Etsy Q4 Results and Strategy Reshape Personalized Jewelry Sellers and Marketplaces

Etsy closed out Q4 with a market-positive earnings reaction, saying profitability exceeded Wall Street expectations even as buyer activity remained soft, and announced the sale of Depop to eBay for a reported $1.2 billion. Management framed the quarterly turnaround as the payoff from a yearlong goal: “Our goal last year was to return our core marketplace to growth, and we achieved that in the fourth quarter,” a company statement said, signaling a shift in momentum for sellers and marketplaces that specialize in personalized goods.

Executives pointed to an outcomes-focused reorganization and targeted marketing as the drivers behind improved profitability. Kruti Patel Goyal, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etsy, said, “Our clear strategic focus and solid execution are driving progress on the journey to bring the Etsy marketplace back to sustained growth.” Company materials and executive commentary attribute operational gains to consolidating product and engineering work, unifying customer support and trust teams, and realigning marketing away from a channel-first approach.

Depop’s metrics underline why the marketplace attracted buyer and investor attention: Q4 2025 GMS rose nearly 38% year-over-year to a record $300 million, with U.S. GMS up 60% year-over-year in Depop’s largest market. Management described early returns from a surge marketing investment, noting that “we saw initial wins from our surge marketing investment including Depop's Taste Recognizes Taste campaign with U.S. brand awareness accelerating even at this early stage of investment.” The reported $1.2 billion sale to eBay crystallizes Depop’s strategic value and may shift where independent sellers list vintage and bespoke pieces.

Etsy described specific organizational changes intended to speed execution and clarify accountability for customer outcomes. Executives said they “unified the teams responsible for trust and safety and customer support under one leader, protecting our community while delivering fast, thoughtful help when it matters most,” and that the reorganization produced “an organization with clear ownership of customer outcomes and fewer handoffs, built to move faster and execute more consistently against our priorities.” The retention of active sellers improved throughout the year, management added, as the company tightened operational oversight.

Product and personalization investments also featured prominently. Kruti Goyal said, “Our app is making it our most personalized and engaging platform,” and management reported that “over 75% of push notifications and emails are now personalized.” The company linked machine learning-driven recommendations and owned marketing channels to healthier engagement and seller-buyer matching, while noting limits: buyer demographics are aging, with “older users growing faster than younger ones,” and management called this “not an appeal problem, it's a presence gap,” adding it plans to “improve our app and shift our marketing mix to more intentionally engage and acquire younger shoppers.”

Looking ahead, Etsy framed its outlook around AI-driven personalization, expanded marketing, and a sharper focus on the core platform. Management pitched a clear tactical aim: “If we get better at how we match buyers to the right items and make the human story behind our sellers more visible, we can turn our scale back into an advantage and reassert what makes Etsy distinct.” If you sell personalized jewelry on Etsy or Depop, consider how these changes - the Depop sale, personalized app reach, and marketing realignment - will affect discovery and resale; have you sold a similar piece? Tell us what you got.