About.com review on the Handmade Artists’ Shop

Just thought I’d share with you a review of the Handmade Artists’ Shop that I found the other day on About.com, Maire Loughran wrote a wonderful little review on our new site. I was very pleased with the impartial point of view she took when I was reading her column.

Maire stated “Handmade Artists’ Shop (HAF Shop) has item policies very similar to Etsy- all items must be handcrafted. This includes both finished goods and supplies. However, you cannot sell unaltered vintage or resale items.” This statement is very true and we at the Handmade Artists’ Shop feel it is what will set us apart from the large venues out there. The resellers, non-handmade supplies, and vintage market take up a lot of space on venues such as Etsy and Artfire. Our goal is to keep it purely handmade so that our vendors will have good exposure and healthy competition to sell their wares. Massed produced items tend to drag down the quality of the site and depreciate the art of handmade, as the big box mentality starts to set in.

Another point that Maire made was “I was impressed by the fact that some items which had been posted less than 24 hours prior had views in the hundreds.” We were very pleased that she spotted this, the HAFshop works very hard on promotion for not just the site or vendors, but each individual item listed. Some get more exposure than others, but that is just the nature of the business.

One comment I took slight offense with from Maire was “The membership fee is more than reasonable. The trade-off is that the look and feel of the website is a bit less professional than Etsy. Browsing through the website, some of the image photography is subpar and it’s clear that some vendors just aren’t adept at selling themselves. This is most likely an experience issue as with the low membership fee, the website will be attracting a lot of newbies.”

I thought this comment was a little unnecessary, saying because our fees are low is why our site looks a little more unprofessional and speaking of our vendors photographs as subpar. Our fees are low because, we do not want to get rich and we actually want the vendor to make money. Hence no commissions and no listing fees, just a low monthly fee. Almost all of our vendors sell on Etsy or Artfire as well and picking on some of their product photos is just uncalled for and has no merit. I remember when we first opened our shop on Etsy about  6 years ago, our pics were awful compared to what they are now. Taking this statement and saying that the site will be attracting a lot of newbies due to the low listing fee is another statement with no merit. Once again we have some very seasoned sellers on the HAFshop with more coming everyday.

In conclusion we are very pleased with the review, I think other than a few opinions the article was thorough and well written. The Handmade Artists’ Shop would love to thank Maire for doing her homework and writing a wonderful review.

Tags: artisan, Creative Handmade Artisans, Handmade, Handmade Harbor, handmade jewelry, Review

Posted in Creative Breakroom