Etsy Alternatives - Beta Test Opportunity

I received an email from the jewelry designer behind a new handmade marketplace shop builder - WickedPlumShops. They are currently open to beta testers to setup shop using the ecommerce platform they built after being dissatisfied with Etsy.

"...the available ecommerce options still stink, especially for small crafters and non-techs, and Etsy is still the faustian compromise a lot of people make when they want to sell their crafts and products online. We're trying to fix that with the recent launch of Wicked Plum Shops. The same technology that runs the Sweet Tarragon shop is available to everyone now, for a reasonable monthly fee. We've built the whole thing so that the whole process is as simple as we could possibly make it, while still maintaining an attractive, SEO-friendly shop front, decent inventory tracking and secure, inexpensive payment processing (via Mal's Ecommerce)."

We haven't tried out the site yet (it appears to be a handmade alternative to BigCartel with a one-on-one component of shop setup), but wanted to make sure you all knew about it. There is a fee, which is laid out on their pricing page. The next round of beta testers will be $11.99/month on a month-to-month basis.

"Being a beta user also means that you’ll spend a bit of time in our queue. Right now, we’re adding sites on a first-come, first-served basis, so you may need to wait a few weeks before your site is ready for the world. You pay nothing until we’re ready to work on your site, and we’ll always let you know where you stand."

For full disclosure about who the people are behind the site, they provide the same information on their about page that they provided me.

If you decide to try it out, send me an email and let me know what you think so we can offer a more extensive review. If you're interested but not sure you want to beta test, they do have a mailing list for you to receive information when they plan a public release.