Etsy's stock price soars 300%, and its CEO believes that e-commerce will become more powerful

Etsy was a big winner during the Covid pandemic, with full-year revenue up 111% compared to 2019 .

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said no one knows what the pandemic will change this year , but he expects the company to "outperform e-commerce overall."

Etsy has been a big beneficiary of the stay-at-home economy during Covid.

“E-commerce has grown at an incredible rate in 2020 , with annual growth rates exceeding 40% . But Etsy’s growth rate is 2.5 times that of e-commerce . ”

“I don’t know how e-commerce will perform in 2021, but I hope and believe that Etsy will be able to outperform e-commerce overall,” he admitted.

Etsy's full-year 2020 revenue totaled $1.73 billion, up 111% year-over-year, while net income rose 264% to $349 million . Gross merchandise sales on the company's marketplace, known for offering a wide range of products from independent artisans, grew to $10.28 billion last year . That's up from $4.97 billion in 2019.

The company declined to issue full-year guidance due to the pandemic , instead providing it on a quarterly basis. For the current first quarter, Etsy said it expects revenue to be between $513 million and $536 million , significantly better than Wall Street's expectations of $383 million.

In a post-earnings call Thursday, Silverman told analysts that Etsy roughly hit its 2023 business goals three years ahead of schedule after the pandemic accelerated the adoption of online shopping and fueled demand in its marketplace for essentially new product categories like masks.

Silverman said he sees two competing forces as he considers Etsy's position post-Covid. On the positive side, he said, millions of people who typically shopped in physical stores before the pandemic have begun buying goods online. On the other hand, he believes retail will account for a smaller portion of consumer spending as the economy fully reopens and more people return to eating out in restaurants and traveling.

“I don’t know for any of us what’s going to happen to overall consumer spending as restrictions ease, ” Silverman said. “What I do know is that if you look out over the long term, into 2022 and 2023 and beyond, e-commerce is going to get stronger and stronger, and I believe we’re going to get stronger and stronger as well.”

Etsy shares rose about 9% shortly after the opening bell on Friday . The company’s stock has surged nearly 300% over the past 12 months.

Etsy

Stock price surges

E-commerce