Etsy’s COVID-19 Response: Keeping Our Community Safe and Our Business Thriving
As we continue to grapple with the challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to pause and reflect on how we continue to act on our mission to Keep Commerce Human during a crisis.
In 2019, the Etsy marketplace contributed over $6 billion to the U.S. economy and created 1.7 million jobs* in the independent worker economy. Amidst the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain focused on our unique ability to support small businesses.
Over the past few months, we made decisions on how to navigate the crisis based on one guiding philosophy: to focus on keeping our community members safe and our business thriving.
Taking a broad stakeholder lens to our response is common practice for Etsy and is informed by our Impact Strategy and Integrated Value Model. Every year, we refine our Impact Strategy, evaluate our performance against our annual goals, and then raise the bar. We report on our progress in our integrated financial reporting in acknowledgment that our business and our impact are intricately linked. Though we did not know what 2020 would hold when we made these plans, they provided a robust foundation on which to act.
Driven by our philosophy, we took bold action, beginning in January and continuing forward, to support our sellers, our employees, our partners and the communities in which we work.
Below is a summary of our efforts to date. We’ll continue to share updates on this page as our response evolves.
We are supporting our sellers.
- We have been using our voice to urge the U.S. Congress to include the nation’s microbusinesses and self-employed in COVID-19 relief packages. Read more here, here and here.
- We partnered with Airbnb, Eventbrite, Thumbtack and Upwork to call on Congress to pass additional targeted COVID-19 relief for the self employed. Read more here.
- We advocated for a swift and coordinated approach in the EU and UK to ensure that microbusinesses and the self-employed are a key part of economic recovery packages. Read more here.
- We launched the Stand With Small advertising campaign to drive traffic to sellers, provide resources for running small businesses during this uncertain economic period, and distribute science-based resources to help sellers pivot their businesses to facemask production. Read more here, here, here and here.
- In addition to our #StandWithSmall campaign, Etsy invested more than $5 million in Offsite Ads credits to bring more shoppers to Etsy and promote sellers’ products across the web. Read more here.
- Since the rise of COVID-19, ensuring we can help sellers who need extra support has been a priority. To help sellers that have experienced significant declines maintain their business, we’ve created a targeted relief package which includes various Etsy credits.
We are supporting our employees, contractors and vendors.
- We have provided resources for our employees and contractors, prioritizing pay continuity, their safety, mental health and ability to care for their families during this time. Read more here.
- We have supported the small businesses that rely on Etsy’s business through targeted investments, including the establishment of a vendor fund to provide grants for rebuilding. Read more here.
We are supporting public health needs in our communities.
- In addition to mobilizing our sellers to supply the public with fabric facemasks, Etsy donated 100k fabric masks to frontline healthcare workers, postal service workers and public housing communities. Read more here.
As we continue to address the immediate and long term needs created by COVID-19, we will remain focused on how we can leverage our platform to contribute to the safety of our employees and vendors, continue to advocate for the economic security of our sellers and give back to the larger community.
* Source: 2019 Etsy Annual Report
