Gawd I love December at Etsy!!

interesting... i definitely saw a spike in sales for a few of my shops.

December was definitely my best month ever on Etsy!

november/december on etsy were my best months since joining, no doubt. jan. is turning out pretty well too - thanks so much ;)

I had my first two sales in December... Let's hope it keeps going :)

Hooray handmade holidays! Thanks for letting us know the info. :)

It's always nice to see numbers climbing....not dropping!

Still waiting for my december... :(

wow! 160,000 new members and 20,000 new sellers!

Interesting to see the numbers. November and December were great months for sales!

i would love to see a comparison between this december and the last!

December was by far the best month since I joined etsy in Febuary. January is slower but I am still making sales so a BIG thank you to ETSY! I think 2009 will be a great year here! I love Etsy! It already feels like home.

awesome!!! I think its so cool you you let us know all of this suff. This is such an amazing community! Thanks for everything!

I had my first sale in December. It's nice to have some good news these days!!!

December was my first full month on Etsy and it went pretty well. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of things so this year's going to be better. Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you ETSY for creating this fabulous venue for us!! I truly appreciate it...xoxo :)

As a relative newbie that is very impressive! Here's hoping for continued success for everyone in 2009!

December '08 was my best month ever! I cannot complain. Thank you!

i'd actually love to see some stats on how Dec 08 comped with Dec 07. is that possible?

Spectacular December results! I'm still in my first year at Etsy and every day is a delight! Thanks to Etsy Founders for creating such a powerful and 'creative' forum for all artisans and their customers!

Great news! Hope it keeps up :) Am still a relatively new shop, but I'm getting decent exposure and sales!

I just joined December 29th, so I am part of these stats... I am already addicted... I love Etsy!!

Just adding my voice to the list of those who'd love to see Dec. '07 and '08 comparisons. I only joined 2 days ago, no sales yet, but I'm just curious.

WOW, that's fabulous! Go Etsians!! Nice to see so many purchasing handcrafted!!

Good to know:) Lets cross our fingers that all those folks who received handmade gifts this holiday season will pass it on!

That is really good news. I'm glad that the interest in etsy is growing.

Hooray for sales increases!! :) Congrats everyone.

ooh that's so exciting sheesh that's a whole bunch of new buyers

Woohoo! Thankyou hard working Etsy Admin.

Hmm, it would be interesting to know how many of the new members (non-sellers) actually purchased something and how many just signed up... Thanks for the statistics, as before, I would like to have more detailed reports, but I am certainly waiting breathless in anticipation of individual seller statistics...

woohoo! congrats etsy. and thanks for a great december. :)

I Love December! It's great to see those numbers, Thanks Etsy!

Thanks for the stats... thats good news. Congrats!

I would love to see comparative stats that show the ratios between sales and sellers, over time. I know that my business was down exactly 25% in 2008 from 2007, even though I have more "fans". I've chalked it up to the economy. With many thousands of people joining Etsy to sell every month, are sales overall increasing in ratio terms? That is crucial information from sellers. I will be very interested with google stats are made public, and would love it if Etsy Admin put out these comparative percentage stats of ratios since 2005.

That's good news!

Congradulations etsy adminstration for making etsy better and better,Looking forward to 2009!!!!

I was able to get awesome and unique items for my family, with new expressions this year heehee. Also, it is great getting all presents that are awesome, and that you wanted so much! This was my best Christmas ever! Thanx Etsy!!

Thanks for sharing such wonderful information!

Wow! Fantastic! That's great to hear!

Less items listed, and more sales. What more could you ask for? Thanks, that's wonderful.

I'm sort of puzzled as to what those numbers mean in terms of individual sellers, as opposed to Etsy itself. If the number of sellers increased 22% and the number of sales increased 20%, that suggests that sellers on average experienced a drop in sales, doesn't it? Since the increase in sales ought to equal or exceed with the increase in sellers? Say you had 100 people, and they each sold one thing for a dollar, for a total of $100. They'd be making $1 each, right? Then increase the number of people 22% (to 122) and the amount of sales 20% (to $120). If you divide $120/122, that means each person is now making only about 98 cents - less than before, in other words, despite the increases. Obviously, this is an oversimplification, but, then, so are your own numbers. They LOOK good, but unless you know what they mean for the AVERAGE seller, they are pretty much useless for most of us.

