DaWanda
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
DaWanda was a Berlin-based online marketplace for handmade and unique goods, founded in 2006 by Claudia Helming and Michael Puetz. For 12 years it was Europe's leading platform of its kind, listing around 4 million items and connecting roughly 2 million active buyers with over 70,000 active sellers across Germany, Poland, Austria and Switzerland. Sellers offered handmade, made-to-order, vintage, upcycled and recycled goods.
02 / DaWanda FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
DaWanda was wound down because it could no longer grow as a standalone business. Although the company reached profitability for the first time in autumn 2017 and grew revenue 21% to 16.4 million euros that year, growth had stalled against the far larger Etsy. Founder and managing director Claudia Helming said they had to admit they would not be able to drive further growth on a standalone basis; the closure was a joint decision of the executive team and shareholders, with investors reportedly unwilling to keep funding the marketplace. Rather than let sellers lose their livelihoods, DaWanda signed a referral agreement with Etsy so shops could migrate.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Asset restructuring
DaWanda entered an asset restructuring.
- Company founded
DaWanda was founded.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In April 2018, founder Claudia Helming said that after a difficult reconstruction phase, the marketplace would turn upward again, with plans for mobile commerce and personalization.
- 02
In July 2018, DaWanda instead announced it would wind down operations and shut the site on August 30, 2018, by joint decision of the executive team and shareholders.
- 03
DaWanda signed a referral agreement with US competitor Etsy: the two companies built a free import tool letting DaWanda sellers move their shops, listings and reviews to Etsy.
- 04
On August 30, 2018, DaWanda ceased trading after 12 years; Etsy welcomed the migrating sellers and buyers into its marketplace of 35 million active buyers.
- 05
No bankruptcy filing was reported; the wind-down was presented as an orderly, voluntary closure. No reliable loss figure was disclosed, so no loss amount is recorded.