Etsy Offers Subscribers Free Shipping While Aiming for ‘Tremendous’ Growth

Etsy is reportedly aiming for “tremendous” growth opportunities by deploying free shipping and other new initiatives.

CEO Josh Silverman and Chief Financial Officer Rachel Glaser said at a conference that Etsy seeks to distinguish itself from rivals like Amazon, Seeking Alpha reported Tuesday (Sept. 10).

One of the company’s recently launched initiatives is Etsy Insider, a paid subscription that will provide free shipping to members, according to the report.

Other new efforts include an Etsy Gift Mode that lets shoppers send a message to the recipient before the gift arrives, a plan to raise the percentage of shoppers using the Etsy mobile app from 40% to 75%, and a quality score that gives higher rated products a better position in search results, per the report.

Silverman said during a July 31 earnings call that Etsy’s new loyalty program is designed to drive greater spending and frequency among consumers who demand to be rewarded for their purchases.

“We’ve focused on developing key benefits for buyers that highlight both the emotional and the rational characteristics of Etsy’s unique value proposition,” Silverman said. “… Our beta program is buyer-fee based and will include free U.S. domestic shipping on millions of items, item discounts, first access merchandise and more. We’ll test, learn and iterate, and are optimistic that over time, Etsy Insider can be a needle mover, driver of buyer frequency and Etsy love.”

Etsy’s recent efforts to enhance its search and discovery tools are designed to incorporate listing quality into their visibility on the platform, Etsy Chief Product Officer Nick Daniel told PYMNTS in an interview posted Friday (Sept. 6).

“When shoppers are searching on Etsy, it’s important that they can easily find high-quality listings from shops that have a track record of good customer service,” Daniel said. “Making these listings easier to find helps build trust with shoppers so they come back to shop on Etsy again and again.”

When launching Gift Mode in January, Etsy said this feature is designed to position the platform as “the destination for gifting” and to increase the share of shoppers who think of Etsy as a place for gifts.