In other words, it's not enough to just toss out the numbers as if they mean something on their own. You need to explain what they mean, and what the implications are. Are all sellers seeing an increase? If not, which ones were successful enough to make up for the lack of success experienced by others? Did they do so by selling more items more cheaply? Or by selling fewer, more expensive items? Were people buying more supplies, or more finished products? How many of the sales were to new buyers? How many were to long-time Etsy-ites? Obviously, this growth is good for ETSY's bottom line. The benefits of such growth to the bottom lines of individual sellers ON Etsy are far less clear. Put another way: I saw a seven-fold increase in my sales. Sounds great, right? But we're talking an increase from 1 sale to 7 sales. I'm pleased, but that's not going to make it possible to Quit My Day Job (tm) any time soon! Statistics are useful - IF you take the time to understand and explain them.

Also, on the items listed, versus sales... since listings run for 4 months, it's hard to figure out what that means, when you're comparing only two months. Are people selling things listed in December, or are they selling things listed back in August? How long does it take to complete a sale? Is the time shorter now, or longer? I'm not trying to rain on a parade, if a parade is indeed happening. But I don't think it's very responsible of you to just toss these figures out as if they must "obviously" be good news for every seller here. That's not obvious at all, and for many sellers, those numbers may in fact have little to do with their own experiences selling in December. Again, just because Etsy AS A WHOLE is thriving, doesn't mean that every seller here should be celebrating, or even every "average" seller. Without more information, we don't know what "average" is! So, yay, Etsy-as-a-whole - but I'll save my celebrating for when the stats for MY shop show similar success.

No surprise that Dec was better than Nov. November was S...L...O...W. Can we continue this trend through January? (please, please, please)

I had my first sales in December too, let's keep it up, gang!

Congrats to Etsy and all the buyers and sellers who make it a great place to shop and sell!!

I appreciate that you share this information with us. I don't know of very many sites that would do this. I really like how Etsy is run and managed. You make me feel a part of what is going on. I won't mention any names, but when I was selling on other sites, I felt like a drop in a bucket and just money to them, not a person. Not here - Thank you Etsy and the Etsy teams for such a great experience and community.

oh pretty selections!!!!

December was a great month! Thanks Etsy!

yay. thanks ETSY!

My first December here and I had some great sales, made some great purchases, and had a load of fun too - Thanks Etsy!

Great to hear of Etsy's continued growth! As a relatively new seller I had a good year, and hope to have a good 2009 in both my vintage store and the new handmade store I will be opening. Thanks Etsy!!!!!!

Wahoo same number of views with 20% increase in sales? Yeah! (it was a good month for me thank you Etsy!)

I have been reading these posts with interest. I'm glad Etsy is doing well, so that the site continues. I'm not sure what this all means for me. Like sungazer, I'm not anywhere near quitting my day job, but I do know that I sold things to people all over the US, people who would never have seen my work otherwise. I've done craft shows, spent a lot of money and spent a lot of time and sold nothing. I can maintain my Etsy shop in my pajamas and let's face it, the costs are minimal. Long Live Etsy!

like sungazer, I wonder what the actual numbers mean for the average seller. I know for me - having now sold on etsy for two holiday seasons, this season I sold approximately half of what I did last season...and yet I did the same "marketing", had 4x as many hearts, name recognition, etc. Is it the economy, or is it that there is that much more competition on etsy? I don't know. I'm glad etsy as a whole is doing well, but these numbers don't really mean anything for my shop.

Nice to look back and see all the views!

I think it would be helpful if Etsy shared the ability for its sellers (ie: it's true customers) to access stats for their individual shops. That way, we'd all be able to accurately assess the growth/decline of our businesses.

