At the end of June, the arts and crafts retail chain A.C. Moore announced that it’s launching an online marketplace for artists and makers. The company had made a significant investment in Etsy rival, Zibbet, back in November 2017, and is now working together with Zibbet on this new platform which will be exclusively for handmade goods.Ā
With all of the recent changes at Etsy many sellers are looking for alternatives to the dominant player, and yet others remain skeptical, including some who previously had shops on Zibbets marketplace, a platform which failed to ever generate substantial traffic.Ā
To find out more we sat down with Zibbet founder and CEO, Jonathan Peacock, and asked him to explain why he partnered with A.C. Moore and what the plans are for this new marketplace. Here’s what he had to say:
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Craft Industry Alliance: Etsy just announced that they will be primarily showing shops that offer free US shipping on orders of $35 or more in search. How will the search algorithm on the AC Moore Marketplace work? I know that search is complex, but really crucial for the user experience.
Jonathan: Search is complex, as you say. At its core the goal is to return the most relevant results to the shopper. For the A.C. Moore Marketplace, relevancy is primarily keyword driven and based on a number of factors. Shoppers can then filter the results by price range, shop location, where it ships to, and if the item isĀ āonĀ saleā or not.
Craft Industry Alliance: The Zibbet Marketplace has been around for a long while now and some sellers have had mixed experiences selling on it. When sellers sign up for the AC Moore Marketplace, theyāll have to create a Zibbet account, but will they also have to sell on the Zibbet Marketplace? Can you explain?
Jonathan: We built Zibbet because we want to help creative entrepreneurs be successful at selling their products. The mural on our office wall reads, āWeĀ help creative entrepreneurs sell moreā. Weāve been around for over 10 years now, launching the first Zibbet Marketplace in 2009, and weāve witnessed some big changes happening in creative commerce, and commerce in general. The biggest change is that there are now so many different places that you can sell on. For example, you can sell your products on Etsy, Amazon Handmade, have a website on Shopify, sell on your Facebook and/or Instagram profiles, plus so many more channels.
Jonathan Peacock, Founder and CEO of Zibbet
You should, in fact, be selling on as many of these channels as possible, because this increases your reach, exposure and hopefullyā¦ sales!
The reason most sellers donāt sell on all of these sales channels is because itās time consuming and complex to do so.
Weāve known for a while now that it was time for Zibbet to make a change based on our learnings over the years. If we were to achieve our mission of really helping creative entrepreneurs sell more, we needed a big shift in our value proposition.
Iām so proud of what the Zibbet team has built. Zibbet is the first platform, built specifically for the creative entrepreneur, that enables you to sell across multiple sales channels, while managing your products and orders all from the one place.
You can list a product once, and it is automatically published everywhere. When you make a sale, your inventory numbers are automatically updated on all of your other sales channels, and the order is pulled into Zibbet for you to manage and fulfill.Ā
We are constantly adding more sales channels to the platform, and launching exclusive sales channels like theĀ A.C. Moore Marketplace.Ā
The Zibbet Marketplace, where Zibbet first started, is now one of our optional sales channels. You do not need to turn on the Zibbet Marketplace sales channel just because youāre using Zibbet to manage and sell your products. For example, you could sign up to Zibbet and just sell on Etsy and the A.C. Moore Marketplace. As mentioned, many more sales channels are in the works, so Zibbetās value will grow as we continue to increase our number of sales channels.Ā
Mural in the Zibbet offices.
Craft Industry Alliance: Why did AC Moore decide to create its own handmade marketplace? Itās unusual because none of the other arts and crafts retail chains have made this step. They are all increasing their ecommerce footprint, but a marketplace is a whole different thing. Whatās the motivation here? Are there plans to offer sellers a discount on arts and craft supplies, or run ads for AC Moore products on the listing pages?Ā
Jonathan: A.C. Moore is always thinking about how they can create more value for their customers. Pepe and Anthony Piperno (owners of A.C. Moore) have a huge heart for the creative community. Itās infectious. From a survey, they found that over 30% of their customers are already selling the things they make online. Launching a handmade marketplace is an innovative way to support and champion their customers.Ā
Our goal is to help the creative entrepreneur to sell more, and when they sell more, we also want them to think of A.C. Mooreās unbeatable range and price, when replenishing their supplies!
There are no current plans to run ads on the listing pages. As for extra discounts, stay tuned!
