Among the players in the world of SMB marketing and commerce, Etsy is rarely discussed in the analyst corps. But it’s very much aligned with the SMB sector in that it helps small artists, designers, and consignment shops reach wider audiences through a direct-to-consumer (DTC) online sales channel and visual search.
The previous statement could equally be said for larger players like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart’s third-party seller program. But Etsy specifically aggregates 90 million users that are leaned into the idea of unique and craft-oriented products. It’s the go-to place for rare finds and customizable crafts.
Etsy also addresses an important corner of the SMB world: very-small businesses (VSBs). These are the food trucks and farmers’ market proprietors of the world. They’re the long tail of the SMB universe, which is often ignored by software players because it’s so fragmented. But there’s gold in them hills.
Search Intent
Now, Etsy has advanced its ability to help users unearth rare treasures by adding a visual search feature. Joining the ranks of Google Lens, Snap Scan, and Pinterest Lens, it lets shoppers find products using their camera instead of their keyboard. This is a logical move for appearance-forward fare.
Available initially on its iOS app (Android to come next) the new visual search feature lets users tap a camera icon in the search bar to find things visually. After that, they’re prompted to take a photo or choose one from their on-device photo library, which will be used to surface visually-similar items.
Etsy says that one of the biggest drivers for the new feature is the vagueries and nuances of its wide product catalog. Because we’re not talking about a standardized set of SKUs that you may see at a Walmart or Amazon, it sometimes makes searching for random crafts by keyword challenging.
Beyond the shapes and sizes of items, this could help with another product variable that’s hard to capture in words: colors. Finding items that are a specific shade of green can be assisted through a visual search interface. And color is a meaningful attribute for Etsy’s art & design-forward use case.
In addition to effectiveness in finding specific items, Etsy could also stumble upon an unintended discovery use case. In other words, its visual search engine may serve visually-similar search results that inspire new ideas or product discovery that deviate slightly from their original search intent.
Making a Dent
Backing up, this is a logical move for Etsy. As noted, the product listings on its site tend to be highly visual in nature. Sometimes they can be found through descriptive search terms (think: “embroidered whale pillow”). But sometimes the nuance of such rare crafts can be better found through visuals.
When viewing this move in a strategic sense, this brings Etsy further in competition with the visual search players noted above. They each have different use cases, but are increasingly moving into shopping as a cornerstone – and revenue catalyst – for their respective visual search plays.
For example, Google Lens is all about broad-based topics… as that’s aligned with its “all the world’s info” orientation. Snap Scan is meanwhile aligned with Snapchat’s persona for fashion and what it calls “outfit inspiration.” And Pinterest Lens is all about food and home goods. Shopping is common to all of them.
But when looking at this competitive field, Etsy’s new visual search play is probably most disruptive to Pinterest Lens. The product and audience persona of these two players is most aligned in terms of product discovery and inspiration for arts and crafts. We’ll be watching to see if Etsy can make a dent.
