The etsy economy

Remember when I made an amigurumi teddy bear for my son’s birthday?

After experimenting, I spent some time looking on etsy for ideas of what I could do with my new-found crochet skills.  And here is what surprised me at the time (though I didn’t blog about it then):  many of the sellers were not American, but located all over the world.

Revisiting this again, I typed in “crochet” to see what was on offer today.

The first item (actually an ad):  two handmade curtain panels, cotton with crochet insets and lace accents.  (I’ll link these but don’t know how permanent the links are.)   4.5 stars, 466 reviewers.  The seller?  Located in China.

Other items:  baby slippers from the UK.

Crochet flowers from Switzerland.

A bikini top from Ukraine.

“Barefoot sandals” (who wears these?) from Latvia.

Another bikini from Turkey.

A crochet dress (!) from Spain.

or another from Thailand.

Or a skirt from Russia.

Or a shawl from the Netherlands.

Or a poncho from Bulgaria.

I am not cherry picking!

Sure, there were items made in the U.S., but the substantial majority of the items for sale that I click on are made outside the United States.  Same thing when I typed in “knit sweater” — Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, as well as wealthier countries such as Canada and the U.K.  (But not Greece, in what I browsed through, anyway!)

So, yes, a part of this is simply that etsy is international, but I would have to think that the economics are also different for knitters and crocheters in Poland or Turkey.  Etsy, after all, opens up a whole new market for women in “middle-income” countries, a way to reach customers in wealthier countries who will pay a higher price than simply selling to friends and neighbors.

Same with all the e-bay shops you stumble upon when you’re looking for a charger for your camera or a similar product — small businesses at the other end of the world have an opportunity to market directly to American customers, rather than pitching their wares to a middleman.

How much of an economic impact does this have?  Is the solution to all of Greece’s woes for their womenfolk to get out their knitting needles?  Dunno, but it’s a part of the etsy story that isn’t (so far as I know) being told.