Michaels, the US handcraft retail giant, launches a new platform, and Etsy faces a strong competitor

It is learned that on November 1, Michaels, the largest handicraft chain retailer in the United States, announced the official launch of its handicraft shopping platform MakerPlace. Before the official launch, the platform had been tested for three months, and so far, the platform has launched more than hundreds of thousands of listings.

MakerPlace is positioned similarly to Etsy, allowing third-party sellers to sell and focusing on the sale of handicrafts. However, there are many differences between the MakerPlace platform and Etsy.

Michaels, vice president, revealed that the launch of MakerPlace was mainly due to the current demand of handicraft merchants for more sales channels. Its research found that nearly 75% of handicraft manufacturers believe that there are currently few e-commerce platforms dedicated to selling handicrafts, and there are many pain points, including high initial sales costs, increasing product listing fees, and the emergence of a large number of mass-produced products, which affect the market competition environment.

To address these pain points, MakerPlace charges merchants cheaper fees and allows sellers to sell virtual goods such as handicraft courses and operation guides to expand revenue sources.

It is reported that MakerPlace does not charge sellers listing fees, and has launched two sales plans for sellers, charging a 4% referral fee for sellers in the basic subscription plan and a 2% referral fee for sellers in the professional level. At the same time, all sellers are charged 3% of the product price, plus a transaction fee of $0.20 per item. In comparison, Etsy charges a listing fee of $0.20 and a transaction fee of 6.5%.

In addition to having a lower sales threshold for sellers than Etsy, MakerPlace is also supported by Michaels, the largest handicraft chain retailer in North America, operating more than 1,290 stores in the United States and Canada, and two major shopping websites, Michaels.com and Michaels.ca.

Therefore, MakerPlace can use Michaels' brand awareness and large customer base to reduce the initial promotion costs. Michaels' website, which was launched in February this year, also opened up sales to third-party sellers, while selling its own products. Currently, more than 1 million SKUs are listed on Michaels.com.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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