E-commerce platform Etsy Inc. has announced that Chief Growth Officer Kruti Patel Goyal will be promoted to the position of CEO, placing the seasoned executive in charge of steering the company through the age of artificial intelligence.

Current CEO Josh Silverman will transfer leadership to Goyal following his eight-year tenure, the company announced Wednesday. Goyal will assume the CEO position on January 1st and simultaneously become a board member.

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At 49 years old, Goyal inherits an online retail business that has experienced declining growth rates in recent years. Revenue forecasts indicate only a one percent increase for 2025, representing a dramatic slowdown from the surge in sales driven by the pandemic five years earlier.

"As our customers' requirements continue to change, Etsy will adapt alongside them," Goyal states. "However, we will maintain our core identity while emphasizing our unique qualities: genuine human connections, our vendors' innovative spirit, and a uniquely personalized shopping journey."

Goyal joined the New York-headquartered company in 2012, beginning her career with seller and product divisions before advancing to chief product officer in 2019. In 2022, she transitioned to lead Depop as CEO following Etsy's $1.6 billion acquisition of the pre-owned goods marketplace in 2021.

After nearly three years at the helm of Depop, she returned to Etsy's primary operations this year. Both Etsy and Depop function as separate entities.

 

“I asked Kruti to come back to Etsy at the beginning of this year, with an eye to her having the right skills to be the person to lead the business,” Silverman says. “She’s already been laying the foundation here, relaying our strategic priorities, changing our leadership team and driving machine learning and matching.”

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The company, recognized for providing handcrafted items and unique presents, announced that Silverman will continue as executive chair until the conclusion of 2026 to facilitate a seamless leadership change.

According to Silverman, Etsy aims to leverage artificial intelligence to assist both buyers and vendors in navigating away from the uniform nature that characterizes much of the online retail landscape.

“We think Etsy is uniquely positioned to win in AI,” he says. “We have really unique inventory and a strong engineering culture that can keep up.”

Etsy has revised its GMS forecast for the present quarter to a range of $3.50 billion to $3.65 billion, representing a decline from the previous year's $3.74 billion.

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During the third quarter, Etsy reported GMS of $2.72 billion, which fell short of both the prior year's figure of $2.92 billion and the market projection of $2.76 billion according to three LSEG analysts.

The platform experienced a 5 percent decrease in marketplace active buyers, totaling 86.6 million for the quarter that concluded on September 30, while the number of sellers declined by 10.9 percent to 5.5 million compared to the same period last year.

The elimination of "de minimis" status, which provided duty-free treatment for e-commerce shipments valued under $800 from China and Hong Kong, has negatively impacted platform transactions, even though international shipments represent only a minor portion of Etsy's overall business.

Nevertheless, Etsy achieved quarterly revenue of $678 million, surpassing analyst projections of $655.3 million.