Etsy’s gross merchandise sales rose 8.8% to $2.65 billion in the third quarter, and its active buyers grew 1% to about 88 million after falling for two straight years. Buyers are still purchasing less often, so the growth came mostly from bigger orders, with GMS per buyer up 3.9%. CFO Lanny Baker, who is stepping down March 1, said Etsy’s search had been optimizing for conversion, which tended to surface cheaper digital downloads, and that better matching shoppers to physical or digital items has lifted order values. Etsy Ads pushed the take rate up half a point to 26.2%, helping revenue grow 10.9% to $692.5 million. Etsy expects fourth-quarter GMS growth to slow to between 5% and 7%.
