Online retailer Etsy opens physical store in London

Pilot program

Etsy mainly focuses on hand-crafted and vintage products and several British sellers – out of the more than 1 million online sellers – will have their products on sale in the pop-up store.

The company was founded 10 years ago and has increasingly focused on offline activities over the past few years. It had opened a first pop-up store in New York in 2012 and several others have followed ever since.

It has now admitted that it is interested in a permanent store in a large shopping street in the United Kingdom. That is why it will open several British pop-up stores over the next year, with the Covent Garden as its first location.

Launch of its own card reader

In order to use Etsy offline as well, it has launched a card reader. Plenty of Etsy sellers currently sell their products at conventions and Etsy wants to facilitate sales while getting a 2.75 % fee.

Customers who buy something will get a receipt sent to their mail, with an Etsy link included. That way, the company hopes to get offline buyers to discover its online branch.