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There are a handful of online retailers who chart their own course, who tend to be more “followed” than “follower.” Etsy is one of them. The company first piqued my interest when I sat in on (and blogged about) a session at last year’s Shop.org Summit that evaluated the merchandising components of dozens of well-known companies. Speakers kept coming back to Etsy’s website time and time again to talk about how the company, an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade items, keeps getting it right.
When looking for someone from Etsy to profile, company CEO Maria Thomas directed us to Matt Stinchcomb, Etsy’s Vice President of Community. Here’s what Matt has to say about the importance of products that connect with customers, how the Etsy community differs from many e-commerce sites, and why space is set aside at the office for employees to get their hands dirty.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up at Etsy.
I am 33 years old, married to a delightful German gal, and a native Washingtonian who has been living in Brooklyn for the last 12 years. After the Internet imploded around 2000, I devoted my time to pursuing the rock ‘n’ roll dream for about five years. During that time I also started a little screen print and design shop with my housemate, Robert Kalin, Etsy’s creator. Though I had a good amount of professional experience in digital media, it was the years spent successfully building a following for my rock band that prompted Rob to get me to work on Etsy with him.
How did the concept of Etsy come about?
Rob was looking for a place to sell his art, and realized that there was no place special enough for artists to sell online.
Give us your best elevator speech about the company.
When you buy on Etsy you are dealing directly with the maker of any given product, and people want to have a special connection to the goods in their lives. These connections make the stories behind every product and artist on Etsy, and it is our job to help tell them.
I think globally there is a movement away from the mass-produced items that seem to inundate our lives these days. From Topeka, KS to Torino, Italy we are being offered carbon-copy items and have no connection to where it is produced or who is making it. To put it another way, If your house were on fire, would you grab your plasma screen television, or the quilt your great-grandmother handmade for you?
Also, there is amazingly creative and beautiful stuff you will find nowhere else.
How does the Etsy community differ from that of a traditional pure-play internet retailer selling arts and crafts merchandise?
Etsy was built by artists, for artists. I think it’s a beautiful site. More importantly, we are entirely committed to being transparent, honest, and engaged with our community. Our community is diverse in their product range, backgrounds, and interests, but they are fun, energetic, and active.
You have sellers listing everything from candles to felt-tipped mushrooms to customized dog collars. What are some of your favorite things being sold these days?
Feltidermy and dissection.
Tell us about a typical day at the office
In general, we work hard, but we have fun. We make sure we stock the office with groceries and make big communal salads. We also have a whole part of our office called the Etsy Labs that is devoted to handmaking. We make all of our own promo items here, but we also let any employee go nuts in there and make whatever they want. We think the connection to the handmade is very important.
How does Etsy utilize social media to reach current and potential customers?
Social media is vastly important. From maintaining our own profiles (we just added our 400,000th follower on Twitter), to making sure that we are giving our artists the tools they need to grow their businesses via Facebook etc., we devote a great deal of resources to social media. For example, we have one person who does social media full-time. It is very important to have a real person there interacting with people like a human.
Tell me about Etsy’s “virtual sidewalk sale.”
We host live shopping events in our multi-user AV environment, where we get well known and interesting people to talk about their favorite products on Etsy. Anyone in the room can buy the product “live”. I think it is more about fun than sales, and that, to me, is very important.
And what do you like to do for fun?
I love to garden and play music. Although, I would also say my work is fun.
What are you currently reading?
On Beauty by Zadie Smith and Creative Code by John Maeda
If someone were to get a hold of your iPod, what type of music would they find?
Lots of Bob Dylan, Andrew Bird, Tom Waits, and The Kinks.
8 Comments
Love the focus and approach to community, Matt. Great to see that Etsy has a VP of Community, a full-time social media person, Community as a strategic cornerstone of the site, and an integrated approach to the broader social web. No wonder y’all have now over 400K followers on Twitter…I just became one myself.
