Erin Green was a sprightly 21 years old when she opened her own vintage clothing store in Ontario. The young entrepreneur was forced to put on many different professional hats, and quickly: managing, accounting, hiring, sourcing, budgeting, marketing. The list goes on. But the experience gave Green the confidence and skills to go on to big roles in even bigger companies: Lululemon, eLuxe, and finally, Etsy Canada, where she has worked as managing director for the last four years.
“Bringing that sort of generalist outlook to running the Canadian business for Etsy has been extremely helpful,” Green says over the phone from Toronto. “I think that’s the biggest lesson I learned, is all the hats [you have to wear]. Sooo many hats!”
Since joining the online marketplace, which was founded in 2005 in Brooklyn, Green has worked to grow its Canadian division into a dynamic and prosperous venture. But promoting and nurturing a company that floats through the interweb, thanks to buyers and sellers dotting every corner of the country, can be difficult. As such, Green’s responsibility is to find ways to build and connect the vast network of Canadians. “I think for us in Canada, our focus is highlighting our sellers within Canada and getting them attention from buyers or potential buyers,” she explains. “It’s our team’s job here to establish partnerships and programs that will help elevate the awareness of talent we have in Canada. It’s one of the largest markets for Etsy. We have so many incredible sellers and products.”
Programs such as Etsy Resolution, a four-week “boot camp” that helps sellers understand the ins and outs of online commerce, and Etsy Made in Canada, a real-life marketplace that pops up in cities around the country, create a more dynamic and tangible community around the brand model. And now adding to that is the new Etsy Studio, which launches across the company’s international grid in April 2017.
The Studio is will focus on craft supplies—an industry that accounts for roughly $44 billion in the United States alone. The new digital space will connect suppliers with makers, allowing the trendy do-it-yourself philosophy to manifest itself in new and more accessible ways. When it launches, Etsy Studio will already have sellers from over 200 countries, and about eight million listings. “One of the unique things about Etsy Studio will be that marriage of inspiration and shopping all under one roof,” says the ever on-message Green, echoing the online announcement made by Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson. “It’s going to have that sort of, ‘Anybody could do this’ kind of feel, whether it’s jewellery-making, home and living, knitting, or sewing. It will raise awareness to the fact that everybody has that sort of innate creativity within them, and this is now going to be a platform that helps bring that out.”
