Sourcing products is one of the biggest challenges small craft businesses face. How do you find the products you need at wholesale prices? Whether you’re assembling kits, creating a subscription box, or stocking products for a retail store, it’s essential to source the right products at the right prices in order to make a profit. Low minimum orders are nice, too.
Many craft businesses may remember Darice, a craft wholesale business founded in the 1970s by Pat Catan of Lamrite (later called Pat Catan stores) that provided a wide array of craft supplies in bulk to small businesses. Darice carried approximately 100,000 SKUs and had a $75 minimum order, low enough for many small businesses to place orders.
In 2016, Darice was bought by Michaels and in late 2019 Michaels shut Darice down, much to the lament of many craft businesses. Although there are a few other companies that offer a wide variety of craft products at wholesale prices, including MultiCraft in Canada, none of them matched what Darice offered.
JOANN is working to change that with a new site called Inspiration Direct.
How is Inspiration Direct different?
JOANN and Michaels have both offered bulk purchasing programs for several years. JOANN+ launched in 2018, and Michaels Pro, launched shortly after Darice closed, offer a limited number of SKUs and are aimed at consumers that need to place bulk orders for a party or school group. Inspiration Direct on the other hand will be more similar to Darice in that it’s aimed at small businesses and will be more comprehensive than either of these existing programs by including every SKU at JOANN.
Leveraging the Darice team
To create Inspiration Direct, JOANN has brought in several members of the former Darice team through JDM Growth Group, an ecommerce consulting firm based in Strongsville, Ohio, including Jim Petkunas, who served as the chief information officer at Darice, Kort Masteller, who was director of sales at Darice, and Mike and Dan Catanzarite, members of the founding Pat Catan family who worked at Darice as CEO and director of wholesale and ecommerce respectively.
According to Dan Catanzarite, JOANN approached JDM with the idea of building a wholesale site that would give small businesses access to the entire JOANN catalog. “We want to build the Darice 2.0,” he said. Inspiration Direct’s assortment will be larger and more comprehensive than Darice’s.
“JOANN has more warehouse space, more cash, and more sourcing power,” Catanzarite said.
The site will feature JOANN’s in-house brands which Inspiration Direct will be able to white label for customers. (The minimum order for white labeling is not clear on the Inspiration Direct website yet.)
How it works
To qualify for an Inspiration Direct wholesale account, businesses need to submit basic information including an EIN number. Inspiration Direct will run a credit check if the business is applying for terms. The minimum purchase is $50, $25 lower than it was at Darice.
Inspiration Direct is open and taking orders now, although the process for placing an order is manual at the moment. The full website will launch in December 2022 and will allow customers to place orders online on their own. JOANN was not able to confirm whether the JOANN+ program will be phased out at that time, but the JOANN+ and Inspiration Direct sites and programs are very similar to it would seem as though it would be.
Catanzarite said JOANN has dedicated an impressive amount of internal resources to the project and the Inspiration Direct sales team is already at work across the country. He said JOANN CEO Wayde Miquelon is committed to making the site succeed. Josh Belt, director of wholesale and channel strategy at JOANN, described Inspiration Direct as one of JOANN’s “blue ocean” initiatives, referencing a business strategy of pursuing low-cost ways to enter new markets and create new demand and Jim Petkunas summed it up this way: “Truly, we’re focused on taking JOANN’s selection and buying power and filling a niche that went away and no one has touched.”
Editor’s Note, February 22, 2023: JOANN+ will become Inspiration Direct on March 31, 2023.
Abby Glassenberg
Co-founder
Abby co-founded Craft Industry Alliance and now serves as its president. She’s a sewing pattern designer, teacher, and journalist. She’s dedicated to creating an outstanding trade association for the crafts industry. Abby lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Thanks for keeping us updated with all of this.
This is very encouraging. I’m curious though if Canadian small businesses will be able to access this with a business number?
My guess would be yes.
so where is the form?
There isn’t a form at the moment. If you’d like to place an order you need to contact Inspiration Direct directly. The full site will launch in December and then you’ll be able to place an order yourself.
What’s the number to call until December 2022?.
Hi, You can email info@inspirationdirect.com and they will assist you with setup. Thank you!
. After I go through the checkout process it says, “something went wrong with your cart. And internal error occurred in compute_taxes. Please help
Please contact JOANN customer service. We can’t help you with this.
Disclosure: I’ve been a bead retailer/wholesaler for 35 years
So when they say “Truly, we’re focused on taking JOANN’s selection and buying power and filling a niche that went away and no one has touched” what they really mean is that between themselves, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels they have killed off small business after small business including the wholesalers who supplied them. Now that they’ve bulldozed the industry they are more than happy to fill the niche they created for maximum profit. For those that have worked in the bead industry for as long as I have we have watched an incredibly diverse, rich, innovative community become streamlined and commodified and sapped of energy and soul. Perhaps inevitable. But sad. I’d encourage everyone to look beyond the shiny facades and seek out the niche sellers that are still out there and are struggling where you will still find products (and people) that will inspire you.