“More importantly, we are entirely committed to being transparent, honest, and engaged with our community.
REALLY????
Other than that Quote Very nice write up
Great interview, but i can’t believe you didn’t ask about his rock & roll life. specifically, what was the name of his band?
:-)
I wonder if the author purposely didn’t investigate the general Etsy community feelings at the time of this posting or was completely oblivious. Maybe our great and might VP of Community is too busy with interviews to actually talk to the community when we beg to be heard.
I got a good lol out of the transparency comment though, at least this guy can talk the talk.
“Engaged with community” actually means the site promotes less than 1% of the stores on the site because they fit a branding effort that has little to do with handmade products. It’s not about the handmade community, it’s about promoting a brand otherwise known as big box retail.
Dear Emily,
Thanks for the comment.
Ours is a very diverse and large community, and I know it is foolish to think that we will ever be able to satisfy all 3 million registered users, let alone the needs of all 250,000 artists. That said, I do call into question your suggestion that our commitment to transparency and communication is laughable.
I will be the first to admit that we have made mistakes in the past with not effectively communicating site news to our selling community, that there is always room for improvement, and that I am committed to improving.
That said, I am proud of all that we regularly do in this department.
* Weekly, I hold candid community chats in our virtual labs. They are open to all, and no subject is off limits. I very much hope you will come and see for yourself.
http://www.etsy.com/virtual_labs.php
* We regularly hold offline Etsy gatherings in cities around the world. This coming week Maria Thomas, our CEO, and I, among others, will be meeting with groups of Etsians in cities along the West Coast. In these sessions we provide honest and straightforward answers to any and all questions. If you are anywhere nearby, I hope you will join us. We will also be partaking in a tour of the Midwest in the fall
http://www.etsy.com/storque/events/west-coast-etsians-lets-get-together-4326/
* Recently, we formed the Etsy Community Council, a rotating group of 25 artists representing a wide range of success, history, and geographic area. This group was created to have a meaningful flow of conversation in both directions. They make themselves available to me, and I to them
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/the-etsy-community-council-3893/
* Every month we publish all of our site data for all to see
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/etsy-statistics-may-2009-weather-report-4129/
* Every month, we share our merchandising direction for the month ahead
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/from-etsys-merchandising-desk-hints-of-harvest-in-august-4345/
* At least every quarter we give a full update as to what is happening in every department of the company, and what lies ahead.
Last month we recorded a podcast with Maria Thomas, our CEO, Chad Dickerson, our CTO , Sara Hicks are VP of Product, and me.
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/talking-shop-with-etsy-admin-chad-dickerson-sara-hicks-matt–4114/
Just last week, Sara followed up with a laying out of the website priorities for the remainder of 2009.
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/talking-product-etsy-site-feature-priorities-for-2009-4299/
* Should technological issues occur, the engineers report news as it happens here, on the Etsy status blog:
http://fix.etsy.com/
* We have hired even more forum moderators, who provide nearly 24/7 coverage on the site’s community areas, answer questions to the best of their abilities, and create daily reports on community comments , concerns, and ideas, and share them with the leadership of the company.
* As it occurs, we send out etsy email news alerts to deliver important news to the community. Please sign up here: http://mailinglist.etsy.com/
We also publish the same alerts in our admin announcement forum here: http://www.etsy.com/forums_board.php?forum_id=5000003
* We have a full community staff that answers questions and concerns sent to our community@etsy.com inbox.
Finally, and most importantly, I will always make myself available to the hear your questions and concerns and invite you to email me anytime at matt@etsy.com
Thanks, and I hope our actions will be the best indication of our commitment to transparency.
Best wishes and regards,
Matt Stinchcomb
VP, Community
matt@etsy.com, 718.855.8874
So….was the mention of etsy on “Weeds” this week organic or placed???
Well there is something you will NEVER see on Amazon or Ebay – a VPs phone number posted on the internet for the entire world to see