I recently opened up a shop on ArtFire, which is most likely going to become the permanent home of my shop, which for the past three years has been on etsy.
It was the amazing deal they recently offered that prompted me to look into ArtFire further. Just under $6 per month, list all you want, no fees on the selling end. I can easily spend that on etsy in a week, just listing items or relisting in an attempt to get a few seconds on the front page.
Up until a year ago, etsy was good for me. I averaged a sale per week...not horrible, not amazing, but it was consistent, as were views. As etsy has gotten super saturated with sellers, the views and the sales have continued to slow, no matter how many items I list or how much I promote my shop. I notice that often when I list an item, it never shows up on the front page, thanks to the batch uploading etsy implemented.
Needless to say I have been frustrated, and, although I love etsy, there are a few features about ArtFire that I love even more, as will my customers.
You do not have to open an account with ArtFire to buy! I think this is awesome! I really think I have lost some buyers because they don't want
another account with
another username and
another password. They just want to buy something and get on with their life!
Also, sellers can run coupons and sales very easily! In fact, I am running a 20% off coupon the entire month of October for everything in my
ArtFire shop! If I wanted to do this on etsy, I would have to "refund" buyers the difference in Paypal, or go through and mark down each item manually.
Finally, the search engine on ArtFire is
so much better. Example: I did a search for "resin bangle". On etsy, there were over 47,000 results, many of them having nothing to do with "resin bangle". On ArtFire, the same search yielded a mere 7,000 results, most of them relevant. Granted, I know the traffic is higher on etsy, but still, their search engine leaves much to be desired.
SO, long story short, I have set up
shop on ArtFire. And, like I said, I am running a sale for the month of October. 20% off any purchase! Just type in "october20" at checkout!
I have really enjoyed working with Sarah and her mother Bonnie, on coordinating jewelry shots. They are some of the most down-to-earth people you could hope to meet. Sarah was featured as a Young Achiever on Kansas City's Fox4 News: (to hear this segment, pause the music player at the bottom right of this page)
Jonathan George runs JJPZ Talent Development and Jonathan George Entertainment. Jonathan was Grand Champion on Ed McMahon's Next Big Star in the early 2000s and has made big waves in the entertainment industry.