Etsy to Launch a New Online Marketplace

The new Etsy Studio will feature more than eight million craft supplies€”plus original tutorials and DIY content.

Etsy has long been supplying DIY aficionados with the beads, pompoms and textiles they need for their at-home projects—and now, with the creation of online tutorials and inspiring content, they’ll be able to better help us less crafty people, too.The new marketplace—Etsy Studio (launching April 2017) is the brand’s first major expansion in 11 years—will be increasing the quantity of craft supplies available for purchase: “We’ll be launching with eight million listings from sellers across the globe,” says Erin Green, managing director of Etsy Canada. Enhanced search functionality and a brand new Shop Manager interface will also allow sellers to better categorize their items: “Craft supply sellers tend to have a lot of SKUs and items,” says Green. “You’ll be able to zoom in on the product, size, dimension, weight.”And if you’re not on the supplier side of things, Etsy Studio will be releasing shoppable DIY tutorial videos, from which you’ll be able to buy everything needed to make wire-wrapped quartz earrings and birch bark mobiles at home. “You’ll be able to add it directly to your cart,” says Green. From the get go, you can expect to find jewellery making, knitting and sewing, paper craft and home decor tutorials.No fully realized products will be available for purchase, explains Green, it’s all about inspiring people to make things themselves. “We’re in this world where we’re constantly inspired, every moment, every day. People are going to say, ‘Oh, I can make that?’—yes, you can!”