If Etsy could create a good "we see you've bought quirky post-industrial greeting cards, maybe you'd be interested in ____" function (much like Netflix, Amazon, etc) then it would be greatly improved. It's a much harder problem to sovle than Netflix and Amazon because many items are one-of-a-kind (nobody else bought exactly what you bought), but comparisons of trends across sellers, across keywords, and across image features might work.
Etsy has an experimental "pick the object you like most" feature that leads to some results, but it doesn't allow narrow enough focusing yet: http://tastetest.etsy.com/
Same for the "explorer" view: http://www.etsy.com/explorer
This might sound harsh, but what I tend to see is a lot of beginner or wannabe crafters selling the only thing they can make: generic knit beanies or a cheap bag with some felt shapes cut out and glued on.
For every truly artistic, quirky item or piece of jewelry created by a skilled artisan there are ~20 simple, cheap things that (I'm guessing) almost no one buys.
Why does Etsy have to let everyone and anyone in? Is it wrong to consider some type of approval process or "hey we noticed you haven't sold anything in 6 months" filter?
Edit: to add to that, one area I think Etsy should increase their focus on is in fine art (photography, paintings, prints). Sites like 20x200 are doing well and I think it would be good for Etsy to have an area of their site dedicated to getting good, curated art on the walls of people's homes.
I already know I like that item. That's why I favorited it. I want to see things I didn't already know existed.
I realize they have funding and thus a responsibility to maximize their investments, but I'd love to build a company that feels like it has a natural size.
Unless, of course, you start to earn a bad reputation for slow support times or bad customer service because your product is so popular, but I guess that is a good problem to have.
Thanks for sharing.
Unfortunately, once you've taken VC money it's very hard to justify not scaling. They are looking for home runs, not bunt singles. If the company stops scaling because the founder doesn't want to scale any more, the founder will be quickly replaced as CEO. If the company stops scaling because the market is saturated, then some very hard conversations will follow.
The non-financial issue is that if you hire great people and want to keep them, you usually need growth so that their responsibility and comp keep growing. Otherwise, they're going to have to grow by moving on to other companies with jobs that offer more responsibility / opportunity.
That said, I bought a poster on etsy of the 500 most common passwords, it's not all creepy.
I think the basic problem is that by taking all that money the expectations are far different. If they had bootstrapped then they'd be looking at a great business that could grow organically without the pressure to big a billion dollar business. It seems like (to put it in Joel Spolsky's framework) they are a Ben & Jerry's business playing with an Amazon model.
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/john-allspaw-joins-the...
