A Majority of Etsy Sellers Are Women, Says New Report

Etsy—the home of hobo bindles and other wonderful craft treasures—is primarily made up of female vendors, according to new stats. Of all the sellers on the site, 86 percent are women.

A report published on Thursday also reveals that 30 percent of Etsy entrepreneurs depend on the site as their sole means of income. The remaining sellers generate an average of 15 percent of their earnings from Etsy.

Fast Company reports:

That 15% is significant, given that the average Etsy seller earns a household income of about $56,000. “The workforce is shifting away from full-time employment, and more and more people are combining income from multiple sources,” Etsy’s global policy director Althea Erickson told The Wall Street Journal.

The report also states that vendors are largely under age 35, compared to traditional business owners in America, and that 17 percent earn under $25,000 a year in their household.

One seller cited as a success story in the report is Jennifer Judd-McGee, who ran a women’s health clinic before opening her Etsy shop. She says:

“When the 70-hour work weeks started to take a toll on my stress levels and family time, I started drawing and collaging to calm my nerves. With encouragement from friends, I opened an Etsy shop. Eventually I left my job in the healthcare field to focus on making art full time. When diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2010, I was having trouble holding my pens to draw — and I started freaking out. I discovered that the pressure of holding a cutting knife in my hand felt good, so I began to explore paper cutting.”

And now:

“These days, it’s a key part of my repertoire. While taking a printmaking workshop last year, I stumbled into a lab full of high-tech tools for fabrication. Here, I first laid eyes on a laser cutter in action. The possibilities excited me so much that I bought my own with a loan from the bank, the first debt I have ever taken on as a business owner. After the laser cutter was delivered, it sat in my studio for several months, unused. I was really scared of it. Since learning the ropes, the machine has opened up new opportunities for my business. I now make laser-cut versions of my hand-cut artwork and have landed work making laser-cut signs for other businesses, something I hadn’t even considered when making the purchase.”

What’s the last thing you bought on Etsy? Me, this cat queen poster, currently framed in my home: