Etsy Statistics: September 2012 Weather Report

September marks the beginning of apple picking season here in New York, bringing a bounty of Golden Delicious, Fuji and other tasty varieties into everyone’s kitchens. The Etsy community shared the fruits of their labor this month as well, setting new records across the board.

The stats:

$76.8 million of goods (after refunds and cancellations) were sold by our community in September, 0.8% higher than August’s $76.2 million
That represents 3,988,852 items sold for the month, 4.9% higher than August’s 3,802,480
2,530,651 items were listed in the month, 2.9% higher than August’s 2,459,069
866,750 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, up 14,879, or 1.7%, from August
1.42 billion page views were recorded on the site in September

The $76.8 million of goods sold (after refunds and cancellations) represents a 69% increase from September 2011’s total. At the same time, items sold were up 72.6%.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Etsy community in September!

Curious about how other months compare? Check out our past Weather Reports for more statistics.

September was not a good month for. Sales 0.8% higher than August, compared in August, 9.7% higher than July. September was a poor month. So far this October is slightly better for me than September, but much worse than last year October. I guess the idea of changing front page categories didnt work well, will need lots of work and input. I dont think it should be planned for the busy holiday season. As for my items, it is very hard to find them in the "new categories" and since the recent change of the front page became worse, I can figur out how the search works nowadays and where it comes sorted by relevancy (which we all aimed for) or recency. Cant wait to see the stats for October and would like to see overall stats compared to the last year, month by month. it may be a good idea to have everything returned back as it was. Stats does show it all.

81 comments

Lori from riskybeads said 9 years ago

wow, these numbers continue to amaze!!
Janet Howard from JHFabricCreations said 9 years ago

What a huge number of new members. Can you break that down as to how many were new shops vs buyer only accounts?
Jill Marshall from PreppyPiecesHairTies said 9 years ago

Wow. Amazing stats. Congrats all around. Very encouraging numbers.
Robyn Klauer from georgiedesigns said 9 years ago

My stats every month almost exactly correlate with Etsy's overall when looking at the months from year to year! Exciting!
Nathalie from NathalieVan said 9 years ago

Interesting to see how etsy is growing. I hope the trend continues into the future!
Robin from CustomPortraitArt said 9 years ago

Etsy continues to be a nice slice of the pie of my portrait sales!
Kimberly Chaney from ecsquared said 9 years ago

Interesting facts :) Congrats everyone.
Gypsymoondesigns from Gypsymoondesigns said 9 years ago

Thanks for the report.
Jolynn from lifemeetsart said 9 years ago

Great numbers! Hope the holidays see a year over year increase as well.
Felice Sereno from FeliceSereno said 9 years ago

wow so many people signing up!!!!!
Jen Lee from ScribblingClubBaby said 9 years ago

Thanks!
Monika from QuiltloverQuilts said 9 years ago

Wow! I am happy to say that I am part of those awesome stats.
Andi and Isaac from RaleighVintage said 9 years ago

69% increase over LY...that is a number most businesses dream of! Congrats to all of us!
Faro from OhFaro said 9 years ago

This September was my best ever here on etsy. Thanks!
Amber from CountryBabyHandmade said 9 years ago

I'm seeing the increase here! Thanks!
awkward from awkward said 9 years ago

If the increase in items sold is greater than the increase in revenue, does that mean there's a trend towards lower-priced items? I need to look at the rest of the numbers more closely when I have more time to be able to know how this should affect my decisions as an individual seller, but as good as these numbers are for Etsy, I'm not sure Etsy's increase in size , and the way those increases are happening and handled, is always going to be good for me as an independent designer/maker.
OldLikeUs from OldLikeUs said 9 years ago

I'm hoping the increase in members were the buying types :-) Wouldn't that be nice!
Megan from MegansMenagerie said 9 years ago

So glad to be part of it :) Those numbers are amazing!
Amanda Jayne from MsAmandaJayne said 9 years ago

