Etsy Inc. reported net income of $74.5 million in the first quarter of 2023, a drop of 13.4% from the $86.1 million a year earlier. The marketplace cited inflationary pressures on consumer discretionary spending for the decline.

Etsy operates an online marketplace for handmade items. Artisans and merchants sell a variety of clothing, photos, jewelry, toys and more on the site. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Etsy went public in 2015.

Etsy also owns fashion resale marketplace Depop, musical instrument marketplace Reverb, and Brazil-based handmade goods marketplace Elo7.

A key metric at Etsy is what the company calls consolidated gross merchandise sales, which measures the dollar value of items sold in all Etsy marketplaces including Depop, Reverb and Elo7. In the first quarter, consolidated GMS was $3.1 billion, down 4.6% year over year.

At the core Etsy marketplace, GMS in Q1 was $2.7 billion, down 4.7% from a year earlier.

On a more positive note, the Etsy marketplace grew active buyers by 1% year over year to 89.9 million, the first time this metric has grown on a year-over-year basis since the fourth quarter of 2021. The marketplace acquired 7 million new buyers, reactivated 21% more buyers than during the prior year period, and retained active buyers at levels above pre-pandemic rates on a trailing 12-month basis.

“While we remain cautious on the broader macroeconomic climate, we are pleased to see positive trends in our first-quarter 2023 buyer data, particularly the return to year-over-year growth in the Etsy marketplace’s active buyer base,” Rachel Glaser, chief financial officer, said in a written statement.

Etsy is No. 17 in the 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Global Online Marketplaces database. It is No. 6 among U.S.-based marketplaces.

For the fiscal first quarter ended March 31, 2023, Etsy reported:

• A 13.4% drop in net income to $74.5 million.
• Consolidated revenue of $640.9 million, a 10.6% increase from a year earlier.
• A 3.8% increase in the number of active sellers.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports.

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