A Human-Engineered Heart.

From the unique and hard to find to the utilitarian and even harder to find, you’re likely to find it on Etsy. As the global marketplace for unique and creative goods, Etsy connects buyers and sellers from every cross-stitched corner of the world: 1.9 million sellers; 31.7 million buyers; 45 million items.

And, yet, numbers are only half of the story.
The other half is human.

As a marketplace powered by people, Etsy keenly observed humans at the beginning and end of every sales loop. Ergo the question: why aren’t humans at the heart of everything we do? “In a world of increasing automation and commoditization,” Etsy opined, “creativity cannot be automated, and human connection cannot be commoditized.” And with that mindset, Etsy launched its brand-new, fresh-out-of-the-kiln mission statement: Keep Commerce Human.

With Keep Commerce Human, Etsy championed three social impact efforts: economic empowerment, workplace diversity, and environmental sustainability; and in turn manifested something high-minded about how Etsy sees itself and its future (even dedicating space in the early pages of their 2018 Annual Report to illustrate it.) With its full embrace of these values, Etsy created more than corporate culture—it created an ethos central to how it approaches the marketplace and at the very heart of how it treats people.