Unlike most major retailers, Etsy won't have to deal with supplier and distribution center issues this holiday season.
Large retailers are gearing up for a challenging holiday shopping season as online shopping is booming. And an increase in shopping before the holidays will most likely lead to massive delivery delays, a shortage of products in stocks and other problems in logistics.
However, Etsy management, reporting on the results of the third quarter, emphasized that the online sales platform was in an advantageous position, since it would be able to avoid most of these problems. The main features of Etsy, which turned out to be key advantages in the current situation, were small batches of goods, lack of suppliers and distribution centers.
Etsy sellers are mostly small, often one-person businesses that don't have to rely on shipping from multiple factories, large shipments of goods traveling through different distribution centers, and a complex logistics system to complete an order. In addition, shoppers on Etsy are accustomed to longer delivery times and traditionally start pre-holiday shopping earlier. Thus, the new conditions for online shopping in a peculiar way equalized the company's opportunities with such large players as Amazon and allowed Etsy to look forward to a more than successful holiday season.
The third quarter of 2020 also turned out to be unexpectedly good for the company. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, significant growth was shown, while profit more than doubled compared to the third quarter of 2019 and amounted to $451.5 million. It is emphasized that such growth was largely due to a surge in sales of protective masks, with 24 million masks sold through the platform in the third quarter alone.
