Dive Summary:

• Online marketplace Etsy is testing a business-to-business platform dubbed "Etsy Wholesale," which allows retailers like national chains, museum shops and local boutiques to carry products by Etsy vendors and designers.
• Nordstrom and West Elm are already merchandising Etsy items in their stores, and Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson says that showcasing products from independent sellers and artists adds "local character" to these stores.
• Etsy, which launched in 2005, has around 850,000 sellers worldwide and the company's sales ballooned to $890 million in 2012.

From the article:

Nordstrom is selling Etsy items in its home departments via its new partnership with Etsy Wholesale. It would be fair to call Etsy, which bowed in 2005, a disruptor: The online marketplace birthed a new business model that gives independent designers a global platform to sell everything from handmade jewelry to vintage clothing and home furnishings. ...