Amazon has now entered into direct competition with Etsy in the handmade goods space, officially launching a marketplace built to sell handcrafted and artisanal products. Handmade at Amazon will include more than 90,000 items on its site from approximately 5,000 sellers in more than 60 countries.
Similar to Etsy, Handmade at Amazon will sell jewelry, furniture, dining products, home décor and artwork crafted by individual artisans. The new web site highlights featured artisans on a weekly basis. Free two-day Prime shipping will be available for more than 600 products on the marketplace.
In May, Amazon began sending emails to artisans, including present sellers on Etsy, inviting them to sign up as potential sellers on Handmade at Amazon. Amazon’s reach extends to 285 million active accounts worldwide, dwarfing the 22 million accounts signed up at Etsy.
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Etsy takes a much smaller cut of its sellers’ earnings than Amazon, with the marketplace earning 20 cents for each item listed and 3.5% of all sales. On the other hand, Amazon takes a 12% cut of all sales without any listing fee per item.
Etsy’s stock has dropped more than 50% since the company went public in April 2015, so the marketplace is certainly feeling growing pressure with Amazon’s recent market entrance. In a move to expand its offering, Etsy recently added same day delivery (through a partnership with Postmates) and unveiled Etsy Manufacturing, a service designed to match Etsy sellers with interested manufacturers.
A general search for a product on Amazon.com — such as a piece of jewelry — can now yield results from both Handmade artisans and large-scale manufacturers.
“We’re entering this space because our customers have told us that they want it,” said April Lane, Category Leader for Handmade at Amazon in an interview with CNET. “We get thousands of searches every day for handmade items.”
