30% Of Etsy Sellers Earn Money Solely From Creative Work

FastCompany: If you’re a young, female creative type, Etsy is the place to be: In a new report released Thursday, the online marketplace divulged that 30% of its sellers rely solely on their creative endeavors, both on and off Etsy, as their primary source of income. And women make up an overwhelming majority of Etsy’s vendors – 86%, to be exact.Etsy still serves as a valuable source of additional income for sellers who also work other jobs, according to the report, which surveyed more than 4,000 people in the US who maintain online shops on Etsy.

For 30% of Etsy sellers, their creative business—both on and off Etsy—is their sole occupation. For the rest, their creative business supplements other jobs, contributing an average of 15% to total household income overall. This money makes a difference—44% use this income for necessary household expenses.

That 15% is significant, given that the average Etsy seller earns a household income of about $56,000. “The workforce is shifting away from full-time employment, and more and more people are combining income from multiple sources,” Etsy’s global policy director Althea Erickson told The Wall Street Journal.

What’s more, 88% of those micro-entrepreneurs operate their shops without any paid or unpaid help, making sales all the more valuable to Etsy sellers.

Last month, the company started testing Fund on Etsy, a crowdfunding venture that incorporates the functionality of popular services like Kickstarter and Indiegogo into Etsy’s existing framework. The program is operating as a pilot until August 16. Read the full article

Read more on the topic:

Fast Company:  A NEW BUSINESS MODEL FOR FINE ARTISTS: DIRECT-TO-COLLECTOR SUBSCRIPTIONS.