Etsy Takes on Mass Production in ‘Keep Commerce Human’ Campaign

Promoting the value of unique, high-quality handmade products over cheaper, mass-produced items from SHEIN, Amazon, and others, Etsy launched a “Keep Commerce Human” campaign featuring a number of its artisans and craftspeople sellers.

The marketplace, best known for selling handmade goods, also introduced new regulations aimed at elevating transparency and authenticity, ensuring buyers know exactly what items they are purchasing and the level of human involvement involved in creating them.

The campaign and updated creativity standards come as Etsy has been facing criticism for allowing a flood of AI-generated, mass-produced, and drop-shipped products to reach its platform in recent years to the ire of traditional artists and buyers.

One 30-second television spot begins by asking: “What does a robot know about love? How to translate that leap inside the human heart into something we can see and hold?”

The voiceover concludes, “The fingerprints we leave behind show how determined we are to give the world a piece of ourselves.”

The spot, as noted by Adweek, is seen as an antidote to Apple’s recent “Crush” campaign that depicted a tower of creative tools and analog items literally crushed into the form of the iPad, which many saw as a vision of technology overriding human creativity. Wide criticism prompted Apple to offer a rare apology and retract the ad from television.

“Our film isn’t anti-tech, it’s pro-human,” said David Kolbusz, chief creative officer at Orchard Creative, the agency behind the campaign, in a statement. “It’s a reminder that the things that arrive on your doorstep can come from someplace more meaningful than a fulfillment center. They can come from the homes and studios of the people who labored over their creation.”

Another spot features three of Etsy’s craft sellers with the conclusion, “The next time you’re shopping, choose something handmade, hand-picked, or designed for you by a real person. Shop Etsy.”

The television spots, which are running during the Paris Olympics, will be complemented by prominent billboards in New York City and London and social media coverage.

Brad Minor, Etsy’s chief brand officer, said that the campaign showcasing sellers reinforces “the importance of our mission to Keep Commerce Human in a world of increasingly commoditized, soulless manufacturing.”

The move underscores Etsy’s renewed commitment to sellers to remove unauthorized items from the platform to counteract the backlash over AI-generated products infiltrating the site. The push to re-embrace its artisanal roots is also designed to better differentiate the platform from lower-priced, mass-produced online options.

“Almost everyone is losing share to Amazon, Walmart, Temu, and SHEIN,” lamented Josh Silverman, Etsy’s CEO, on the retailer’s fourth-quarter analyst call. He noted that inflationary-weary consumers are spending primarily on “essentials” and at sites offering “deep discounting.”

On the positive side, he noted that Etsy added 8 million new buyers in the fourth quarter, 2023 ended with 92 million active buyers, and the average buyer on Etsy is spending 20% more versus pre-pandemic levels. Still, he admitted that Etsy will face challenges in the near term with discretionary spending focused on travel and dining.

Silverman said, “This is a time when I think products that are not the cheapest possible are out of favor. And I don’t think that’s forever.”