May 1, 2012
We’re thrilled to announce that Trunkt has been acquired by Etsy.
We started Trunkt many years ago with the simple goal of helping independent designers make a living from their talent. Over the years, we experimented with a few concepts – trunk shows, a retail boutique in NYC and e-commerce site, printed catalogs and much more.
After Ayesha left Trunkt to become an early employee at Gilt Groupe, Dev built the version of Trunkt you use now - an online wholesale trade show for independent artisans. Over the last 2 years, Trunkt has become a dynamic community of wholesale sellers and boutique retail buyers who have done a whole lot of business together.
Chad Dickerson, the CEO of Etsy, noticed our success and quickly acquired the company. He asked Dev to build the first version of Etsy Wholesale based on the Trunkt platform and he accepted.
Thank you for all your years of support, patience and good wishes and Dev will see you at Etsy very soon.
Onward and upward,
Ayesha and Dev
In The News
“…Etsy wants to expand into serving a new class of buyers and sellers: the company has bought Trunkt, which specializes in selling artisanal goods wholesale.” ( TechCrunch - May 2012 )
”… a wise choice for Etsy, who seldom acquires other companies. While sales are clearly healthy, wholesaling products will avail them to customers who may not otherwise have access to them.“ ( FashInvest - May 2012 )
"But in a much more substantive move, Etsy is also building a wholesale marketplace from a platform called Trunkt (which it bought from indie developer Dev Tandon) that will give sellers tools to get their products into the world in brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, and other online stores.” ( Wired - November 2012 )
"Etsy, which has about 850,000 sellers worldwide, is now testing Etsy Wholesale, a business-to-business platform by which retailers ranging from national chains to museum shops and local boutiques sell the wares of Etsy vendors and designers in their stores.” ( Forbes - March 2013 )
“… handcrafted home products from Etsy’s vast array of independent designers should be a winning combination for Nordstrom. This is revolutionary, not only for little ol’ Etsy, but also for the retail industry at large.” ( Motley Fool - March 2013 )
“Etsy is testing out this concept with Etsy Wholesale, a b-to-b platform to link retailers with national chains. Etsy’s wide variety of goods and sellers would ensure that items in B&N stores could constantly change to meet today’s consumer expectation of fresh inventory.” ( Forbes - May 2013 )
“Nordstrom can gently elevate Etsy creators, while Etsy can put a little funk in Nordstrom’s merchandise, keeping it from getting too stuffy.” ( Racked - June 2013 )
“Etsy Wholesale is the latest plank in Etsy’s ambitious growth strategy.” ( The Guardian - June 2013 )
“Etsy wants its sellers to take wholesale orders so that, through them, Etsy can be in thousands of stores at once without ever cutting a rent check.” ( The New York Times - April 2014 )
“We have high hopes for Etsy Wholesale.” ( CEO of Etsy, Chad Dickerson on CNBC - August 2014 )
“It’s time to start paying attention to Etsy. Not just for hobbies and crafts anymore, the shopping site is ready to take over the world of retail.” ( Style.com - December 2014 )
“The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015: Etsy Wholesale” ( Fast Company - February 2015 )
“Etsy Wholesale is a win-win for both the independent designers and retailers alike.” ( Forbes - June 2015 )