If you wanted to buy handmade products, crafts, paintings, and etc., chances are you might hop on over to Etsy’s website which is arguably one of the larger online retailers for those sort of goods. However given that most of the sellers are individuals are not necessarily big corporations, raising money for materials can prove to be tough sometimes.
This is why Etsy has recently announced Fund on Etsy. This is a crowdfunding platform created by Etsy that will allow sellers to try and raise money to help make their products become a reality. As there are some sellers who can only make one or two products at a time given how expensive they are, with Fund on Etsy, it will allow them to create more products at once as they will have capital necessary for the materials.
According to Etsy, “We believe that crowdfunding on Etsy is a natural way for sellers to forge even more resonant connections with their existing communities and customer bases and to grow in ways that may not have been possible before.” As it stands the platform is currently in pilot testing and will run from the 16th of June until the 16th of August, and its future after that will presumably be based on how well-received it is.
Given that Amazon is reportedly planning their own taken on Etsy with Amazon Handmade, having such a feature could possibly convince existing and new sellers to use Etsy’s website as their storefront as opposed to shifting to Amazon. Will it succeed? We suppose only time will tell, but how do you guys feel about crowdfunding such projects?