Excellent!
RainbowOrigami from RainbowOrigami said 9 years ago

69 and 72 %!!!! That's amazing!!!
Tami Lopez from TamiLopezDesigns said 9 years ago

May the trends continue!!!
Eduardo G. from MexFabricSupplies said 9 years ago

I joined in September and I already have 31 sales! I'm so excited to be here!
Suzi from ThePillowStudioShop said 9 years ago

I am so curious what this means for the holiday season (if thats when things are really suppose to pick up). I love the updates. Thanks
AntwarePottery from AntwarePottery said 9 years ago

missing: total members,split between shop or buyer only accounts. Would like to know how many total stores are opened for business so I could see the average growth per store.
Jane from JacarandaDesigns said 9 years ago

Wow! Great numbers. I'd love to know the breakdown of sales by high level category.
Megan C from AlaskaBagCompany said 9 years ago

wow! Thanks for the info
Steph from OneStitchDesigns said 9 years ago

interesting :) my sales were up about 60% over last year's september
crochetgal from crochetgal said 9 years ago

Very interesting. I'd love to see these stats broken down a bit better to include purchases via DC, Paypal and other forms as well.
Renata and Jonathan from RenataandJonathan said 9 years ago

Thank you !
pamwares from pamwares said 9 years ago

I would like to see more detailed results as well. One thing I would like to see is how many shops are closed each month? Something like....example: # of shops on etsy at the EOM Sept: 10,000 # of new shops opened in the month of Sept: 1,000 # of shops closed in the month of Sept: 200 # of shops with no sales for the month of Sept: 100 Also a break down of sales by price point. We look at this all of the time at my retail job. example again.... $1.00 - $24.99: 10,000 $25 - 49.90: 15,000 $50-99.90: 5,000 Over $100: 200
Jim McLean from BackyardBrand said 9 years ago

Can't wait to see next month's (post Browse-Page rollout).
Jim McLean from BackyardBrand said 9 years ago

The month-to-month .8% increase is less than half of last year's for Sept.
Jim McLean from BackyardBrand said 9 years ago

Here's the 2011 post for same period http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2011/etsy-statistics-september-2011-weather-report/
AeridesDesigns from AeridesDesigns said 9 years ago

I do enjoy these reports, and overall year over year growth is always good. But one comparison that concerns me indicates the average sale is trended downward: 0.8% increase in dollars, vs. 4.9% increase in items sold, means the average $ per item sold went down by 4.1%. This could just be a reflection on the changing seasonal shop offerings, or more influx of lower price items and lower-price shopper expectations.
J. Roshak from Joyfulghans said 9 years ago

This is amazing. September was my worst month in number of views, with zero sales. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong anymore. Others are having success, yet I can't sell afghans even after I've marked them down. I do know this new way of "finding items" hurt me a lot and I'm not certain how to compensate. It's discouraging. The things I thought were helping me before, I was told were useless and didn't contribute to the *community.* Oh, well, maybe this will be a better month, although it certainly has not been so far. My views have been even worse so far. Sorry to be the spoiler in the party. Just very discouraged with yet another reminder that I'm not doing things right.
brooks barrow from brooksbarrow said 9 years ago

Wow, that's a lot of traffic & sales!
brooks barrow from brooksbarrow said 9 years ago

@ J.Roshak... Keep your chin up! The numbers above are very general, of course. Have you thought about connecting with a critique team here on etsy? Its a great opportunity to have some successful shop owners take a look at your shop and offer advice on how to tweak things.
Pat Parker from PatsPottery said 9 years ago

My sales continue to improve each year, along with etsy♥
Villa Collezione from VillaCollezione said 9 years ago

amazing stats! yay!
Katia from Plushka said 9 years ago

Wow, very impressive! Thrilled to be a small but important part of those sales percentages:)
Lisa Steiner from ElainaLouiseStudios said 9 years ago