I am so disappointed right now, I am so use to being a Joann + member for over 4 yrs now and am so use to it. I see my prices are not all wholesale or bulk pricing on all the items! I don’t see how this is better for my customers or me. I can’t place the order online , save money and then go pick it up. Your probably going to kill my business with ship/freight fees, like the big guys have done. I don’t like your Idea who ever thought of it!
Mot all small craft businesses have an EIN. Sole proprietors often operate solely under their SSN. What then?
We recommend getting an EIN. It’s free and instant and protects you from having your social security number widely shared.
I’ve placed a few orders with Inspiration Direct since registering with them in January. Just went to place another and discovered they’ve raised the order minimum to $300. Quite a leap from $50, and quite beyond what I was planning to spend, so they’ve lost my business for now. I would have appreciated an emailed heads-up about the change, but I only found out by trying to checkout and being told my cart needed $300 to proceed.
Oh, interesting. When I reported this article they did tell me it would be a $50 minimum order.
I’ve been buying off of Joann + for the past 4 years for my business. NOT once have I had to pay shipping. With that being said, it is creating an increase in the product as you have to factor that in. I can’t afford it due to I need to keep my prices low to compete with others on the internet for sales. For a $775.00 order shipping is $110.00!!! It eats my profit trying to carry this fabric. What is going on here? Even on the Joann site it states $200.00 and shipping is FREE. WHY is this being charged now???
NOW what? I have 2 other sources that I use, guess Joann will lose my business. Very disappointed!
I have been a Joann+ bulk customer for years so recently had to migrate to the new Inspiration Direct program and have found it to be awful! Beginning with the registration process – had to submit my tax records twice online (errors both times) and manually and then prompt them with repeated emails before they found the docs and pushed it through. Then the ordering process was just as bad and of course, no phone number to talk to someone and email replies very slow. My order status and history was not available until I complained and they admitted they had some programming glitches and were fixing it. They still didn’t provide me with an answer on my order status and it has now been well over a week and it is just stuck in limbo – doesn’t show cancelled or shipped – just released for processing. Numerous emails sent to them with no reply providing the actual status – just where to look for it – but no status there. VERY disappointed in the new program and somehow Joann Fabric has found a way to make their ongoing website issues worse with this new program. Even their store managers and employees cringe when you start to ask them any question about the website as they are so tired of hearing about the problems.
This is terrible. I have purchased very large orders for years from joanns. And never have been charged shipping. I went yo ck out the other day and the freight was as almost as much as my order. I have already looked elsewhere for my fabric. I hope joanns havent done to themselves what anhuser Bush done to themselves. Just in a different way.
Not only has the order minimum been raised, they’re cutting products out of their inventory and are cancelling orders with no notice aside from an email. They didn’t remove the items I’d ordered until after I emailed them asking why it was cancelled when it was still available. So I believe they’re attempting to make it looks like they have more available than they do by simply removing items when they’re called out. Incredibly dissatisfied right now.
i am having trouble completing my order my bank says it is something on your end
Please reach out to Inspiration Direct for customer support.
I just went to InspirationDirect.com and was told I do not have a Joann Plus account set up. It gave a link back to Joann’s which shows my Joann Plus account number. Not sure how to order.
I’m sorry, that sounds frustrating.
Not really. Joann’s said they are not using Inspiration Direct anymore. Was happy without it anyway.
Wow, so they entire operation failed and was shuttered in less than a year. Looks like the Joann + program, which I admittedly never knew much about, no longer really exists either. The “Joann +” page that inspiration direct now links to just says bulk discounts are available to everyone, so if you add a bulk quantity to cart it will automatically apply. They really fumbled this whole thing.
Oh wow. You’re right! I’m going to get in touch and see what has happened. Thank you.
Had ordered from Inspiration Direct at H+H, want to place another order and directed to JoAnn,, not letting me sign up for JoAnn+
It’s so strange. I’m not sure what is happening there.
Seems like they are closing Inspiration Direct. Got an email from them, not letting me add a screenshot of the email here
Yes, it sounds like they are.
and again Darice is gone there is no where for small business to get quality craft supplies………thanks Micheals and Joann for shutting out small town America……….been doing this for 38 years and I am not going to let them shut me out………..
Hello,
My business name is : Crysta’s wreathworks
Email: crystaswreathworks@gmail.com
EIN Certificate
I would like to apply for a wholesale account. Please see my certificate on my next email to verify that I have my tax ID number.
Thanking you in advance, I am,
Crysta Jones
Hi Crysta, We are not associated with JOANN and can’t help you with this.
I have a very unique product that I would like to see sold in JoAnn Fabrics. I have 2 patents: a design patent and a utility patent. I am at the crossroads of wanting to partner with a manufacturing company who is already in JoAnn Fabrics so an investor would be interested in investing in my project. Can you help me with this step. How do I go about contacting a manufacture that is already in the JoAnn Fabric company.
Hi Rose Ann, It sounds like you might need to do some research on companies that manufacture products that are in the same category as your product and then reach out to see if you an reach a buyer at those companies.