With the help of AI, the shopping experience on the Etsy app has been reimagined to offer a more inspiring, personalized shopping experience.
“Too often, shopping online feels like déjà vu,” said Nick Daniel, Chief Product Officer at Etsy in a blog post. “We’ve all been there — you’re searching for a shirt or a lamp and suddenly you find yourself sorting through nearly identical items across the internet that blur into a sea of sameness. This experience robs us of one of the greatest joys of shopping: the thrill of finding something that speaks to our individuality.”
According to Daniels, Etsy’s superpower is offering that “something special,” and now the platform wants to make it easier for shoppers to find it — and also have fun while they’re looking.
The reimagined Etsy browsing experience begins with a set of curated collections, based on trends, aesthetics and occasions. The trends each user sees and the items that appear highest within each collection’s feed are based on shoppers’ recent activity, including purchases and previously viewed items.
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The new experience lays the groundwork for future enhancements to personalization in the app, said Daniel, with more engagement by customers continually fueling a more personalized experience, all while the platform’s AI models work in tandem to develop a deeper understanding of the millions of items on the Etsy marketplace.
‘Algotorial Curation’ — Another Way Etsy is ‘Keeping Commerce Human’
Collections range from trends like “Island Luxe” to everyday aesthetics like “Modern Farmhouse,” and highlight how Etsy is combining the power of new AI tools with the human touch. Collections are first curated by Etsy’s human experts, who spot the latest trends and find high-quality items to match.
After a collection is identified, Etsy engineers use machine learning to expand that initial collection from roughly 50 human-curated listings to about 1,000, then large-language models (LLMs) ensure the full collection is aesthetically cohesive, represents a variety of products and meets Etsy’s quality standards.
“We call this blend of human and AI-powered recommendations ‘algotorial’ curation,’” explained Daniel. “Rather than removing human expertise from our merchandising work as AI becomes more powerful, we’re leveraging these tools to amplify the expertise of our team and create a more personalized experience.”
This philosophy aligns with the company’s larger mission to “keep commerce human” while putting the business back on a growth path amid increasing competition. Other recent moves have included a leadership shakeup that saw former Depop CEO Kruti Patel Goyal appointed as President and Chief Growth Officer, enhancements to Etsy’s search experience and the testing of a new loyalty program.
