Etsy Sold 12 Million Face Masks in April

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Etsy sold 12 million face masks in April Sometimes when you are really successful at something, there is a Catch-22. You want to tell everyone, as this draws in more customers and sales – but it also draws in more competition.

Etsy did a smart thing letting its sellers know that face masks would be a huge sales opportunity, and, as a result, Etsy sold 12 million face masks in April. But the problem is that when you announce how warm the water is, everyone wants to jump in the pool.

And this is what has happened. It’s still a big pool, but it might be difficult for smaller sellers to compete when the big players jump into the face mask market.

Big Retailers Now Selling Face Masks

Anthropologie has released their own very chic face masks made of organic cotton.
Disney has made some really cute ones for kids currently only available on pre-order, and until September 30th, all proceeds from the mask sales will go to MedShare.
Old Navy just launched cloth face masks for adults and kids, where you can get 5 for only $13 in a various of stylish designs.
Banana Republic’s face masks sold out in minutes, but they are now back in stock.
Face Masks at Old Navy
Gap has also sold out of their face masks, but you can go on a waiting list.
Athleta has their own face masks in muted colors.
Zazzle has over 58,000 face masks listed on their site.
MaskClub just launched last month but they signed up major bloggers like Delish to do their own face mask lines and hence promote the

A lot of the big brands know that you might want to support smaller sellers due to the current economic situation, so to get around that, they are typically making a donation to a charity for every purchase of a face mask.

Has the Market Peaked?

Again, it is big market so it can afford lots of competitors, but if you are deciding to go into the face mask market, just don’t do it thinking it will make you a millionaire. Google Trends does show that searches for face masks peaked on April 4th, so it all depends on if there is another wave of the virus, or if some pharmaceutical company comes up with a mask that is 100% effective in stopping the spread.

There are currently over 60,000 face mask sellers on Etsy and over 440,000 listings.

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Have a great week!