What is Craftstar and can they compete with Etsy?

There has been a lot of buzz lately about Craftstar. Who are they, what are they, and should you use them? How do you find out more information?

What is it? New venue for selling handmade items online.

What is Craftstar offering? They are being very vague but have obviously been doing quite a bit of marketing. They do list their fee structure and some other basic information on their Facebook Page.

When do they open? May 13^th 2012. They were scheduled to open a while back but the date has been pushed up.

Should you jump ship from Etsy and head over to Craftstar? Right now they have yet to open so no one really knows what they will be like. It will take them some time to get traction, like any new site. You can also expect them to have some growing pains as well. It takes a little time to figure everything out.

Do not always think the grass is always greener – You may have issues with Etsy or other marketplaces, but they will all have some issues. They all develop and change over time as well and you may or may not agree with the changes. Some sites simply do not deliver and stand the test of time.

Can Etsy Compete? Most definitely. Look what they have been able to build despite having Ebay as a competitor. Their success really has been incredible. Etsy has an amazing infrastructure that is very well thought out and developed to handle an enormous amount of traffic. They are also the most well known handmade marketplace and have a massive number of registered users and sellers.

If Craftstar does win over customers by offering some new features, what is stopping Etsy from just doing the same thing? Really nothing. Competition can be a good thing and can make every marketplace better.

Etsy is going to make changes that they believe are in the best interest of their sellers and the well being of their business. They have the know how, the staffing, and funding to do whatever they wish to do. Anyone that wants to compete with them will have to deliver, Big Time.

Why you may want to give them a try:

New kid on the block – they are getting publicity which will drive customers to their site.

They will probably at least offer a couple features that resolve issues that people are having with Etsy.

They will probably also have some cool new features that are not found on other marketplaces. They will want to differentiate themselves somehow. We’ll have to wait and see.

They need sellers and will probably make it very easy to migrate over from other marketplaces.

You will have less competition. Not everyone knows about them and not every seller of handmade items is going to either leave where they currently are or will want to set up another shop on Craftstar. If you are currently selling in a saturated market you may want to give them a shot.

Everyone will really just have to wait and see what they have to offer. It should be interesting especially with their timing. So many people are upset with Etsy right now.

How do you connect with them?

http://www.facebook.com/thecraftstar

What are you thoughts?

Richard

Tags: craftstar, etsy, marketplace