I remember awhile back seeing on Twitter, Jessika from OhMyHandmade indicating her opinion on the site Heartsy and if I recall correctly, she was expressing her view that she did not quite like the notion of discounting handmade creations to make a quick sale.
Now I straddle the two worlds of manufactured vs. handmade in my responsibilities as a market manager of a business corporation that sells manufactured goods and as a store owner of a personalized prints and paper goods online store. Those two worlds literally do not overlap. I also spent 4 solid years being a strategic pricing practitioner for both widgets and one-of-a-kind systems so it is a topic I am passionate about. Although I can appreciate what Jessika's opinion is, I relish the ability to mingle the two in my world - leveraging my business knowledge and practical mind to run an online business, but allowing myself to be creative and use my hands to make things. So believe it or not, I would just as quickly support Heartsy as I would Jessika's new venture, Worthsy.
Worthsy's features a handmade item and let people who can appreciate the one-of-a-kind, handmade, labor-intensive creations, and allows them to bid on the item. This concept totally rocks because it allows the buyer to vye for the creation with others who "get" it and understand how much it is worth. I am so excited that Jessika has taken something she felt so convicted about and acted upon it.
The way I see it, I like churning out "canned" offerings where the customization is fairly standardized and which appeases the "operations/finance" half of my brain. This is also the type of orders that I should be able to fulfill promptly which is part of why I would be able to price them competitively. I would absolutely offer these up on Heartsy.
On the other end, I also offer custom design services where a customer comes to me with a quote or a set of wedding vows, or a treasured trinket, and I spend a good number of hours working with their unique purpose and vision to create a print or an artwork (mixed media). These projects stretch my creativity and especially in the mixed media commissions, I often feel rejuvenated for new print ideas. But the time and effort spent would not make this a business-savvy option on Heartsy! Instead, it would be a perfect fit for Worthsy.
So really it all boils down to what is the right channel for the different product offering you have. For example, my original prints and paper goods were all housed under Grace Hester Designs on etsy and I did not think that signing up to be featured on Heartsy made sense. There was just too many custom and personalized options offered. But since I started migrating the paper goods to a separate store Grace Hester Papers, suddenly, the math made sense to try out Heartsy to promote that store. So I submitted and am scheduled in the coming week to be featured. I will be glad to share the experience once the initial surge calms down! I also submitted to be on Worthsy offering up a fully custom quote print for the auction. If I should be approved, I would be able to write about that too! (*crossing fingers*)
I'm looking forward to hearing your experience about both venues! I haven't really made up my mind about either one yet :)
Posted by: Sarah | June 06, 2011 at 09:07 PM