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In this continuing series, we bring you a review of alternative selling venues, website hosting services, shopping carts, and basically anything else that you can use to sell your lovely handcrafted goods. Next up - iCraft.
Tagline: Where creative minds mingle.
Company information: The iCraft site is a division of ArtMyriad Inc. The venue is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Storefront: Creator galleries featuring items, similar listing format as Etsy (in that it’s a listing for sale with description, price, etc.). Items are up until removed. All submitted listings are reviewed for quality and adherence to guidelines.
Cost: $25.00 CAD registration fee to create an exhibit (need credit card on file with them). List up to 5 items for free. Monthly subscription for more than 5 items varies from $5.00 CAD to $35.00 CAD for up to 100 items ($0.50 CAD per item over 100 items, read below for information on interchangeability). No commission on any sales.
Features: Advanced Search! RSS feeds conveniently located on one page, and they feed them to their own twitter. 6 images per listing, unique URL for your shop (http://icraft.ca/yourshopname). Do custom work via the “contact creator” link in your gallery. Items are interchangeable, being on a subscription for up to 15 items means that item 15 can be changed out for a different item at no additional cost, as long as only 15 items are displayed (from how we understand it. Read more on their site.) Referral program for free subscriptions. Email notifications of sales and payment, buyers have to register. List in your own currency (AUD, CAD, USD, GBP, EUR).
Payment: Integrated with Paypal, but it is up to the seller’s discretion, including accepting cheques.
Community: Forums, articles, events calendar…see their community pages here.
Customer service: Twitter responsive, online form for tech support that they try to answer within 2 days and is separate from their other departments (advertising, media, editorial).
Items that can be sold: you must be the creator of the item and no edibles or used items
“original, one-of-a-kind art, craft and fashion pieces from independent talented Creators from around the globe”
General impressions: Sophisticated, clean, streamlined look. However, the Creator exhibits (i.e. shops) have too much announcement space that pushes the items for sale to the bottom of the page, invisible without scrolling in the browser. Also, Google ads appear in the shops, at the bottom, but still distracting. These of course are subjective observations.
The categories seem somewhat limited, though they do adhere to the all handmade idea and this is reflected in the subcategories, which are sortable by price, color, and currency. Nice from a buyer’s perspective.
What have your experiences been with this venue?
