We have a website at www.Articents.com that allows artists and designers to sell online, much like etsy. We hope to expand this service to also help people track sales offline as well and I was wondering if there is an interest and need for it, and if so, what sorts of features would be beneficial
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There was a time when a lot of people opened 'consignment shops' and 'craft malls' where artists and crafters could just bring in their work and BAM! it would sell. But most of the time nobody made any money to speak of.
These businesses had the highest failure rate of all businesses. Why? They were underfunded. They were easy to start because the owner had no investment in the business. The 'vendors' would fill the shelves at no cost to the owner. They didn't know anything about advertising, or marketing at all. Nor did they spend any money on these things.
They're all gone now. But what we have today are 'online malls'. These cost even less to start, and again have no investment other than 'vendors' who will pay to have their work listed. And there are a bazillion sites out there doing this.
Everybody wants to be Etsy. But how much money was spent getting that site off the ground? And how long did it take? It took a lot of money and a long time for them to be where they are today. And there are still a lot of 'stores' who aren't making any money.
But the exhibitors on this site aren't the Etsy type. They are professional artists and crafters who want, no, demand results. There are exhibitors here who are degreed in their field. Are you? A number of people are like me who do this as our sole source of income. Would your site be your sole source of income?
How will you get your site up and running? There are people who have work in the 5 figure range. Who will you market it to?
You would have to come up with a complete prospectus outlining everything.
Hi Chris and David,
Thank you for your response. You are obviously very passionate about your work and I fully admire and respsect that. I also agree with your concerns about another etsy mall type website, and I can see where you're seeing parallels with articents.
Here's where I'm trying to be different and how I would like to be of benefit to artists like yourself. The websites like etsy expect you to sell on their website so that they can take a cut - that's not my goal. My hope, rather, is to find a way to help you earn more and to help manage your business/process/time better. For instance, think of it not only as a place to sell your work, but also as a place where you can keep track of sales (no matter where they occur) and to keep tabs on expenses.
One Idea that I've been thinking about, is to provide a tool for artists to record the time/place of a show as well as all sales that were made at that location. The goal is to gather enough information (time, location, weather, indoor/outdoor, paid admission for guests or open to public, city income demographics, etc). I'm hoping that if we can get enough of this data, it will lead to better opportunities for everyone.
Another thought is to create a tool set that can keep track of the time spent and materials used when creating your artwork. This could be used to help determine the optimal price for your work and to keep track of your expenses as well as profits and (gasp) losses at year end. I'm sure many are using Quickbooks for this type of thing - but something specific to artwork might be a little more useful and beneficial.
Having said that, are these ideas helpful, or would they serve as no legitimate use to anyone?
I'd like to add another thought to my post above. My gut is telling me that there is some fear and trepidation about displaying your work among other people's work, when their quality might not measure up to yours. I can completely understand that. You have worked very hard and for very long, and it would be counterproductive on your behalf to risk doing so.
With that said, a website is still a valuable tool for your customers (many here probably already have one in place.) This is another aspect that we are working on - the ability to have all of the tools mentioned above, along with a central way to maintain your online listings - however, these listings would only be visible on your own personal website. You could choose to not show them on the articents web directory, and your customers would never even see the connection between the two.
Thank you again for your thoughts and concerns
uhoh calling artists VENDORS might be stirring up another hornets nest.