Craft Industry Alliance: I know the AC Moore Marketplace is going to be for handmade goods only. How is this going to be regulated? Will there be a way for users to flag goods that arenāt handmade? Can you explain where the line will be drawn? Is a Hanes t-shirt that has been embellished with rhinestones bought at AC Moore handmade?Ā
Jonathan: Items must be handmade, hand-altered, or hand assembled by the maker/s running their A.C. Moore Marketplace shop. The community can report items or shops easily via the marketplace if they spot infringing items. This will then notify a support team, which will investigate each case. Mass-produced items or the re-selling of items that may be handmade, but they didnāt design or make themselves, are not allowed. Your example of a Hanes t-shirt that has been embellished with rhinestones would depend on if it is deemedĀ āhand-alteredāĀ enough. This is of course subjective, but itās generally a case ofĀ āyouāllĀ know it when you see itā.
Craft Industry Alliance: Can you tell us a little about your background. I know youāre based in Sydney. Are you a maker? How did you get interested in creating Zibbet. How has Zibbet pivoted over time and then why did you partner up with AC Moore? What synergy did you see there?
Jonathan: You know when you watch a talent show, like The Voice, and the artist is standing there on the stage, a little nervousā¦ then as soon as the first note plays they almost become a different person as they belt out some amazing vocal gymnastics. Itās amazing to watch a talented person in perfect harmonyĀ (excuseĀ the pun), with their artistry. But, thatās not my favorite part of the performance. My favorite part is when those chairs turn and the music stops, and you see the singerās face light up. The validation theyāve just received and felt as an artist is truly a special thing to watch.
Now, I canāt sing to save myself, and when it comes to making, I am completely useless. But, I do have a deep appreciation of all art forms, but more importantlyā¦
I want to see talent meet success. This is what gets me out of bed in the morning. The pursuit of helping talented creative entrepreneurs feel the validation of someone buying something they made with their bare hands.
As for A.C. Moore, it is the perfect win-win partnership. A Zibbet seller starts their journey by buying some arts and craft supplies and makes something incredible with it. They then sell this product, and at some point in time, theyāll want to buy more supplies to make their next incredible creation. The more they sell, the more supplies theyāll need to buy. We want them to think of A.C. Mooreās unbeatable range and price when theyāre replenishing their supplies. With A.C. Mooreās huge reach into the arts and crafts community, the A.C. Moore Marketplace has the potential to quickly become one of the most popular destinations to buy and sell handmade.
Zibbet and A.C. Moore have a common goal, and weāre constantly asking ourselvesā¦Ā How can we help creative entrepreneurs sell more?Ā
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The A.C. Moore Marketplace is ready to accept sellers. During this pre-launch period, you can customize your shopfront and create your product listings to get ready for buyers to gain access to the site within the next few weeks. During the pre-launch period, the actual marketplace will not be live, so you will not be able to preview your shop until we launch for buying and selling in late July.Ā Then you’ll get a 14-day free trial period which will begin when the A.C. Moore Marketplace is fully launched.
I am excited yet very sceptical. From what i have read about zibbet, sellers are not happy. I sure hope they can pull this off! I’d love to not have to deal with Etsy!
Hi Kim, I know exactly how you feel. Yet at the same time I do have a good feeling about this. I think if enough people can get behind it then it will work. They have been around since 2009. Jonathan provides good service from what I’ve seen and I was surprised that it was actually him the CEO who I’ve been emailing a couple of times back and forth. It seems a lot more like a personal service genuinely to help artists compared to Etsy where I just feel like another drop of water in a sea of sellers and that typical fake service you get on the phone from all of these places now.
And don’t forget the follow up emails and surveys they want you to fill in now from all these companies I deal with lately. If I get asked one more time ‘How likely are you to recommend (fill in the blank) to your friends and family?’
Or ‘how did we do’ surveys I think I’ll scream.
I think if they can grow bigger with A.C. Moore while still maintaining that personal connection with artists and MANUALLY checking on things instead of fully relying on automation, machine learning and algorithms then they will do well. This is what is missing from society today in all areas. People are sick of being just another number. Just another goose sitting there laying the golden eggs for the corporations to come by and snap it up.
I’m going to give it a go, for how long I dunno, time will tell. I’ve been hanging in there online as a one man business for many years just watching all this and only recently decided to move my business in a slightly different direction as I can no longer rely on Google to bring me the traffic I need with all their updates and constant changes.