Great numbers!
Claudine Intner from claudine said 9 years ago

Yeah!
Megan Martin from SpiceofLifeDesigns said 9 years ago

whoa... so after finally reaching an average sold item price of $20 ($20.03 in Aug '12) it dropped to $19.25 in September? Not a good trend...
Debbie and Sarah from FelixFunhouse said 9 years ago

Sweet
HouseHoldWords from HouseHoldWords said 9 years ago

Thank you for posting the reports.
Scott from vinylclockwork said 9 years ago

Great Numbers Keep up the Great Work Guys
Fawn and Alohi from HanaMauiCreations said 9 years ago

Wonderful!
juln from LievanoGlass said 9 years ago

It would be great if someday, Etsy actually put enough information into these reports to make them statistically meaningful. I mean, Texas receives more raindrops than Rhode Island, overall, but so what?
Andrew Konkle from Theteepeeguy said 9 years ago

It will be increasing to see October stats month to month.
David Bjorkgren from mountainbrook said 9 years ago

Let's see what this new unasked for browsing brings for Oct 2012. I bet it will be awful.
Jimmie and Carolyn Bartlett from JimmiesArt said 9 years ago

It would be useful to have the stats of categories. Also number of shops in each category would be good information. Any level of stats in detail would help us in marketing our wares in shops.
Vina from VinaDesign said 9 years ago

Wow,great!! n_n
LaECLECTICa from Laeclectica said 9 years ago

Thanks : )
Tom's Grossmami from tomsgrossmami said 9 years ago

Thanks.
Elena Polko from FashionTouch said 9 years ago

September was not a good month for. Sales 0.8% higher than August, compared in August, 9.7% higher than July. September was a poor month. So far this October is slightly better for me than September, but much worse than last year October. I guess the idea of changing front page categories didnt work well, will need lots of work and input. I dont think it should be planned for the busy holiday season. As for my items, it is very hard to find them in the "new categories" and since the recent change of the front page became worse, I can figur out how the search works nowadays and where it comes sorted by relevancy (which we all aimed for) or recency. Cant wait to see the stats for October and would like to see overall stats compared to the last year, month by month. it may be a good idea to have everything returned back as it was. Stats does show it all.
Alisa Kiskis Bartel from CreationbyKiskis said 9 years ago

Hopefully, next month will be even better.
Lana from HoneyPieDesign said 9 years ago

I'm glad we are helping you be successful Etsy. Hope you can help us now and listed to all the complaints about the lack of sales since you changed Browse. I am selling less than a quarter of what I did compared to August and September.
Janine Daly from BeadAndAPrayerEtsy said 9 years ago

Thanks ,I am new to Etsy this is nice to know.
John Gibbons from gibbonsglass said 9 years ago

Looking like a good October too!
Jesse Esquivel from NuevoWoodcrafts said 9 years ago

Great numbers!
TheSewingGin from TheSewingGin said 9 years ago

Always interesting numbers.
Shelley Szczucki from thecharmingplace said 9 years ago

I did get a few sales this month.....great numbers. http://www.thecharmingplace.com
Jenna Frist from FristVintage said 9 years ago

all i can say is wowowowowowowowowowowowowow! This is great news and I love to read this kind of statistics. Congrats Etsy, you deserve this success!
Janine from MomsantiquesNthings said 9 years ago

Wish I knew where those sellers were, they didn't visit my shop! I thought September was my worst month of the year, until October hit, it's now gone from bad to worse. With all of the changes here, i'm now completely buried and since Etsy is my only income, i've been a seller on Etsy since 2007, now i'm forced to look elsewhere to sell. This time of year is usually the start of my best sales and if I can't sell during this time of year, i'm going to have to shut this shop down! It's very depressing!
KUKLAstudio from KUKLAstudio said 9 years ago

I'm with you Janine and all the others who don't find the situation so optimistic. My views and sales were always going up when compared with last year same time. That ended this September, it's the worst month for me this year and normally September is going up. Only now that October is approaching its end I see that October will be even worst. I'm almost invisible, there is no place for my items in the new Browsing system, I get no orders, almost no convos and sometimes have only 2-3 views per hour. I wish the weather report could be more detailed so we can actually use the information. I also wish that this kind of big changes are not made just before the Christmas season but I guess I know by now how much sellers opinions are valued around here.
Joan from WhitebirdDesign said 9 years ago

