Etsy Gift Cards

What are the pros and cons of Etsy gift cards?

Gift cards are a sign that Etsy has arrived, a signal that it’s now a storefront consumers can trust not to go out of business and whose reputation is such that our friends and family will want to do business here.

For Etsy, gift cards are a win-win.

1. They constitute revenue now for a purchase later.

2. This purchase may not ever happen, in which case it’s found money. (This happens more than you’d think, especially if the cards arrive via email rather than being a physical object: they expire, get lost, and fall victim to forgetfulness.)

3. If a purchase does happens, it’s a sale. And because people don’t like to leave money on the table, they typically overspend to deplete the card, thus providing even more revenue than Etsy was expecting.