The Reality of Online Markets

You may be wondering why, in this day and age, we would decide to start ANOTHER online marketplace for hand crafts and artwork. The reality is that many of the existing online marketplaces only provide a space for artisans to sell their works, without any help with marketing, pricing, or shipping. Combine that with start-up fees ($15-$29), transaction fees (generally around 6.5% of total sale price, including tax and shipping), and listing fees (usually 20 cents per listing), and artisans often spend more time and money dealing with their online store than they do on doing what they love, CREATING!

Some online marketplaces offer subscription based plans that seem like they would be beneficial to the artisans, but the costs just don’t add up. An extra $10 a month for only $3 worth of listing credits and $5 in advertising credits? Credits do not roll over if you don't use them by the way. That hardly seems fair. Did we mention the payment processing fees incurred when a buyer uses a credit card? How about that only US residents can sign up for auto-billing? Meaning those who want to use the subscription plan outside of the U.S. must now remember to pay for it along with everything else they've got going on.

This is where we come in! The artisans who work with us do not have to do any of the online work themselves. We handle everything! Artisans consign their works to us, we take all of the product pictures or videos, offer pricing suggestions when prompted, write product descriptions and post to our website. We take care of the marketing, transacting and shipping! These are all things that take time away from artisans who wish to spend it making art. 

While we do run as a profitable business on our site, there are no up front costs to the artisans who work with us. Our consignment fee is 30% of the product price and is only applied at the point of sale, meaning that we only get paid when our artisans do! This gives us more incentive to sell our artisans' works as well as giving us a sense of pride about the artisans we support. 

For buyers and art collectors, this means that you know the artwork and handmade goods you purchase through PenManifest are truly handmade. We inspect every piece and decide whether the quality of the product lives up to our standards. We will NEVER sell anything that was not handmade with care and love. This means no AI “art”, no 3D printed items, and no drop-shipped items. We guarantee you'll get quality goods that are never knockoffs. Everything you see on our site will ALWAYS be authentic and straight from the artisans who made it, because isn't that part of what makes art alluring? Knowing that a real person invested time and effort and skill into making a piece brings those works to life. Artisans spend years developing their craft creating works for others to enjoy. 

Help support local Canadian artisans and craftspeople by purchasing works through PenManifest and you'll be supporting two Canadian businesses at once! What more could you ask for? Thank you for making us your go-to place to shop for quality, handcrafted pieces!

Written by:

Hayley Johnson

Co-founder and Curator