Designing a Marketplace for the People Who Use It

The Artisans Cooperative released a poll of marketplace priorities for its followers and potential members on November 28, 2022. The poll closed on January 8, 2023.

Through this poll we are demonstrating our commitment to platform cooperativism: the people who will be using the marketplace should have a voice in designing and developing it. The results are guiding our tech team in marketplace development. For background on why we created the poll and how it was developed, read our post, Announcing the Handmade Marketplace Priorities Poll.

In this post, we’re sharing the poll results!  

TLDR: Jump to Conclusion >>>

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Poll Results

The poll was conducted via Google Form with answers stored in a secure Google Sheet from November 28, 2022 to January 8, 2023. We received 126 responses. 

It consisted of 4 major questions: 

• Agreement on Purpose
• For Artisans Only: Ranked Choice of Business Problems
• For All Respondents: Ranked Choice of Marketplace Features
• Specific Question on User Interface

Additionally, there were two demographic questions that helped us slice the data: 

• Whether the respondent was an Artisan or general Partner / Supporter
• The Artisan’s experience level with selling: Full-Time, Part-Time, Hobby, or Brand New. This question was optional but 66 of 72 artisans responded (91.6%)

Agreement on Purpose

For this question, the organizers proposed the co-op’s purpose and need and asked respondents whether they generally agreed with our understanding of our goals.

Question

Our primary purpose is to build an online marketplace for genuinely handmade goods, similar to Etsy, that benefits its members through cooperative ownership and democratic control.  

Details:

We imagine a marketplace with a wide selection of unique and genuinely handmade artisans and a critical mass of customers, one that is accessible, user-friendly, highly-visible, and with a more simple, competitive fee structure. We are aiming to launch the basic marketplace within a year (Oct 2023). 

Definitions: 

• A “marketplace” is an e-commerce website that is like a “shopping mall” where different individual artisan businesses can sell their products collectively to the customers with one shopping cart and checkout process. Each artisan has their own individual store within the “mall” and manages orders directly with customers, while the “mall” facilitates the sale by providing the space and systems for processing orders. That means we will have two interfaces: one for artisans to upload their products and manage their store profile page, and one for customers to shop products. 
• A “handmade good” does not include vintage goods nor non-artisan-made craft supplies. 

Do you generally agree with this purpose?

If not, please share comments and concerns under the “Other” choice. 

Choose one: [I Agree] [Other:]

Results

92.8% of respondents generally agreed with our proposal. 

Of the 7.2% who replied “Other,” comments included a desire to be able to shop for craft supplies or vintage, a lack of clarity on what was meant by “handmade”, and concern that a one-year timeline was too rushed. 

Regarding the definition of “handmade”, the organizers are in complete agreement, and will be conducting a separate poll precisely to answer that question and devise a handmade policy with the wisdom of the crowd. It is perhaps the most difficult question we as a co-op will face. 

For Artisans Only: Ranked Choice of Business Problems

Respondents who self-identified as Artisans were presented with a ranked choice of 24 common artisan problems as identified by the Etsy Strike participants and organizer experience. Respondents were instructed to rank each problem in importance to their business, on a scale of 1-5. The list of problems was presented in random order by Google Forms. 

Question

What features are most important to you?

Select relative importance on a scale of 1-5: 

1:  “I don’t even want this”

2: “I don’t need this”

3: “Neutral / not sure” 

4: “I want this”

5: “I need this”

These problems were then listed in randomized order (here, in alphabetical order): 

Results

During analysis, we looked at the responses by average score and median score. For each of these scores, we looked at the results in aggregate, and individually by Artisan experience level (Full-Time, Part-Time, Hobby, Brand New, Unknown). 

Our goal was to come up with a list of “Top 10” problems we ideally need to solve with our first marketplace launch. 

