Amazon Moves in on Another Piece of the Pie: Handmade Goods

Etsy, the online hub for crafts and handmade items, has been around since 2005. But in the last 18 months, Americans’ relationship with the company has seen its share of ups and downs. Add to this the arrival of Amazon Handmade, and competition in the online handmade sphere could be heating up. 

As it stands, 24% of U.S. adults have made a purchase on Etsy and plan to do so again, while 9% haven’t yet, but plan to in the future. That makes more than 30% of respondents who have the potential to shop from the online retailer in the future.

However, people who say they would buy again has gone down since May 2020 – when COVID had reached pandemic status and lockdowns were at their peak – and more people say they’re not interested in the online marketplace. Intent to shop on Etsy has held steady.

At this point in time, Amazon Handmade seems to have an awareness issue with 71% of survey respondents indicating they’ve never heard of the marketplace. Despite this, 6% of respondents said they planned to make a purchase through Amazon Handmade.

The Difference Between Etsy and Amazon Handmade 

With so few Handmade customers, CivicScience dug into its database to uncover key differences between Amazon Handmade and Etsy.

Currently, adults between 18 and 24 years old and those who earn less than $50K have the most intent to purchase from both Etsy and Amazon Handmade. 

Amazon Prime members are more likely to report purchasing items from Etsy than Amazon Handmade, but their intent to use Amazon Handmade is significantly higher. It’s possible that Amazon Handmade can claim some success if one of their goals was to attract non-Prime members – Non-Prime members are almost twice as likely to have made a purchase on Amazon Handmade than Prime members.

To intertwine things further, those who are Etsy sellers are also the most likely to have already purchased something from Amazon Homemade. 

So while Etsy may be more of a household name for the moment, if Amazon Handmade gains more awareness, there’s a possibility that it could give Etsy a run for its money.