E-commerce site Etsy has launched a new AI-powered feature called “Gift Mode” to help users discover personalized gift ideas.
Gift Mode, essentially an online quiz, asks you a series of questions about who you’re shopping for, the occasion, and the recipient’s interests. With over 100 million items listed on the platform, it then generates a series of gift guides featuring more than 200 different personas such as “The Music Lover,” “The Video Gamer,” “The Adventurer,” and “The Pet Parent.”
Etsy’s VP of Product, Tim Holley, shared that the company plans to add new interests and personas in response to “emerging trends.”
In addition to the gift guides, Etsy has also introduced a “gift teaser” option, where users can send a sneak peek of the gift via email to the recipient in case it won’t arrive in time for the event. This feature also allows users to include a gift note and tracking information.
Online retailer UncommonGoods released a similar AI-powered gift guide feature in 2017, called “Sunny.” It suggests products based on the recipient’s age group, interests, and even includes a text box for more specific preferences.
Etsy’s main goal with Gift Mode is to relieve the stress that comes with selecting the perfect present. According to a recent survey, 71% of respondents have felt anxious while shopping for gifts in the past year.
“We built Gift Mode on the insight that while plenty of brands sell items that make nice gifts, there isn’t a dedicated and scaled shopping experience designed for the gifter that addresses these pain points while helping shoppers find truly thoughtful, meaningful gifts,” Holley explained.
He also mentioned that the new feature combines machine learning and human curation, as well as leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology.
“OpenAI’s GPT-4 enabled us to expand to such a wide range of gifting missions. We then built and scaled the product on Etsy’s existing advanced machine learning training and inference stack – which powers search, recommendations, and more on Etsy,” Holley said. “For this use case, we included specific adjustments to make sure listings included are ‘gifty’ and give preference to high-quality listings from sellers who offer excellent customer service.”
Etsy has been utilizing AI in its search features for several years and has recently increased its focus in the area, particularly with generative AI.
“We’ve been at the cutting edge of search technology for the past several years and while we use large language models today, we couldn’t be more excited about the potential of new or large language models and generative AI to further accelerate the transformation of Etsy’s user experience,” said Etsy CEO Josh Silverman during an earnings call in May 2023.
Along with Gift Mode, Etsy has also released other gift-related offerings, including wedding and baby registries. The company plans to continue investing in the gifting space and enhancing Gift Mode’s capabilities over time.
In addition to these new features, Etsy has also announced a new optional program for sellers called “Share & Save.” This program allows sellers to share links to their Etsy store, and after making a sale, the platform only takes a 4% transaction fee instead of the usual 6.5%. This comes after backlash from sellers in 2022 when Etsy increased its fee from 5% to 6.5%, leading to a strike among sellers.
Etsy boasts over 90 million customers and more than six million sellers on its platform.
