Etsy’s Q2 2026 marketplace sales rise 7.5% as take rate reaches 25.9% and the company cuts about 12% of staff

Etsy published its second-quarter 2026 shareholder letter on 5 August 2026 and reported marketplace gross merchandise sales (GMS) of $2,582.9 million, up 7.5%, or 7.2% in constant currency¹. The company kept a larger share of each sale, with a take rate of 25.9%, up 50 basis points¹. It also completed the sale of Depop to eBay on 30 July 2026 and announced a restructuring that will remove about 220 roles¹. Our analysis is that sellers should read the take-rate rise and the Star Seller plan together, because the letter links advertising to the former and signals a change to the latter without giving details.

What did Etsy report?

For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 the letter gives the following Etsy marketplace figures¹.

Active buyers were roughly flat year on year and up about 350,000 on the previous quarter¹. The mobile app accounted for about 47% of GMS¹. On a continuing-operations basis, which excludes divested businesses, revenue grew 6.2% and the take rate rose 130 basis points, including about 80 basis points from the divestiture of Reverb¹.

Why did the take rate rise?

The letter says Etsy Ads drove take-rate expansion through machine-learning relevance improvements and better pacing of seller budgets, and that Offsite Ads also contributed¹. It does not break out how much of the 25.9% comes from advertising, transaction fees or payment processing¹. It also does not cover seller fees or Etsy Payments¹.

Our analysis: the letter attributes the gain to advertising tools that sellers choose to use, so sellers who advertise on Etsy may be paying a larger share of each sale than sellers who do not. Check your own ad spend as a share of Etsy sales, not the platform average.

What about Depop and the restructuring?

Etsy completed the sale of Depop to eBay on 30 July 2026, which brings about $1.4 billion in cash into Etsy in the third quarter; the letter does not disclose the sale price¹. eBay's own results describe the agreement as announced in February 2026, with a base price of $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion paid including preliminary adjustments².

Etsy will reduce its workforce by about 220 employees, roughly 12%, leaving headcount of about 1,600, with estimated charges of about $35 million, mostly cash, and substantial completion expected by the end of the third quarter¹. It repurchased about 3.9 million shares for $250 million in the quarter and approved a new $2 billion repurchase authorisation on 3 August 2026¹.

What happens to Star Seller?

The letter says Etsy is evolving the Star Seller programme to reflect shop performance and inventory quality; this is our paraphrase, and the filing should be read in full for its exact wording¹. It does not state what the new requirements are or when they begin¹.

What did Etsy guide?

For the third quarter, Etsy expects marketplace GMS of $2.53 billion to $2.58 billion, a take rate of about 26% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28% to 30%¹. For the full year it expects GMS growth of 4% to 6%, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% to 30%, raised from 28% to 30%¹.

What should sellers do?

These are our recommendations, not Etsy's.

• Review your Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads reports. Work out the cost per sale for each and compare it with your margin.
• Photograph your Star Seller dashboard now. If the programme changes, you will want your current status and metrics for comparison.
• Review inventory quality. The letter ties Star Seller to inventory quality, so check listings that are out of stock, slow to ship or poorly described.
• Wait for details before changing prices. Nothing in the letter announces a change to fees.

What is still unknown?

The letter does not give the Depop sale price, the new Star Seller criteria, seller fee changes or the proportion of take rate that comes from advertising¹. We did not retrieve Etsy's earnings call.

How should sellers read the guidance?

Etsy's third-quarter guidance is for marketplace GMS of $2.53 billion to $2.58 billion, and its full-year guidance is for growth of 4% to 6%¹. Second-quarter GMS was $2.58 billion, so the top of the third-quarter range only matches it, and full-year growth of 4% to 6% is below the 7.5% reported for the second quarter. That implies slower growth in the second half. A slowdown in the platform's growth rate does not mean your shop will slow, but it does suggest that buyer demand overall is not accelerating. With active buyers roughly flat year on year at about 87 million¹, growth comes mostly from existing buyers spending more, with GMS per active buyer up 2.8% to $124¹. For a seller, that points to the value of repeat customers, bundles and higher-value listings rather than relying on a larger pool of new buyers.