Etsy makers sold 12 million non-medical cloth face masks in April, generating $133 million in revenue as consumers discovered a new must-have accessory, company executives said.

The transition to Etsy’s makers producing non-medical masks – some bearing unlicensed trademarks and characters — began in early April after the Centers for Disease Control recommended people start wearing them, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said. In a two-day period (April 4-5) the number of makers producing masks increased five-fold to 20,000, a figure that has since tripled, Silverman said. Face masks were Etsy’s second largest-selling category last month.

“There was a tremendous surge of demand for fabric face masks right away on our site,” Silverman said. “In fact, it was like waking up and discovering that it was Cyber Monday, except that everyone in the world wanted just one product that, for the most part, didn’t exist two weeks before.”

New Buyers Attracted

In addition to generating new revenue, the masks also attracted 6.5 million new buyers to Etsy in April, up 160% from a year ago and about half the month’s total buyers,  company executives said.  Etsy also “re-engaged” 2.5 million buyers that hadn’t made an Etsy purchase in a year or more; 32% of those that bought a face mask returned within two weeks to make another purchase, Silverman said.

Masks accounted for 17% of Etsy’s gross merchandise sales (GMS) in April. Etsy’s GMS was down 2% in the third week of March but doubled in April. Silverman said. Etsy’s non-mask sales also rose 79% in April and the company is forecasting an 80-100% increase in GMS in Q2 ending June 30.

The company disclosed the April information as it released results for Q1 ended March 31. Etsy’s profit narrowed to $12.5 million from $31.5 million a year earlier despite revenue rising 34.7% to $228 million.

“Our opportunity is to really work on deepening our engagement with these buyers, so that they understand that Etsy can do a lot more for them than just sell them fabric face masks,” Silverman said. “I’m not convinced that masks are going to be an enduring category for months to come or that these new buyers are going to be with us for months and years to come in a highly active way. But we’re going to work really hard to try to earn their loyalty and we’ll have to learn and see what their behavior is over time.”