We’re excited to introduce a fresh addition to our magazine — ‘Five Questions with…..’ These articles are designed to provide you with authentic insights directly from the heart of companies that shape our artisan business world. We pose five questions to them, delving into their unique insights, their observations, and the inner workings of their organizations. In a world of constant noise, we believe that sometimes the most genuine perspectives are expressed in the company’s own words. Our first Five Questions With features Jon Lincoln of goimagine.
In 2020 a group of four friends wanted to create a socially responsible online marketplace for makers and artists. They decided to create a business model that donates 100% of their profits to philanthropic causes. After many discussions with handmade artisans, they built and launched their beta platform in August 2020. This online marketplace has grown steadily since its launch in 2020. They now have over 3,500 Makers and artists on their platform. And they have recently added artisan food to their expanding lineup of handmade products. We sat down with their CEO Jon Lincoln to learn more about goimagine and asked him 5 questions. Here’s what he had to share:
How would you describe the perfect candidates to sell on goimagine?
We often say goimagine is creating a handmade community, not just a handmade marketplace. So the makers that are becoming big supporters of goimagine tend to be makers who love the art of handmade. It’s not just their business, it’s their passion. They socialize in our Maker Circle social app, get involved in the training classes we offer in Maker Business Academy, and get involved in our activities like the Maker Challenges.
While makers in our community certainly get sales through our marketplace, our mission and community is a whole lot more than just a place to get sales. Our perfect candidate is someone who is looking not just for a marketplace, but to get involved in a community looking to make a positive impact on the world through handmade.
Let’s talk about the addition of the Mosaic product for goimagine. What are the initial responses to adding this product and where is the product headed?
Mosaic is essentially our version of Shopify or Wix. Our mission is to support makers however we can and creating an affordable website platform for them to open their own branded store is part of that. So far the response has been great with this option. While other website platforms charge $40/month for a website we currently only charge $10/month. This has led to many makers & artists moving their web presence to us. The best part is while other website platforms offer zero traffic to your website, with Mosaic everything you post on your website gets cross-posted to goimagine’s marketplace. So, you are getting organic traffic that doesn’t exist on platforms like Shopify.
In terms of where it’s headed, there are certainly some features we need to release that other platforms have already. Things like a blog within your website. So, depending on what the maker needs from a website Mosaic may be a perfect option now….or will be when we develop it further.
We’re intrigued by the Maker Collection challenge you run. How did this come about and how has it been working out so far?
I would like to take credit for the maker challenges, but the success of that has been due to our creative director Stephanie Romkey. We introduced the challenge at the beginning of 2022 and it has been evolving ever since. It was a way to get the makers in our community to think outside their comfort zone and spark inspiration. Oftentimes as a maker, you suffer from creative block. Having rotating themes that are trending can pull you out of that block by sparking new ideas. The challenges are broad, leaving room for anyone to participate regardless of their craft or skill set. Our maker community seems very responsive to the challenges with participation increasing each month. At the end of each challenge, the top submissions are chosen by our team and put to a public vote. With the excitement of the top submissions being released, we have been seeing increased traffic to the site around voting time. When voting concludes, the winners are announced, and all submissions are included in the collection for shoppers to shop from which gives anyone who has participated a chance at more exposure.
Tell us more about how you are starting to bridge the gap between online and in person purchasing?
We are focused on helping handmade sellers succeed and not just with sales directly on our platform. That’s why we have sponsored events and fairs that feature handmade work and have provided training in our Business Maker Academy on how to be successful selling in person. One feature our makers seem to really like is our “hidden” product status which allows them to create listings for custom work and easily send the listing to the buyer to collect payment. We also plan on building our platform further to accept in-person payments to make selling online and offline easier through one dashboard.
You’ve talked a lot about the vision of building a public marketplace. Tell us how that has affected previous decisions for goimagine and how it influences future decisions?
The real reason we started goimagine was because of frustration we were seeing with the internet becoming corporately owned. In the “real world” commerce happens both at corporate malls and public marketplaces, but as shopping habits have shifted online over the years corporations have become a toll booth to the internet for online sellers. At goimagine we believe the internet is an extension of the physical world and deserves a public space for sellers just like a farmer’s market, craft fair or public market in Anytown USA. The decisions we make going forward will continue to be based on supporting maker & artists by building a public alternative to corporate marketplaces to bring balance to what is slowly becoming an online dystopia.
