Amazon is expanding Handmade, its digital marketplace for craft goods, to Europe. The global launch is happening approximately one year after Amazon debuted the Etsy-competitor in the United States.
Similar to Etsy, Amazon Handmade hawks jewelry, home decor, artwork, stationery and party supplies, kitchen and dining items, and furniture. Sellers must apply to Amazon, and the e-commerce giant will vet these items to ensure they are, indeed, made by hand.
With the expansion announced on Thursday, the e-commerce giant said customers in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (among other countries in Europe) can shop over 30,000 handcrafted items sold on the site that are made by European artisans. Hundreds of new products boasted to be added each day.
Amazon also said that it has made additional items sold on Handmade available for two-day shipping for Prime subscribers in the United States. Amazon’s Prime subscription membership charges customers $99 annually, promising to deliver anything from toilet paper to diapers to books within two days or less.
Now, Prime subscribers will be able to access thousands of these handcrafted items sooner and delivered to their doors within a few days.
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Prime’s two-day guaranteed shipping is seen as Amazon’s trump card over Etsy, which doesn’t have a comparable shipping program that would drop items into customer’s hands within days.
But Etsy, which also operates in Europe, has a larger catalog of handcrafted items available for sale than Handmade. While Handmade now touts approximately 500,000 artisan-made items sold, Etsy adds millions of product listings every month.
