii. "When you correspond with a seller a lot of times you are talking directly to an artist,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete?A Plastic injectionmoulding company," she says. "That's pretty cool because you can develop a relationship with an artist."
About 230 employees work in the company's Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters, which features a 10-foot-tall cardboard owl in its entryway, a huge bicycle parking area and colorful murals on the walls. A small section of the exposed duct work is wrapped with a sort of decorative duct tea cozy knit by an artist who sells on the site.
As Etsy grows, policing the site becomes more important,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. says Chad Dickerson, who replaced one of Etsy's co-founders as chief executive last summer. Consumers want "a sense of authenticity and buying from people who they know," he says.
Without the handmade shopping experience, "Etsy loses its core," says Mr. Dickerson.
Online sales of "handicrafts" like sewing, woodworking and making jewelry are expected to reach $2.2 billion in 2016, up from $1.4 billion in 2011, growing faster than the approximately $30 billion handicraft industry overall, says a report on Etsy by GreenCrest Capital Management LLC, a firm that analyzes private companies.
Etsy seller Jaime Core says the company sent her an email with a "long" survey asking about her items, specifically a soy strawberry candle. The survey requested the names and ages of anyone working with her in her candle-making business and for step-by-step photos of her production process. "I was flipping out," says Ms. Core, 26, from Orlando, Fla. About two hours after she sent in the photos and answers, Etsy responded by email: "Thanks for being part of the Etsy community," she says. It didn't close her shop. She says she doesn't know why her candles were flagged. Julian Wong, a manager of the Etsy integrity and safety teams, says, "We open up dialogues with sellers and most instances (well over 80%) result in outcomes like Jaime's."
Enforcing the rules is "sort of a crazy part of our business," says Dan Christofferson, marketing director of Etsy rival Big Cartel, a website in Salt Lake City, Utah., that helps artists and crafters create online shops.
Some cases are clear-cut.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. A shop of Nazi-themed T-shirts will be taken down instantly, says Mr. Christofferson. But when employees found a seller listing "molds of their naked body," company employees debated if the shop should be closed, says Mr. Christofferson. They decided it wasn't "real pornography," which violates the site's rules, he says.
In the last year, Etsy, by far the largest global online crafts retailer, almost doubled the size of its policing staff to 16 people. Most of its hires are experts in a specific area—say, handbag making or vintage goods—so they can "help us ask the right questions," of potential problem sellers, says Kruti Patel Goyal, director of Etsy's policing groups.
"Our team is now reviewing seven times more accounts overall each week" versus the same week last year, said Ms. Patel Goyal, in a February blog post on Etsy's company blog. Etsy declined to specify the number of accounts.
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