Changes at Artfire

[DawninCal]

Besides Michele and me, I don't know how many of you have shops at Artfire, but if you do, you might want to pay a visit to their forums and check out the Announcements section to keep yourselves informed of changes being made.

About six weeks ago, Artfire started inserting third party ads on shop listing pages. Clicking on these links takes shoppers out of our shops and to the sites of the advertisers. Shop owners can not see the ads unless they are logged out of their shops. If one has an ad blocker that needs to be turned off as well. So my shop which sells jewelry, has ads for other jewelry makers, jewelry suppliers, craft supply stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby, etc. All things that have the potential to compete with my listings.

No email announcement was sent out to shop owners, so those who never visit the forums have no idea there are ads plastered all over their shops. Nice, eh?

Anyway, as you can imagine, the shop owners who are aware of the ads, objected strenuously and there is quite the brouhaha going on at the Artfire forums.

A few days ago, Artfire announced a new pricing structure with a 3% commission on sales in addition to the monthly rates shops currently pay. The calculation of the commission includes shipping fees.

Signing up for this option will remove the ads from shops. Shops that do nothing will continue to have ads. An official notification about the new pricing structure will be made in June, but one can sign up now by going to the forum announcement and clicking on the link provided by Artfire administration.

I am not posting this to bash Artfire, but to let those of you who have shops and who don't visit the forums know what is going on. In my mind, these are critical issues and shop owners need to be informed as they have some important decisions to make about the future of their shops.

I'm currently planning to see how it plays out before doing anything.



Dawn

[koolbraider]

3% now, probably more later. That's the kind of thinking that keeps folks from setting up their shops. Smart, guys.

[DawninCal]

Yes, Sue, and new shops currently pay $20 per month to have a shop at Artfire.

Yikes!



Dawn

[Michele]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm seriously considering closing my artfire shop.

[caeterle]

I read about that in my Zibbet group a few days ago, but as I don't have an ArtFire shop anymore and didn't know details, I didn't bring it up here.
Third party ads have been a problem on other sites, too. Zibbet for example did it in basic (no fees) shops, but stopped after people spoke out (politely put) against it. Instead they limited the number of free listings for basic shops.

If you still have one of the old ArtFire rates, 3% are not that much (on DaWanda I am paying 10%, BUT no monthly fee), but with a new shop that may well be the last drop.

[gbobmi]

I never really opened up my shop on ArtFire. It always seemed to confusing to me. But then, it doesn't take much...

The way to go seems to be Facebook groups. I'm currently involved in a group as an administrator and as a seller and I'm loving it thus far. It's called Lampwork Bead Addicts Designer Galleria and we have been revamping and taking on new people. It's a juried page, so not just anybody can sell there. We have 6 administrators who vote on the seller's items and photos. I'm excited about it!

Since Etsy has gone public and ArtFire's charges are going up, I think the Facebook pages are the wave of the future. For now, anyway, until FB gets hip to it.

[DawninCal]

Cat, even though Artfire marketed their shops on the premise that the monthly fees were locked in for life, most people don't object to being asked to pay a 3% commission in addition to their monthly fees. What they are upset about is how it was done with no announcement about the ads and then six weeks later being told they can have the ads removed if they pay a 3% commission on sales. If Artfire had been up front about it and come to their sellers and said, "we need to find a way to bring in more income to run the site and we're looking at adding a final value fee in order to do that" most people would have been accepting. But, to go behind people's backs and put third party competing ads that they can't see in their shops was a sneaky thing to do. To then come back and say "we'll remove the ads if you agree to a 3% commission" feels like blackmail.

Gayle, that sounds exciting. I have always liked the idea of a juried selling site and you and the other administrators will have complete control over your content. Hopefully, FB won't decide down the road to start charging groups like yours a fee. Or, if they do they'll at least make it something that's reasonable.

I suppose the best way to have total control is to build one's own website, but not everyone has the skills or time to do that.

Always something!



Dawn

[caeterle]

Oh yes, Dawn, I totally understand. It's not the first time that ArtFire has done something like this. It seems they do something, see the reactions and then think about what they can do to make it work for them.
It was such a nice community in the beginning and helpful admin and everything, it's a pity.

Facebook is very aware of those groups because they have a new feature there now. Instead of just "write a post" and "add a photo" they also have "sell an item" now .... Sooner or later they will use that to their advantage, too. It's like taking organic reach from the fan pages because they want people to buy their ads.
As long as you don't have to pay a fee to use FB, there's nothing you can do about that, either.
Gayle, are you in many groups? I find I can't handle that many, it's driving me nuts.

[gbobmi]

I don't sell in any more than this one group, Cat. I'm in a bunch of lampwork bead groups, and that's all I can handle. Any more selling groups and I'd be a basket case.

It's a lot like selling on Etsy, but you get instant feedback. That's nice.