Birthdays, Weddings Lead Etsy’s Q1 Momentum

By JCK News Desk | April 30, 2026

Demand for personalized, occasion-driven goods—particularly items tied to weddings, birthdays, and seasonal celebrations—helped Etsy deliver its strongest quarterly performance in more than a year, according to the company’s first-quarter 2026 shareholder letter released April 29.

Birthdays emerged as the online marketplace’s largest and fastest-growing gift segment during the quarter, while weddings posted solid gains as shoppers sought customized and heirloom-style items offering “quality for value,” Etsy said.

Holidays also played a role. Valentine’s Day spending accelerated around relationship-themed merchandise, and Easter drove demand for personalization across baskets, tags and children’s items, according to the report.

Etsy reported $2.5 billion in gross merchandise sales, up 5.5% year-over-year. This marked the second consecutive quarter of growth, following an extended period in which year-over-year sales were flat or declined, said Etsy, attributing the earlier period to softer discretionary spending and uneven buyer engagement across much of 2024 and early 2025.

Revenue rose 7.6%, to $631 million, and Etsy posted $105 million in net income, as higher take rates and improved operating efficiency offset ongoing economic uncertainty.

Nearly 47% of Etsy’s sales in the quarter were made through its mobile app. App-based sales increased 11.2% year-over-year, and non-app sales grew about 1%. The company said app users tend to shop more frequently, engage more deeply, and convert at higher rates, making mobile central to the platform’s strategy going forward.

The number of active sellers on Etsy rose 3.3%, to 5.6 million, for the first period of seller growth since Etsy introduced a seller setup fee in 2024. The company credited better retention of existing sellers as well as new additions.

Etsy said it is expanding AI-powered listing tools to reduce manual work and help sellers bring products to market more efficiently. It is also testing conversational AI tools intended to assist both buyers and sellers, and is working to make seller identity more visible across the platform. Early tests show that clearer signals about craftsmanship, process, and maker stories encourage deeper buyer engagement and more confident purchasing decisions, Etsy said.

The company said it anticipates second-quarter marketplace sales between $2.48 billion and $2.53 billion, representing 3% to 5% growth year-over-year growth. It expects low-single-digit growth for the full year.

The JCK News Desk uses AI to help research and produce the first draft of articles. This story was then reviewed by staff writer David Blomquist.