Here is the torsion: Etsy, the online market essential for original and craft and personalized goods, take a break from the polished television advertisements that you have probably seen during the holidays. Instead, he doubles something a little less flashy but potentially much more powerful – a search fueled in AI. For what? Because people don't look at advertisements. They are looking for. And Etsy wants to meet them where they are.
According to The Wall Street JournalEtsy now moves her budget and focuses on improving how her products appear in search engines like Google, and invests in AI tools to better understand what customers really want, even when they do not know how to ask (1).
Why the pivot?
Let's be honest – TV announcements are expensive. Flashy, yes, but ephemeral. Etsy CMO Brad Minor clearly said it: the platform rethinks its mixture of media, highlighting research marketing and AI. This is partly because online purchasing behavior has changed. People do not wait for a brand to show them something cool – they hit “a cat sweater hand for Sphynx” in Google at 2 am and hoping that the algorithm is going well.
And Etsy? Well, there are millions of sellers and even more niche items. Complete the right buyer to the right product is like large -scale matchmaking. AI just makes sense here.
The Joker Ai
Here is the kicker: Etsy looks at a generative AI to help predict what buyers are, even if the request is vague, strangely formulated or downright bizarre. This means improving on -site search and product lists juice with improved copy and labeling in AI. These are not only better advertisements, it is a more intelligent market.
This year, the company has already deployed a multitude of internal AI tools to help sellers write product descriptions and improve imaging. And it is not alone in this trip. The retail giants like Amazon and Walmart have also paid money into a discovery improved by AI, hoping to make purchases online more intuitive, even for indecision.
But will it work?
Here is where it becomes real. AI is not a magic wand. Etsy faced increasing pain in the last quarters. Active buyers have abandoned 3% from one year to the next. Sales of raw goods? Also below. Can skeptics be asked: is AI the solution or a brilliant distraction?
That said, Etsy hopes. These are not gadgets – it is a question of being visible. At a time when Tiktok trends and Pinterest boards lead traffic, Etsy wants to make sure that when someone is looking for “Cottagecore Mushroom Lamp”, it is one of their sellers who presents himself on top. Not an introduction by Big Box.
And hey, they still have a heart. Unlike Amazon, Etsy lives on the charm of individual creators. AI, in this context, is not supposed to sterilize the experience – it is supposed to surface the right product of a real person, faster and more precisely.
A greater trend?
Etsy's decision is part of a broader change through the world of electronic commerce. Even Shopify recently unveiled its AI shopping assist, Sidekick, which helps store owners to automate everything, from product lists to customer responses. Personalization is no longer a “pleasant in have”; These are table issues.
Meanwhile, Tiktok's new research advertisements take off, giving brands a shortcut in the psyche obsessed with the scrolling of generation Z. Google also brought a generative AI in shopping research, giving users organized suggestions fed by its Gemini.
The Etsy pivot therefore does not concern abandoning television – it is a question of surviving in a noisy world, has in the AI and first.