door Dinah Jean

25 mrt. 2021

Image Credit: ClareElsaesser

Sellers on Etsy's marketplace are small business owners, sole proprietors, and self-employed creative entrepreneurs that may individually be small in scale but collectively have huge impact. In the US, small businesses like those on Etsy's platform are the heart of the economy. Now, more than ever, we remain committed to making conscious decisions to create and grow economic opportunities for creative entrepreneurs. In particular, we are committed to ensuring that microbusinesses and businesses operated by women, indigenous community members, and people of color have equal access to all the opportunities that creative entrepreneurship provides.

In 2020, we made the following progress in achieving our economic impact goals and meeting our targets:

  • We met and exceeded our goal of doubling sellers' economic impact by 2023 (vs. 2018 levels).* In 2020, Etsy sellers contributed $13 billion to the U.S. economy, a 142% increase from our baseline of $5.7 billion in 2018; created 2.6 million jobs in the independent worker economy; generated nearly $4 billion in income for sellers; and produced $6.8 billion in additional economic value by harnessing their creativity and bringing unique products to market.
  • We invested over $2.6 million in charitable gifts, which supported community organizations and programs to enable creative entrepreneurship, advance racial justice, help those most impacted by the pandemic (including with personal protection equipment and grants), and provide relief to Etsy sellers impacted by natural disasters.
  • We continued our advocacy for public policies that enable creative entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses, including COVID-19 relief for the self-employed and sole proprietors, support for the United States Postal Service, and portable benefits and sensible platform regulation. We also supported public policies to reduce carbon emissions in the transportation and logistics sector, as well as economic justice policies to support microbusinesses operated by women, indigenous community members, and people of color.

Achieving our economic impact goals are driven by our commitment to helping Etsy sellers transform their creative passions into personal fulfillment, economic opportunity, and empowerment. This year, we'll continue our goal to make creative entrepreneurship a path to economic security and personal empowerment.

Our 2021 economic impact goals and targets include:

1. Create and grow economic opportunities for creative entrepreneurs.

  • Target: Set a new goal and establish a baseline for delivering economic empowerment to our sellers.

2. Foster economic and personal empowerment among our stakeholders.

  • Target: Invest in social programs that (1) promote economic opportunities for creative entrepreneurs, and (2) provide musical education to people in need.

3. Advocate for public policies that advance our commitments to economic empowerment, equity, and ecological sustainability:

  • Target: Advance public policies that increase economic security and reduce administrative burdens for creative entrepreneurs.

We will continue to develop and advance our strategy to support our sellers, grow our overall economic impact, and advocate for policies that enable creative entrepreneurs to flourish. We'll continue to bring you more updates throughout the year through this section of our Impact blog.

  • To calculate these results, Etsy commissioned its third economic impact study with ECONorthwest, an independent economic consulting firm, to explore the ways Etsy sellers in the United States contribute to the national economic landscape.