Microbrand

At the other end of the e-commerce spectrum from the megabrands are the very small microbrand expert sites, like Autotrader.com, Reflect.com, Electricshaver.com, and Stethoscopes44.

If the DIY tribes conclude that Etsy is simply profiting from their initiative and inventiveness without brightening their microbrands, they'll quickly abandon the site.

At their first meeting, Mr. Chan recalled, Mr. Sternberg spoke philosophically about a series of microbrands, each with a unique reason for existence but none so overly distributed that it loses its voice.