By looking at the results this way, we observed a few things: 

• The top 5 problems were highly important to all Artisans, no matter how the data was sliced. They are summarized as:
  • A more ethical marketplace that creates a social good
  • A marketplace with a critical mass of supporters
  • Income security
  • Fraud protection
  • Simple fee structure
• The importance of the problems that followed was somewhat different by Artisan experience level. Less-experienced Artisans (Brand New, Hobby) tended to score all features more homogeneously, while more-experienced Artisans (Part-Time, Full-Time) tended to rank things with more clarity: highs and lows. 
• Thinking that the more-experienced Artisans are more likely familiar with the challenges of running an online shop, we took special note of their priorities and how they differed from the aggregate Top 10. 
• These priorities were in the “bottom 5” of the top 10 for both the aggregate and the experienced Artisans:
  • Replacing my primary channel with an alternative
  • Make it easy to “push” or publish products to other channels
• The remainder The bottom 5 of the top 10 for the aggregate average includes:
  • Sell more products (physical / digital)
  • Sell more products (novel / custom)
  • Automatically calculated shipping rates
• Experienced Artisans’ Top 10 priorities that did not make it into the aggregate top 10, adds on 3 “bonus” priorities:
  • Lower sales commissions 
  • On-site store analytics
  • The marketplace up and running as soon as possible 

For All Respondents: Ranked Choice of Marketplace Features

All respondents (Artisans and Supporters/Partners) were presented with a ranked choice of 24 common artisan problems as identified by the Etsy Strike and organizer experience. Respondents were instructed to rank each problem in importance to their business, on a scale of 1-5. The list of problems was presented in random order by Google Forms. 

Question

What are your biggest problems that this marketplace needs to solve?

Select relative importance on a scale of 1-5: 

1:  “I don’t even want this”

2: “I don’t need this”

3: “Neutral / not sure” 

4: “I want this”

5: “I need this”

These problems were then listed in randomized order (here, in alphabetical order):

Results

During analysis, we looked at the responses by average score and median score. For each of these scores, we looked at the results in aggregate, and by member class: Artisan or Supporter/Partner. 

Our goal was to come up with a list of “Top 10” problems we ideally need to solve with our first marketplace launch. 

By looking at the results this way, we observed a few things: 

• The top 2 features were highly important to all members, no matter how the data was sliced. They are summarized as:
  • A wide selection of unique and genuine artisans and products
  • Fast and easy checkout
• The “Top 10” features were actually a “Top 11” because there was a tie for 10th in the aggregate average. 
• The importance of the features that followed in the top 10 was somewhat different by member class, and sometimes a ranking in the top 10 meant that it was ranked highly by one class but moderately by the other. 
• These features were in the top 10 for both Artisans and Supporters/Partners:
  • High quality search with lots of filters
  • High quality product browse by category
  • Take care of sales taxes / VAT
  • Shipping or fraud insurance and protection
  • On-site checkout process to purchase from multiple artisans at one time
• Thinking that our primary member class will be Artisans, but that Supporters/Partners are very important stakeholders, we took special note of their priorities and how they differed from the aggregate Top 10. 
• The remainder of the features ranked in the Top 10 in aggregate but had mixed results from member classes include:
  • Fair moderation or intervention by the co-op with order problems / disputes
  • Education / guidance on what fair pricing should cost to ensure fair wages
  • Transparent information and education on the co-op’s social good
  • Secure internal messaging system
• In addition to these 11 features, two features were in the Top 10 for Supporters/Partners but not Artisans and not in the Aggregate. These add on 2 “bonus” priorities:
  • 3rd party review system
  • Two-way reviews 

Specific Question on User Interface

Finally, for both Artisans and All Respondents, we asked for feedback on a special user interface option. 

When Artisans Cooperative and Guild.art merged in the summer of 2022, we were honored to be joined by organizer Marc Guiselin, the visionary behind a new and innovative marketplace design for artists that he calls “Harmony Navigator”. We provided a link to Marc’s demo in the question. 

(Some respondents reported problems with the demo link. We were unable to replicate the problem and so it appears it may have been offline for a short window or perhaps was incompatible with some computers/operating systems.)

The Harmony Navigator has the potential to be a radically different, possibly more artistic way to navigate and shop a marketplace. It aims to put artisans and the artisan-customer relationship above product markets. 

