Each month we will be publishing on the Koalanda blog a brief report on the Etsy sales of the preceding month. Here is the report for December 2022.
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Sales on Etsy in comparison with previous months
November was the strongest month for online sales on Etsy and it was followed by robust results in December, too. Sales were very strong in the first two weeks of December and slowed down in the second half of the month. This has not come as a surprise. The beginning of December marks the last opportunity for customers looking to buy Christmas presents on Etsy. Considering the amount of time needed to make and deliver gifts, purchases were slowing down as the month drew to a close. Sales were the lowest on Christmas Eve and Christmas, not just compared to other days in December but also for the entire last quarter of the year. We have seen a similar trend the previous year when Dec 24 and Dec 25 were the slowest days in the entire month. This makes sense, considering many people celebrate Christmas with their families and spend less time shopping online.
Overall, the sales volume in December was 11% lower, compared to sales in November. However, we need to keep in mind that November sales were particularly strong — up 46% compared to sales in October. This means that while the December sales data does not look good when compared to the data for November, December was still a time of healthy sales, much healthier than the rest of the year. All in all, Etsy sellers did very well in December.
Sales on Etsy by category in December
The trends above apply to almost all categories on the Etsy platform. The graph below shows that December was one of the strongest months of the year in terms of sales. For some categories of products, the volume of sales in December was as strong as that in November. This was the case for categories like Art & Collectibles, which saw a one-percent drop in sales compared to November, and Electronics & Accessories where business actually increased by 1% during the last month of the year.
The categories with the biggest monthly decline in sales volume were Home & Living, Toys & Games, and Bags & Purses. However, these categories had generated the largest increases in sales volume in November.
During high-volume selling periods like Black Friday and Christmas, it is very useful to compare your results to your competitor shops. With Koalanda’s competitor research tool you can monitor the sales of each individual shop daily! You can see the sales for the last 30 days or 12 months. Analyzing the reasons for their success is a critical step toward improving the quality of your shop. Register for free at https://koalanda.pro/signup to explore Koalanda’s competitor research tools.
Sales on Etsy by country in December
As always, the information on Etsy sales that we present reflects to the largest degree trends on the US market. The US is where most of Etsy online traders are located, as well as the home base for the largest stores on the platform. The graph depicting the data on US sales in the last quarter of 2022 is almost identical with the graph for all Etsy sales for this period. What we see is a clearly defined peak around Black Friday, then a slight drop followed by strong performance in the first half of December. In the second half of that month, sales start to decrease, reaching their lowest level on Christmas.
We have observed the same trends in the sales data from stores based in Australia, Canada, and China.
In contrast, there are other countries where the largest volume of sales in the last quarter of 2022 was not generated in the period around Black Friday but instead — during several days in December. UK-based stores which witnessed very strong results during Black Friday did even better on Dec 4. The same trend was evident in sales data from online stores based in France.
For German stores, sales peaked on 11 December, a time when business had already started slowing down for most other stores on the platform. If we look at the graph for Germany, we will see a curve that looks very differently compared to the curves depicting sales in other countries.
In Germany, sales started going up gradually since the beginning of November with peaks clearly visible on the weekends. German sales were strong during the Black Friday week but without the significant increase observed elsewhere. In addition, German stores did even better in the two weeks after Black Friday.
Newly opened shops on Etsy in December
175,806 shops were registered on Etsy in December.
Top 10 most successful Etsy sellers in December
The 10 shops with the highest number of sales in December were:
| Rank | Etsy Shop | Monthly Sales | Country | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CaitlynMinimalist | 86,083 | United States | Jewelry |
| 2 | PersonalizationMall | 48,251 | United States | Home & Living |
| 3 | SilverRainSilver | 40,195 | United Kingdom | Jewelry |
| 4 | HeatherRobertsArt | 32,977 | United States | Craft Supplies & Tools |
| 5 | PersonalizedShed | 29,389 | United States | Home & Living |
| 6 | Keptsake | 28,308 | United States | Home & Living |
| 7 | YourWeddingPlace | 24,885 | United States | Home & Living |
| 8 | ModParty | 23,495 | United States | Weddings |
| 9 | WoodByStu | 23,166 | United States | Home & Living |
| 10 | DesignMyPartyStudio | 22,178 | The Netherlands | Paper & Party Supplies |
Explore the top-selling and trending Etsy shops for free and without registration with Koalanda. In Koalanda you can browse the most complete catalog of Etsy shops on the internet, updated daily.
Holidays
After the holiday rush, many Etsy store owners expect a quiet January. Many comments on social media discuss the sharp decrease in sales during the first month of the year and there are concerns about what will happen in 2023. We would like to remind everyone that there were similar concerns last year but they turned out to be unfounded. It is hard to imagine that sales in January will reach the same volume as sales in November or December. However, this does not mean business will be slow in January. In our last year’s report, we saw that sales in January 2022 were higher than sales in October 2021. We expect a similar trend this year. More information on this issue will be available in our report for January.
If you have products that are suitable for Valentine’s Day gifts, now is the time to brainstorm suitable tags and promotions. Don’t expect sales to reach Black Friday levels but, at the same time, use any possible opportunity to reach potential buyers. If you need to change the tags of any of your products for a limited period of time — like over a period of several weeks to mark Valentine’s Day — remember that the easiest way to do this is via Koalanda’s Listing Editor. When the holiday is over, you will be able to bring back your old tags with just one click. With the Listing Editor there is no need to waste time saving your information in Excel tables or to change your listings on Etsy.
