When the news was announced earlier this week that arts and crafts retailer A.C. Moore would be exiting the retail space one of our first questions was about the fate of the newly launched A.C. Moore Marketplace. Readers may remember that the A.C. Moore Marketplace launched at the end of July as a place where crafters could sell their handmade goods, similar to Etsy. A.C. Moore had made a significant investment in Etsy rival, Ziibbet, back in 2017 and then worked with Zibbet to create this platform. But without the parent company, would it last?

We reached out to Zibbet founder, Jonathan Peacock, who provided this written statement today:

To our valued customers,

As you may have heard, earlier this week A.C. Moore has announced the closure of all it’s retail stores.

So, what does this mean for the A.C. Moore Marketplace?

Firstly, at Zibbet we were as shocked and sad to hear about this news as you are.

The A.C. Moore Marketplace was designed and built by the team Zibbet, which wholly owns the IP and technology that powers it.

Therefore, you can rest assured that the marketplace will not be going anywhere, and it won’t be shutting down. It will remain as the “A.C. Moore Marketplace” for now, and it may be rebranded with a new partner in the future. We are already in conversations with some exciting prospects.

We remain committed to building you a better way to manage and grow your creative business, and are excited to announce that our next sales channel, built in partnership with Facebook, will launch early 2020.

We look forward to bringing you more exciting news soon.

Our best,
Jonathan Peacock and Andrew Gray (Zibbet Founders)

+

We will continue to post updates as we learn more.