As an artisan-focused marketplace, we were intrigued with the creative ideas the new system presented. However, it is in the early stages of development, and we were uncertain whether our members would want to take a gamble on this new model. In addition, there were some concerns on its feasibility for a near-term marketplace launch. 

We proposed this question to both Artisans and All Respondents separately for the front-end and the back-end. The purpose was to tease out the importance of this opportunity for artisans and shoppers: were our members so excited about the Harmony Navigator that we should wait for it to be developed, or would they prefer a standard interface anyway? Or something in between?  

Question: For Artisans

User interface for stores and products

We have an opportunity to reinvent the idea of a marketplace creatively for artists through a software innovation called “Harmony Navigator” that could disrupt the usual marketplace experience. See a demo here. 

When it comes to uploading your store and product information to your co-op marketplace, would you rather (check one):

• Start from a blank canvas and design your own store by importing widgets, videos, photos, plugins, products, and more and arranging them in portal windows on a freeform artboard? 
• Use familiar and already-optimized regular forms that require standardized information, such as store name, store photos, store description, product description, product photos and keywords, etc?

Question: For All Respondents

User interface for shopping and browsing

We have an opportunity to reinvent the idea of a marketplace creatively for artists through a software innovation called “Harmony Navigator” that could disrupt the usual marketplace experience. See a demo here. 

When it comes to shopping for products and discovering artisans, would you rather (check one): 

• Explore uniquely-designed artisan artboards, studios, communities, and topics with portal navigation, showing widgets, videos, photos, plugins, products, and more? (See demo for a visualization on what this would look like)
• Use a familiar interface to most marketplaces, with standard product and store pages and regular menus for navigations

Results

During analysis, we looked at the responses by average score and median score. For each of these scores, we looked at the results in aggregate, and by member class: Artisan or Supporter/Partner. 

Some observations we made: 

• No matter how we sliced the data, a majority of respondents preferred a standard interface for both shopping and back-end management. 
• Generally, the more experienced the Artisans were, the more likely they were to prefer a standard interface. 
• More Artisans (65%) than Supporters (52%) were interested in a standard shopping experience. 
• Although we will proceed with a standard interface for our October launch goal, the Harmony Navigator is still under development and we will continue to work with Marc to evolve and refine the idea for the future

Other Comments

In addition to the above question, we provided multiple opportunities for both Artisans and Supporters/Partners to provide additional comments and feedback. While we won’t list them all out here, we did notice a few themes worth mentioning: 

• Need for customized product options
• Opinions on a fair fee structure
• Need to import data from other selling platforms
• Product personalization (eg, monograms)
• Integration with shipping programs
• Other selling options: tips, donations, pre-orders, barters, etc. 

ConclusionS

We are very excited about these results and grateful to all the respondents who took the time to complete the poll! We feel these results give our Tech Team clear marching orders on locating the best technology solution for our first marketplace launch. 

Moreover, these results feel achievable and common-sense.

In summary, for artisans on the back-end, our business model will include:

• A critical mass of supporters / shoppers
• Pricing that creates income security for artisans: a simpler yet competitive fee structure
• Supportive integrations for artisan businesses: on-site analytics, the ability to “push” products to other channels and integrate with shipping carriers and import data
• Critical tools: carrier-calculated shipping, sales tax collection, secure internal messaging system, and fraud protection
• A standard UX interface for the back-end
• …up and running as soon as possible!

For the front-end marketplace, we will prioritize building: 

• A critical mass of unique and genuine artisans
• A fast and easy on-site checkout process for multiple artisans at once
• High quality search and browse
• A standard marketplace navigation
• Education and transparency on fair product prices and the co-op’s social good
• A neutral third party for order moderation
• A robust review system, possibly two-way

The wisdom of the crowd prevails. Together, we are going to build a better handmade marketplace for artisans and shoppers alike. 

What do you think about these results? Share your thoughts in the comments below. 

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About Artisans Cooperative

We are growing an online handmade marketplace for an inclusive network of creatives: a co-op alternative to Etsy.
Shop the marketplace!