Tomorrow, October 1, Craftsy.com will unveil a redesign of their website as well as refreshed branding. According to an email sent to instructors at the end of August from Jessica Hutton, Lead Instructor Liaison, the reasoning behind the changes is that “in speaking with many of our members, we realized that by integrating project ideas, learning, and supplies in one place, we could make it easier and more fulfilling for members to get down to what they love to do: make!”
“Think of us as the hostess of the crafting party!” Hutton states as a way of explaining the new brand positioning.
Preview of the new Craftsy site design.
Current Craftsy site design due to be changed on October 1, 2016.
Right now the top navigation bar on the Craftsy homepage is organized into three main categories: online classes, kits, and supplies. In the drop down menus users can select a particular craft such as quilting or knitting, or a particular category of supply such as fabric or yarn.
The new design includes a new, top level navigation bar that is organized by craft with, it seems, drop down menus that will include everything from online classes to kits and a la carte supplies all in one place.
I asked Craftsy’s CEO, John Levisay, what prompted the changes. “For the last six years, Craftsy has produced an unprecedented library of more than 1,300 classes across 16 categories. We will continue creating new classes that support the Craftsy community’s desire to make something that means something,” he said in an email. “We feel that integrating learning, supplies, patterns, and kits within these categories will be a better experience for our members, and that is one of the driving forces behind the site redesign.”
The Denver Post reported in October of last year that Craftsy had laid off 32 employees, equivalent to 12% of its workforce. The majority of those jobs were in online class production, leaving 65 employees in that department. In August of this year the Post reported that Craftsy had cut an additional 24 content positions.
At nearly the same time, according to the Post in August, Craftsy opened a 180,000 square foot warehouse in Indianapolis “to handle its ecommerce expansion” and brought on 40 new people to work in logistics. Levisay told me in an email that these changes “are not directly connected, no.”
Within the last year and a half Craftsy has begun manufacturing it’s own yarn, Cloudborn, as well as its own quilting cottons, Boundless. The company also sells supplies from other major craft supply manufacturers including Moda, Robert Kaufman, RJR, Cascade Yarns, Artyarns, Madeline Tosh Yarn, among many more.
Levisay declined to release revenue details or insight into the financials of the classes or supplies sides of the business, instead stating “…both are incredibly important to us, and we plan to continue building both sides of the business.”
That will be interesting. I rarely buy any supplies from Craftsy because not only are the supplies usually much more expensive than elsewhere, but the shipping costs are very high as well.
I for one will continue to buy local. I do buy online, but never from Craftsy. And the quality of Craftsy classes are no where as good as they were in the beginning.
I too refuse to purchase from them. We have all got to support our local shops. Or they will close and we will have nothing but internet shops. : /
The new site is up now. Go take a look. It truly puts supplies and kits alongside online classes – as equals in terms of what the company is all about. Interestingly, the pattern marketplace is also right up there with equal footing even though Craftsy doesn’t make any money from it.
I don’t agree that this is the best situation for the quilting world. I have ever ordered from Craftsy. And I don’t plan to. I support my local quilt shop 95% of the time. If I find a pattern I like, I order from them. These “big box” online retailers are hurting small businesses. 4 quilt shops in our area have closed in the past year! Case in point, a large fabric manufacturer had a new product called Frivols. Many local retailers bought them, displayed them and made samples for their shops. Craftsy bought them and the proceeded to sell them for a much lower price. So many local shops are now stuck trying to sell them or be stuck with them. The local shops who pay rent for a brick and mortar store can’t afford to sell things at a sharply reduced rate! Again, the big box store wins. I’m stepping off my soap box now. I will always fight for small businesses. (And no I’m not a quilt shop owner)
I wonder how successful their pattern marketplace is. If they are having to restructure the business, perhaps charging designers a small fee to put their patterns up might be something for them to think about. I’d hate for that to happen, because I have some patterns on Craftsy, but it might make sense for them. Also, all of these changes make me wonder if the business is on shaky ground, and if so, and they were to go out of business, what happens to all of the classes I’ve purchased from them? How would I access them? I really appreciate the idea of being able to watch videos of some of the crafts I love, because reading info in books and looking at static pictures doesn’t do it for me for some crafts (learning to short row in machine knitting, for example).
I don’t think they’ll go out of business, but bought out is a possibility. I would think the classes would live on in perpetuity. Everyone has always wondered about their financials, are they even making money?
Craftsy is a private company so the public doesn’t have access to any financial information. We can see the venture capital investments they get and we can surmise from layoffs and hirings what their priorities for profitability might be, but otherwise it’s really a black box. Typically venture funded businesses are pressured to show growth over profit, at least for a long stretch at the start. Perhaps now there is a new emphasis on profitability. At some point the venture funders need to sell in order to earn back their investments.
I think so far I’m enjoying the new website. The interface feels a lot cleaner and more user friendly, although white space always does that, and I like that things are now divided up into each area of craft. I no longer need to go one place for classes and another for patterns.
I will point out that if they were to start charging designers for selling/sharing patterns in their marketplace that they would then really need to start doing VAT for the sellers, something they have so far refused to do!
Not only do they refuse to set up a system that allows designers to collect and store the necessary information to be able to collect VAT, they also don’t have a way for designers to properly charge sales tax.
If you are an affiliate with them you will need to check your links. They have broken all of the affiliate links, which in turn makes it so you don’t get paid for your promotion of them. The links that are broken are the older ones, not the ones you are picking up today and using today. Lot’s of lost revenue for designers, teachers on the videos and bloggers who promote them. Totally not nice to do- but they have done some other not nice stuff to affiliates in the past as well…kind of how they roll.
I have been using the Craftsy classes platform for over a year now, but only recently I’ve been having trouble loading the page. My internet connection is fine…high speed and I have no problem loading other sites (FB etc.). Hoping this won’t be an ongoing issue. Has anyone else been experiencing problems?
I thought it was just me. I find scrolling the quilting kits and products tediously slow. I haven’t explored other areas of the website for the same reason. It seems these new companies run by young entrepreneurs sometimes don’t take their clients into consideration when they make these changes.
Wishlist is still missing in android. Why would you delete a file containing a list of classes that someone is thinking of buying!!!?
I’m not sure why Craftsy did that. Maybe they’re working on it and the feature will be added back?
Surely Craftsy is not Mac friendly. I have a mac laptop and since the upgrade I can’t navigate the site, as in: there are no clickable areas.
Same here. I cannot navigate from my Macbook Air and I have pretty much given up and will likely take my business elsewhere. I’m bummed.
Personally I dislike almost everything about the new website. I’ve lost the ability to save, visit and follow other classmates postings (this means I have no clue what classes they have signed up to take ~ which was VERY helpful and supported my new class buying decisions, along with inspiring me when I could easily find a new creation of theirs, as well as help me stay *connected* to them distantly yet personally. Missing also are the #’s showing how many students had signed up for a given class. This helped me decide on what classes might be the best help for me to purchase. And like another person has already stated – the newer classes seem to be watered down, of much less value now. It’s these changes that have driven me elsewhere in my search for other ways to learn additional quilting skills. Disgruntled and disheartened is what I’m left feeling each time I visit Craftsy anymore.
I also cannot navigate Craftsy on my Mac. There are no clickable links, you can’t go to a second page, etc. It’s frustrating.
Hi, I have a Mac and I can navigate the new Craftsy site without a problem. Is it possible that the issue is with the settings on your computer?
the most annoying part is when a class is “on sale” for say “19.99” and you click on it and when it is in your “basket” it is suddenly full price – not cool. That has happened multiple times. Craftsy you have lost your way. This is too bad.