Etsy sells more than 39,000 gift cards worth $1.9 million in ten weeks

Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade and vintage items, has announced today that its users have sent more than 39,000 gift cards since they were launched in October last year.

In an update on the Etsy blog, the company revealed that its users sent gift cards totaling more than $1.9 million to friends and family during the last ten weeks of 2012. It’s a significant figure for Etsy, and one that has no doubt helped the company to boost its internal transactions and overall revenue during the holiday season.

To try to continue that success, the company has also unveiled a new heart-filled design to celebrate Valentine’s Day next month:

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Etsy gift cards come with a few restrictions though; to start with, users can only purchase them using a US credit card, and the gift cards themselves only work at Etsy storefronts that have direct checkout enabled.

Those restrictions clearly haven’t affected the overall takeup of Etsy Gift Cards though. Late last December the company’s iPad app was updated with a few new features, the most notable of which was the ability to order and send Etsy Gift Cards.

Again, this feature is only for users based in the US at the moment, although today the team gave the following update: “For our international sellers, we’re continuing to work hard to bring direct checkout to you and you can expect some exciting announcements later this year.”

Etsy, now in its eighth year, is still looking for further growth. It announced yesterday that in 2012, its total sales grew by 70.3 percent to $895.1 million – up from $525.6 million the year before. In addition, Etsy’s overall sales last month were up 72.9 percent from the year before, with November sales rising by 74.9 percent compared to the same month in 2011.

Across the board, the website also added 10 million new members last year, nearly doubling the total number of members to 22 million worldwide.

Part of that success could be Etsy’s decision to purchase more than $250,000 in Google Product Listing Ads, which followed the news that the search giant was about to adopt a paid-only model in the US. The company has since revealed that the move has brought 14 million extra visits to the Etsy site – so it looks like money well spent.