In an afternoon session about merchandising trends in 2008, Doug Mack and Sally McKenzie evaluated the merchandising components of more than a dozen retail websites. While the session covered the best and worst components from a variety of sites (did the models look too stiff and make the merchandise feel unattainable? were there too many distracting images onscreen that distracted buyers from the “hero” image?), one website stood out among the rest: Etsy.

Etsy, an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade, wowed the audience with a variety of site features to help narrow down their otherwise overwhelming selection of jewelry, artwork, and even music! As Sally mused, “I could spend hours just playing on it.”

Some of the most notable site features included:

• The ability to search by color. And not just by a few colors…by almost any color. 196 of them, give or take. So if you need a piece of jewelry to match a specific dress or a piece of artwork to match a unique sofa shade, you’re really in luck.
• A geolocator to get an idea of where in the world (literally) each product comes from. This brings a lot of Christmas gift ideas to mind for, say, the friend who got married in Rome or the sister-in-law who can’t stop thinking about that trip to Napa. After all, when you’re selling merchandise from over 100,000 people all around the world, there’s bound to be something for everyone.
• A place to “pounce” on new additions to the site. Buyers can find the most popular items, or search for the undiscovered pieces that others haven’t stumbled upon yet.
• And if that’s not enough, browsers can also set up their own Etsy account to find people with similar tastes and compare merchandise.