Thursday, March 15, 2007

Etsy - An Organic Shopping Experience

Have been reading up a bit about consumer trend. It is apparent that consumers are much smarter and being more critical when buying products. They care about where the product is from (i.e. what kind of material they use to make the product? how do they obtain the material?), how it was produce (i.e. are they using child labor? are they giving a living wage to their labors and employees?) and whether they are potentially harmful to the environment (i.e. is the product biodegradable?). In a world that is overwhelmed with choices, a lot us are no longer satisfied with just the brand name goods or just the cheap knock offs or imitation of certain seasonal trends.

Etsy is one of the force that reckon this shifting trend. It is like the "Organic Ebay", except - it is actually much more advanced. There are many different search methods as well as innovative browsing engine, as a web design/developer I am totally impressed by the ease of use and features of this online marketplace! One of the feature is the "Time Machine" - this is a new concept that shows you the items that were sold, 1 min ago, 2 mins ago...etc. You can browse through this in three different visual display, watching items coming at you and passing out of the screen.

Another new way of browsing is through selecting a particular color. Once you selected the color, the items in that color will pops up on the same screen, and then you can keep picking different colors until the whole screen is full of colorful items!

There is also a geographical browsing method, where you click on a map and the seller from that area will pops up.

There are still tons of features there for you to play with. I am definitely considering opening my own store in there soon, so whenever i do, I will definitely let you guys know! :)

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