You can’t have all your eggs in one basket as a seller these days that’s for sure. But hopefully with Zibbet you will at least have better and more efficient management of those eggs.
I sure hope Jonathan reads all these comments (and even replies to a few) which would convince me that he really is concerned about each and every one of us, as he claims. I am still not convinced, as his direct responses to your specific questions seem to be generalizations about how much he wants to help entrepreneurs. I was gratified about his detailed response concerning policing items that are not really handmade, however it seems he is relying on us sellers to do the work of pointing them out for him.
Message to Jonathan: we makers have become much more business savvy than we were in the past. We won’t just dive, willy-nilly, into a new venue just because someone says they care about us. Many of us have been burned and we want to know exactly how much honest feedback we will get when stating our concerns. That means specific answers to specific questions. That means telling us exactly what our cost will be to jump onto this bandwagon. That means volunteering information about shipping costs and other concerns, and exactly what your algorithm is (other than that it is “complicated.”) You did not answer the question as to what your personal background was. Instead you went into a long story about singing contests that really didn’t answer anything. Oh yes, Jonathan, we are skeptical, and we have business experience, and we will also look very, very carefully at you and your business before we commit. I was hoping for much more in this interview. I must say I am disappointed. Hopeful, but still disappointed.
Madelyn, please speak for yourself rather than for ‘we makers’.
I agree with Madelyn L.
When will we be informed of their fee structure, if they offer reduced shipping, all the financial parts? Itās not reasonable to ask people to sign up without providing details, even with the 14 day free trial
Yes I’m a bit confused with pricing as well. But if it’s going to save me time and possibly bring more sales I’ll give it a go.
I’ve asked a few questions to Jonathan so if I hear anything I’ll get on here and let you all know.
They are looking at Woocommerce integration as well I think.
If I could have everything controlled by one dashboard including Ebay, Etsy and Woo then it’s worth a small amount each month in time saving and not having to log in to multiple platforms or get confused with stock levels. My stock levels are all over the place depending on the platform, I only have a few products so I’d imagine this to be a nightmare for large shops with huge inventory.
Hi Kim, Andrew, Madelyn and Lois. š Thank you for your questions and thoughts.
I think it’s important to reiterate that Zibbet has been around since 2009, starting out as a marketplace. Whilst we havenāt always delivered on our mission to help creative entrepreneurs sell more, we believe the latest incarnation of Zibbet will. Zibbet has changed a lot recently, and weāve spent the past 1.5 years rebuilding the Zibbet platform, with a completely new value proposition, which is to help the creative seller, sell on many different channels and manage them all from the one place ā Zibbet. We believe that by making multi-channel selling easier, more people will do it, and their exposure and sales will increase as a result.
Itās not lost on us that many sellers have tried Zibbet in the past, havenāt found success, and have been left with a bad taste in their mouth. That saddens us, and weāre hopeful that they will have a chance to try the new Zibbet.
Weāre committed to continuing to launch more and more sales channels, with some of them being exclusive to Zibbet, like the A.C. Moore Marketplace. All of our channels are optional, including where we began our business, the Zibbet Marketplace.
We do hope that you’ll come and try out our newest channel, the A.C. Moore Marketplace. If you don’t find success with it, you can easily turn it off as a sales channel and continue to sell on the many other sales channels that we’re adding to the platform. Channels such as Facebook, Shopify (other website builders too, such as WooCommerce, Andrew), eBay, Amazon Handmade etc. Our goal is to add as many relevant sales channels to the platform as possible.
As for our fee structure, we charge $5/month per sales channel (if paid annually), or $6/month per sales channel (paid month-to-month). We require a minimum of two sales channels from a billing perspective, as Zibbet’s value is when you’re selling on multiple channels and managing them all from Zibbet.
For our exclusive channels, there are no other fees. There are no listing fees, and no commissions taken on your sales. You’ll have to pay the normal payment processing fee to PayPal or Stripe (how you can accept all major credit/debit cards).
If you sell on our Etsy sales channel, you’ll still need to pay listing fees to Etsy when you list a new product and you’ll have to pay Etsy’s commission if the product is sold on Etsy.
I hope that adds the extra clarity you’re looking for. We’re a small team, looking to make a big impact to the way you sell your products, with the ultimate goal of helping you to sell more. We welcome your feedback and are always improving our offering.
