How much of a threat is Artfire really?

There's been a lot of buzz about Artfire on the Etsy forums and I wanted to see just how large of a threat Artfire really is. As of December 2008, Artfire appears to be attracting an average of 18K people per month, while Etsy is bringing in an average of over 2.2M people per month (source: Quantcast). There's quite a disparity there; however, 12% of visitors to Artfire are coming directly from Etsy (source: Compete)!

Although it is a much smaller site, 1000markets is another Etsy competitor that garners attention on the Etsy forums. 1000markets attracts less than half the number of people that Artfire brings in (source: Quantcast) and over one-third of the visitors to 1000markets came directly from Etsy (source: Compete)!

I thought it was really interesting to see that Blogger.com falls in the list of top 3 sites that people are visiting before coming to Etsy. This is a testament to the promotional power of blogs. Keep at it crafty bloggers--they're clearly working!

I'm going to keep my eye on traffic levels to Artfire in the coming months. I expect to see numbers increasing--especially the % of visitors that are coming directly from Etsy.

The number of buyers on Etsy keeps growing--and so do the sales

The number of buyers and sellers on Etsy has grown by leaps and bounds, much like all the other statistics that Etsy's Storque blog provides.

I was very happy to see that the marketplace has not been diluted by this influx of visitors. Goods sold (in dollars) and the number of new registered buyers per month have a very high correlation (r =0.97) between March and November 2008. What does this mean? Correlations measure the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two random variables, described by the range of -1.0 to +1.0.

In this case, my two variables are goods sold and # of new registered buyers per month. Since a correlation of 1.0 means that the two variables follow the exact same, increasing trajectory, a correlation of .97 means that the two variables have a very strong positive relationship. In other words, the new members registering as buyers are actually buying--and at a steady rate.

Despite the downturn in the economy, Etsy broke the $10M in sold goods mark in November. That is a pretty amazing feat; congrats Etsy on another great month!

Etsy Buzz on the Rise

Blog mentions of Etsy have followed a steady upward trajectory over the past 6 months. While sellers use blogs to drive traffic to their pages and shoppers share special finds, it's not just personal bloggers driving the discussion. Influencial blogs like BoingBoing.net are beginning to pick up on Etsy artists. On November 21, BoingBoing.net featured Guy Michael Davis' turkey head salt and pepper shakers. With over 2 million global visitors each month (according to Quantcast), this mention on BoingBoing.net alone is sure to drive traffic to Etsy.

Mission Statement

As a self-diagnosed Etsy addict and data enthusiast, my goal is to provide analysis for Etsy.com and explore how the social media space is shaping small businesses.

Importantly, I am in no way affiliated with Etsy--I'm just an Etsy fan that happens to love online market research and social media analysis.