Gift Mode

 

Impact

Role

$29M Total gifting GMS

10k New buyers acquired

20M Orders marked as a gift

2.3x the share of orders with a Gift Teaser

Product design lead

Engineering support

Research support

Stakeholder management

 

Overview

Etsy has long been a destination for unique, thoughtful gifts, but many buyers weren’t marking their purchases as gifts. This meant they were missing out on special features like gift messages and wrapping, and Etsy was missing a valuable opportunity to strengthen its position as the go-to gifting platform. And for the business side, when the user marked the item as a gift it would increase the likelihood of a repeat visit and bring the recipient into the product fly wheel.

Our goal was to increase the number of items marked as gifts while keeping the checkout process smooth.

 

Challenges & Solutions

Complex Checkout flow

  • The biggest abandonment point in checkout was between the shipping and payment steps. Adding more friction, through additional users tasks, could worsen this.

  • The “mark as gift” checkbox was easy to miss, and buyers didn’t realize that marking an item as a gift unlocked special features like a personalized message.

  • Some users checked out with PayPal or Apple Pay, which bypasses parts of the standard flow.

Naming Conventions & Copy Clarity

  • The new feature that allowed buyers to send a digital “sneak peek” of their gift was largely unknown. Many buyers found it confusing or didn’t notice it at all so we paid careful attention to how we framed it.

  • Copy was refined through A/B testing and a sandbox environment for writers to test in real-time.

time sensitive buyers

  • Many users were in a rush and didn’t want to spend extra time filling out additional fields.

  • We carefully tested different placements for gifting options to balance visibility with ease of use.

  • Ensured users could skip the step if they weren’t interested, while still surfacing it later in the purchase journey (e.g., post-purchase page).

  • We worked with engineering to ensure gifting options were still surfaced post-purchase.

Deadlines

  • Since our product will be featured in a Super Bowl commercial, the team has collaborated closely with marketing to develop a comprehensive launch strategy.

  • Given limited engineering resources, we prioritized light, high-impact solutions first and iterated toward heavier changes over time.

 

Product launch

In February 2024, my team rang the Nasdaq opening bell to mark the official launch of Gift Mode, coinciding with Etsy’s first Super Bowl halftime commercial promoting the feature.