I don't think those numbers were meant to mean anything to individual shops. I would assume you know your own numbers, increase in sales from last year/month, etc. What those numbers do show is that there was tremendous growth on Etsy in December with more items sold than were listed, which means a greater percentage of items were sold. Excellent news! It also shows a dramatic increase in buyers only as the 22% increase only includes about 19,500 sellers, which is about the same as November. It was mostly new buyers signing up. In fact that is the greatest ratio of buyers to sellers I have ever seen. What you can learn from the numbers is that Etsy as a whole is thriving and if your shop is not growing along with it, you need to look at your business plan. Are those all of the numbers needed to run your business. Of course not! But there is some valuable information there. If anyone else wants some help in deciphering some of the number relationships, I would be happy to discuss it in a convo.

I just want to say how much I enjoy Etsy, and what a neat venue it is for all of us. Friendly to deal with, and such talented people able to offer their wares...I'm just very thankful for it.Please don't let it morph into what the other sites have. We love Etsy!!!!!

woooooo! thank you!

Nov and Dec were for sure my best months since joining two years ago! By far!

I think it's interesting to note that 20% more sold in december but the PAGE VIEWS REMAINED THE SAME, which means buyers are finding their purchases easier on Etsy - woo hoo! Good job etsy!

December was GREAT this year, thank you Etsy! My sales tripled that month, which was definitely a treat. Keep up the great work that you do.

I appreciate Etsy sharing the statistics. The transparency is nice, although I wonder if seeing more would help me understand and run my business more. I'm still trying to find my little niche here. I just listed my items this past November and I was happy with the sales. But then when I see 12.9 million, and I only sold 3 items in December that weren't to family/friends, I wonder how it's going for other newbie sellers. I will be working to promote both on Etsy and perhaps elsewhere, and I am not disheartened, but I did expect a bit more for the holidays. I love Etsy, and once I get established I think it will be just right for me. It just takes much time and effort to get settled, especially with such so much talented competition (I say that in the nicest way possible :)! )

Sweet! We're RICH!!!!!

Very nice watercolour.

Good job everyone.

I did pretty good this December and the new year, though slow, is better then last year. All in all, I am a happy camper:>) Life is GOOD!!

sadly, i've never been good with numbers. but i do know that i got much less sleep this past december than i had in the previous months! so thank you, etsy, for this incredible opportunity, it's been a real joy to be here.

JD- but knowing where our hits/views are coming from would help us run our businesses, it's the simplest form of business knowledge available to all websites and that's not being shared with the sellers here.

So many new sellers! Wow!

it sure was a good December...for etsy and ontheround!

That looks like my numbers, too (percentage increases, not dollars :).... Isn't this FANTASTIC????? I just started really selling at the end of September and my sales have steadily climbed every month... November and December were WILD!!! I love to see these numbers... has anyone made a chart? I want to see a chart. Thank you, Etsy!!! love, truLuxe

Yippie for etsy and all the etsians! 2009 will be better yet!

So...Everybody is happy. That's good :-)

The economy is in the tank but that made more people look for thoughtful (translates to handmade) gifts to give.

Great Numbers!!!

Awesome! If anyone wants to see all the year's months in one place, I've created a spreadsheet with the figures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/loosewirestudio/3178469573/ Enjoy! :) Go Etsy! Go Us!

WISH EVERYTHING GOES WELL IN 2009

We had the best month ever in December and have only been around for 4 months. Thanks for helping to make us a success!

Thanks for this information. I have done well over the last 30 days.

So nice to know the results of sales on Etsy..all the hard work making our products and marketing via Treasuries and blogs and letters and posting.. I hope 2009 will be a snowball that keeps rolling! congrats to all at Etsy admin and artists alike!

Yay for Etsy!

I did much better in Nov than Dec since I had my store down for about a week for shows. I'm hoping it gets a bit more lively soon.

I LOVE you etsy,,, living and giving my art to the world is so much fun! I'd love to work full time with you guys!! Got any employment for a cool art teacher like me who is having trouble getting a public edu job due to fund cutting on our stinky economy? I live in Amish Land Ohio!

:D glad to see those numbers pick up for the holidays!