Wow! Sounds impressive, but sales and activity have going down for me too (after an incredibly good August!), and so far Oct is my slowest month in over 2 years. Just when I think I have things figured out; everything changes!
gilded in gypsy from gildedingypsy said 9 years ago

Wow, those are some amazing stats! Let's hope that they continue to grow!
glenda puhek from glendalee said 9 years ago

Numbers are nice and easy to understand, but I would so dearly love to see a breakdown by categories of sales $ and items. There is a big interest in SEO. I hope the effort I put into making my listings, tags and categories work for me is measurable in an Etsy-wide way. I do really appreciate the stats page for my items, but I want to know how delicious the slice of the bigger sales pie I'm part of really is.
meiresthaidesign from meiresthaidesign said 9 years ago

I like to know which country has the largest buyers!
Karen Young from loosepetals said 9 years ago

My sales were growing and fantastic until October, something changed and it wasn't my skylines! I think the new categories were not a good change at all.
Giftbearer from Giftbearer said 9 years ago

Lke others have said, something really changed in October. Not bad views but the ratio to sales is not what it should be. Why all the bouncing? Would like to know exactly what is selling. It would be good to know stats for what is selling in each category; maybe the top 10 types of items within categories. Another thing that would be interesting to know is how many items sold over $100 this year versus last year.
Lois Bardsley-Sirois from VictorianGypsygirl said 9 years ago

Thank you. Thank you to all the people who have mentioned the new way to browse has hurt Etsy shops. I am lost in all the viewings since this has started. In order for me to have the same amount of listings viewed, I have to up my advertising amounts. However, as of this morning, I had to stop my ads as the largest Hurricane is hitting the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, just where I am located. Unfortunately, this will affect Etsy shops on the eastern seaboard. My very best of all the Etsy shops. The shoppkeepers and customers of Etsy, are wonderful, I have to admit.
Michelle from TheSilverWren said 9 years ago

Amazing stats!
NorthcottWilson from NorthcottWilson said 9 years ago

I agree with Lana and Janine... for me October 2012 was much slower than Oct 2011 or Oct 2010. Despite checking and re-checking my tags, most of my items don't show up in Browse. My primary product is silk yarn; last week I scrolled through all 22 pages of Browse's Yarn/Silk and not one of my listings was displayed there. But perhaps Etsy adjusted the algorithm after so many seller complaints - yesterday I checked Browse again and finally some of my listings were appearing.
Karen Young from loosepetals said 9 years ago

I've been selling art for 20 years, one reason why October sales could be down, is that election years buyers do not spend as much. The weather from the storms could deter the entire gift shopping experience, as people focus more on survival stuff. I wrote an email to Etsy to seek further explanation on changes in the search and they said they did a lot of research before changing the search and feel that is was a change for the best. It would be good for those who feel there sales have been hurt by the new search to forward their opinions to support.
Roberta Valle from RobertaValle said 9 years ago

wow, these numbers continue to amaze!!
V Lynn from BourgeoisDesigns said 9 years ago

Awesome, wonderful numbers.
Molly Shannon from MullaneInk said 9 years ago

awesome! Congrats to everyone with sales and keep up the hard work!
Becky Hatlee from GypsyFriday said 9 years ago

I would like to know how many active sellers are currently on etsy. I know that number changes (probably by the hour ... or minute!) ... but I'm curious for perhaps an average number of active sellers. Anyone know where I can get that info? I've looked all over and can't find it anywhere.
Chrystal from TheCozyCubby said 9 years ago

Intersting, I am more interested, in open and functioning shops instead of just new accounts.
Lady Pashmina from LadyPashmina said 9 years ago

wow huge numbers overall but I'm not seeing this on a individual level.