You don’t stick around, at anything, for over 10 years if you’re not passionate about it. š
Many etsy shop owners have multiple stores for different type of items. Will this be a possibility on AC Moore? Looking forward to the new platform but would rather not mix my colorful door hangers with my pastel wedding decor.
Hi Jen, yes this is possible. You can manage many different stores from the one Zibbet account. Therefore, you can manage multiple Etsy shops from the one login, and you can have a different A.C. Moore Marketplace shop associated with each if you wish.
Here’s a help guide on how to manage multiple stores from Zibbet: http://support.zibbet.com/en/articles/2705523-how-do-i-manage-multiple-stores-and-switch-between-them
When will you tell people they canāt actually use the ACMoore marketplace unless they pay for two sales streams to be managed by Zibbets? Maybe I missed it in the interview?
Well I spent all night setting up AC Moore, then went looking for my shop under different categories only to find page after page of white mugs with writing and funny quotes. Not sure how one shop can dominate so much and in so many categories. Even the handmade category was full of her mugs. Then in her shop it doesn’t say anything about whether or not she actually makes the mugs. I gave up looking through the pages of white mugs to try to find my woodwork. I hope it gets better but at this stage it looks a little disappointing. Where are all the talented artists? I’ll have another look tomorrow night. Perhaps it was because she added 100’s of mugs right after my products, I was using the filter ‘recent’.
I was excited to find an opportunity to avoid commission and extra fees – Etsy ran me into the hundreds some months. However I am extremely disappointed to find out that the advertising for the AC Moore Marketplace is deceiving. The sign up pages promote their $5 a month and no fee structure and the 14 days free. Well, Iām wondering how many people are going to take the hours and hours to post their products only to learn that after the 14 days they wonāt pay $5. They must have TWO sales streams through Zibbet and they are $5 each per month. So for me to join Iād need to reopen my Etsy shop, still get stuck with Etsy fees, still have to deal with whether or not I can bump up my prices to cover āfree shippingā. So basically signing up wonāt save me any hassle from Etsy or no more fees, it will just add $10 in fees each month that I have to pay. They say each sales channel helps you out, well no it doesnāt if each one of those has their own fees on top of Zibbets.
This is an interesting point, Wendy. So two sales channels is the minimum?
Hi Wendy,
I’m sorry that you found the pricing for the A.C. Moore Marketplace “deceiving”. This isn’t our intention, and I will take your feedback on board and think about how we can make this clearer.
The fact is that Zibbet is a platform that enables you to manage MULTIPLE sales channels from the one place. We have a “2 channel minimum” from a billing perspective as we want people to feel the value that Zibbet provides.
The A.C. Moore Marketplace is our newest sales channel, which is exclusive to Zibbet. We have many more in the works, such as Facebook, Shopify etc.
If you want to sell on only the A.C. Moore Marketplace, you are welcome to do so, but you will still pay the minimum fee of 2 channels.
We’ve made our pricing as affordable as possible. $5/mo per sales channel (paid annually), or $6/mo per sales channel (paid monthly). There are no other listing fees, or commissions taken on your sales.
To put it in perspective, we previously charged (for many years) $20/mo for the Zibbet Marketplace, and the Stitch website builder. We now offer a lot more value and we’ve reduced the price to $12/mo ($6/mo per sales channel) ā 40% cheaper!
Zibbet is incredible value for money.
Thank you again for your feedback. It is noted, and we will make adjustments on the A.C. Moore Marketplace “open a shop” (https://marketplace.acmoore.com/open-a-store) page within the next week.
Best,
ā Jonathan.
Jonathan,
Can you speak to the issue of sales tax? That’s an important topic that I failed to ask about. It sounds like the AC Moore Marketplace doesnt’ have a way for sellers to charge sales tax. Is that correct?
Sellers currently have the ability to set up their own sales tax settings. However, we’re currently investigating ways we can better handle sales tax on the sellers’ behalf.
You don’t necessarily have to have Etsy. You can just do AC Moore and Zibbet. That’s what I’m doing for now.
Regarding the “new” AC Moore marketplace, I’m more confused and skeptical now than I was before reading this interview. It seems that not a great bit of detail was given, but a lot of “talking around” the issues rather than addressing them head-on.
