Etsy reports record Q4 revenue following strong holiday season

US e-commerce giant Etsy has reported record revenue in the fourth quarter, up 12.6 percent from the same period a year earlier following a “strong holiday performance”.

The company, which focuses on vintage and handmade products, made net revenue of 807.2 million dollars in the final quarter ended December 31, which was ahead of estimates.

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman told investors: “Despite significant macroeconomic headwinds, we maintained the vast majority of our pandemic gains and delivered double digit revenue growth and excellent profitability for the year.”

Despite the increase in revenue, gross merchandise sales (GMS) dropped 4 percent to 4 billion dollars, while net income narrowed to 109.5 million dollars from 161.6 million dollars.

Etsy performed particularly well during the pandemic as shoppers looked to online channels to make their purchases amid international lockdowns.

In June 2021, the company announced that it would acquire both British second-hand fashion platform Depop for 1.6 billion dollars, and Elo7, a Brazil-based marketplace for unique, handmade items, for 217 million dollars.

Finance chief Rachel Glaser said Wednesday: “The Etsy marketplace’s strong holiday performance and accelerating year-over-three-year GMS in the fourth quarter enabled us to end the year on a high note.

“We are now nearly three times the size we were pre-pandemic, and we’ve been careful about how we have grown our cost basis to catch up with the size of the business - visible in our sustained profitable growth and strong free cash flow.”

Looking ahead, Etsy expects revenue in the first quarter of 2023 of between 600 million dollars and 640 million dollars, while it expects GMS of between 2.95 billion dollars and 3.15 billion dollars.

It forecasts an adjusted EBITDA margin of between 26 percent and 27 percent.