Iād like to follow up on some comments I made earlier about how the AC Moore promotions did not mention the two sales streams requirement. Iād like to share that after I sent and inquiry to Zibbets, the customer service and explained action I received in return was such a positive experience that I am now going to give the AC Moore Marketplace (and Zibbets) a try with a lot of enthusiasm. Customer service is most important in my opinion and overrides any disappointment I had regarding the confusing price Snd requirements. Now I understand that two sales streams must be part of your Zibbets profile, but that does not mean I have to actively sell on both. So I can keep my Etsy shop āon vacationā mode and therefor not accumulate the fees Iām trying to avoid. $10 might be double what I had expected to pay, but Jaime at customer service pointed out itās not much in the bigger picture. Also, she said they would look into the working of the AC Moore promotions. Shortly after I got a message regarding this from Jonathon too. Being āheardā is something that can be pretty difficult, so when they each responded to my inquiry, I feel pretty confident that this is a good opportunity. Anyway, I just wanted to share this experience for anybody who had concerns like I had in the beginning. Iām excited for the launch and hope others will be joining me.
Jonathan ~ Wow you had me at āI want to see talent meet success. This is what gets me out of bed in the morning. The pursuit of helping talented creative entrepreneurs feel the validation of someone buying something they made with their bare hands.ā
This is this is how I thought Etsy was going to be. I have been on Etsy and have a very successful shop creating one of a kind made to order polymer clay ornaments, cake toppers, pets and now DIY Clay kits with almost 7,000 sales since 2012. None of my art is mass produced. I build relationships with each customer and pride myself on that as my mission. Etsy has lost its focus, I firmly believe that. Please help our community of crafters achieve our goals to support our familiesšš»! We live in constant fear of Etsy shutting us down at an emails notice. I do have a Shopify site, but I believe there can be an alternative to Etsy. You have the momentum nowšš»! Letās stir the pot and get this AC Moore out of the gate ~ Iām in!!!
Thanks Roberta, we appreciate your support! š
We are going to give AC Moore and Zibbet a try! It is refreshing to find a site that supports handcrafted items and appears to have their act together. For now we will keep our Etsy shop open….we have been on Etsy since 2008; however, we do not wish to participate in the “free shipping”. Hopefully Zibbet will be able to offer calculated shipping in the future…I am sure this is would require a major financial commitment; but it is wonderful for sellers…at least it has been for us. McCoyToys.
I’ve had some major problems with my Zibbet connecting and sync. I ended up losing half my best selling products on Etsy. Two days and I still don’t know what is going on. Was on phone to Etsy. It’s now gone to their support while I wait and lose business in the meantime. Not a happy experience so far and lost hours of work fixing tags descriptions etc and no one can even tell me why let alone fix. I wish I’d just left my Etsy shop alone now, it was just starting to gain traction now I’m back to square one. Had to start over now my reviews are leading to dead product link no longer available. Not happy Zibbet!
I am in the process of fine tuning my A.C. Moore shop and have transferred all of my Etsy listings over. I have been in communication with Zibbet on a couple issues, (for clarification), and really appreciate there responses! Though be aware, I am in California and they are not, so there may be a few hours difference in response time — which is far better than the no response I usually get from Etsy!
Also, right now, when I transfer my items over, only 8 pictures move over, but you can add the other two manually. I am only pointing this out because I do like having as many photos as possible, but adding two more photos to each listing is far better than redoing the whole listing!
I am excited about the potential here!
There are many Etsy Sellers who are looking for an alternative sales platform. But, my question is, why would Etsy partner with Zibbet when it provides direct competition from Zibbetās affiliate, A.C.Moore? How does Etsy benefit from this? Or, is there a future business plan for Zibbet/A.C.Moore/Etsy of which prospective sellers on your platform need to be aware? Feeling burnt by Etsy…
Etsy has an open API so I’m not sure this is as much of a partnership as you’re thinking it is.
Thank you, AbbY. Iām not so technologically sophisticated, so got my tech husband to explain this further for me. This now makes a bit more sense to me. Thanks for your insight. I appreciated ate it
Appreciate it. Hahaha… Spell check. Ugh.
I won’t be connecting Zibbet to Etsy again. I don’t think I’ll be continuing with ACMoore either. Waste of time and money.
I’ve started listing on Zibbet and A.C. Moore and I have a Shopify store as well. If you’re following this thread Jonathan can you tell us what is your or A.C. Moore’s marketing strategy?