One of the most common questions we have been asked for this year is for sales strategies and marketplace advice. Over the last five years, there have been many new marketplaces launched. Each of these marketplaces appeal to different types of buyers and sellers. We want to provide supporting information on options available so that you can make the choice that is right for your business. We have this information provided in two formats- the interview below as well as a YouTube interview with a representative from the marketplace. Our interview below is a summary of the information covered in your interview. The month’s interview interview is with Sally Leonard of the Virtual Market.Â
See below for answers to all the basics about the Virtual Market, and check out the interview on YouTube for even more gems and nuggets of wisdom as part of our interview.
Here is the interview on our YouTube channel:
Can you share the origin story behind the marketplace?
The virtual market is a huge passion of mine. In November 2020 I received an email that would change everything. It was from my local community association and said, unfortunately, because of COVID restrictions, they were going to have to cancel their community Christmas market. And that broke my heart.
And I just thought, I have a background in small business. I totally understand the work and the material that goes into getting ready to complete one of these markets. Not only knowing what it takes to be able to participate in them, but like financially, what it means to real people and like real families. We’re talking about being able for some of these businesses to pay for things like groceries and bills.
So I started this in December of 2020 as a way to help. I knew there had to be something we can do to be able to bring people together online in a better way. I ran a few online communities anyway, for a local block watch community. I thought – I already have a few people that live right here. And so I’m going to reach out to the community association and get their thoughts and see if I create a little Facebook group and maybe we can get a few of their sellers. It grew far more than I could have imagined. And six weeks later, I pretty much blacked out and we had 900 vendors and we had 18,000 shoppers making hundreds of purchases every day!
So where are we now- we are working towards bridging the gap between helping makers sell online. We are also helping them find community because that is a very difficult thing when you’re often making something from home and trying to get it out there. It’s really hard. So we’re trying to help people sell online but with community.
What countries/locations/categories are eligible to be sold on your marketplace?
We are focused on selling within Calgary, Alberta and the surrounding 100 km.Â
In terms of the categories and products sold, we take a broad interpretation of handmade.
So they don’t necessarily have to be handmade, but they at bare minimum have to be designed by you. I really don’t want the drop shipper, the person who is ripping off other designs. We really try to stay away from that.
We have a wide range of categories available on our site including, Art, Home & Decor, Children & Baby, Jewelry, Clothing & Accessories, Paper, Food & Drink, Pet products, Health & Beauty, and Vinyl & Laser.
Are you focused on specific niches or is it a general marketplace?
We are a general marketplace and sell a wide variety of product categories. Our marketplace niche is based on location in and around Calgary, Alberta for our sellers. Our buyers can come from anywhere.
Can you share more of how the marketplace worked when it first launched, and how it has been evolving?
When we first launched we sold via a Facebook group. That was a great place to start, but I knew we would need something more robust for this to be manageable.Â
After that first market, we took some time to assess what made sense for sellers, and what made sense for us as a marketplace to be able to run it. We took a full year to really look at this, and look at our options. So one of the things that I heard from vendors was that some of their issues with other major marketplaces is the confusion around pricing and how it can change when you make a sale based on different factors. So we worked hard to create a system that would be fair to the sellers and the marketplace.Â
Second, we also knew that shopping hyper local was important to us. So we built our platform around this concept. For example, when you search scrunchie, it will show you the scrunchie makers that are listed in proximity to you. So the closest vendor that makes scrunchies that lives near you will show up first. And so it’s not to say that, you know, we’re in Alberta. It’s not to say that someone in Newfoundland couldn’t come on and shop from us, but it’s gonna show the closest scrunchie maker. We don’t have one in Newfoundland, but it’ll still show the closest one.
We have also recently added a feature to address website hosting. If you are outside of our core area but still in Canada, you can have your website hosted through us. This could work well if you need a basic website but don’t want to manage a full blown site like Shopify or other platforms. We have not yet heavily advertised this, as it is pretty new for us. Those using the website hosting only are not included in the products in the marketplace.Â
How do your fee structures work?
Something that was important to me was to create a very fair and transparent fee structure. And so the way that I was able to do that was to create a membership fee. So our vendors do not pay a commission. They pay a membership fee upfront and they decide if that’s something that they can commit to paying or not, if that works in their budget or not. And if it does, they know that they make that payment once a year and that’s it. So for a vendor who sells $100 worth of product, the fee is the same as a vendor who sells $100,000 in product.
Now that being said, we have a couple different pricing options depending upon which package you opt into. One that is for the full marketplace and one that is for website hosting in case you are not in our current selling area.Â
For the marketplace
As of July 2024, you pay a $350 (plus GST) Annual Membership fee. You also pay the fees associated with payments through Stripe (2.9% +.30 per transaction).Â
This gets the benefits of selling on the marketplace as well as posting to our Facebook group as well as other perks.
For a website only
If you are outside our selling areas, we can host your website for you for $150 per year. This does not include selling through our Facebook group or being part of the marketplace. But it can be a nice solution if you want someone else to host your website.Â
What do you do to attract both sellers and buyers to your marketplace?
I’m proud to say we’ve supported just over 1,500 vendors. And we have 26,400 shoppers that see our products regularly. So it’s pretty incredible. And I’m really, really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish here. Our core focus right now is on continuing to grow our market in Calgary. While we do have buyers from other parts of Canada, our primary buyer base is here in Calgary.Â
We also feel like we have a lot of room to grow here in our home market, so we are continually reinvesting in growing here locally. The great part is that we have mostly grown organically to get to our current level of buyers. So this gives us good options moving forward.Â
Once you start to move forward past hyper local, then you have to have all the options and features that support that. So that takes time to build out. And we are taking it one step at a time. We’ve recently added our first support for shipping. This was a lot for us because we have been so focused on being hyperlocal.Â
From your perspective, what makes a good product listing for your site?
Photos is number one. From the perspective of the consumer, if I’m shopping online, and I’m comparing your product from, you know, your dark basement, and I’m looking at this other product who is you know, maybe three kilometers further down the road, but they have good lighting and a white background, I’m probably gonna buy from them regardless um of how good the write-up is and how awesome the story is about why I make what I make. Make sure you have good photos.
Second, you have to update your shop online and keep it updated. You can’t just let it sit. That doesn’t sell. You know, if you are hoping to sell for Easter products, but when I go into your shop, the first thing I see is Christmas, I’m probably not going to buy from you. Make sure to periodically check and update your shop.
And then for my market in particular, because we aren’t massive, we don’t have tens of thousands of vendors, metadata is super important. So we have a space for metadata and making sure you use those keywords and so that you’re getting included in those searches. That’s extremely important and a good listing with the virtual market.
What advice would you give artisans when looking at a marketplace to know if it might be right for them?
I think number one is to sell on multiple platforms. You don’t want to limit yourself to just one. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. And by all means, sell on Etsy. And if you can get into Amazon handmade, you know, and sell in there, that’s awesome. But sell in multiple places. because you’re not gonna know where your audience is without testing out.
The second piece that I would say is I think that website platforms did a really good job of convincing small businesses that they need a really cool, flashy, expensive website. And they did that really, really well through COVID. And I’m battling a little bit against that right now. I want to challenge that concept because I don’t think that you are able to drive traffic to your fancy cool website on your own without support. If you have a really big engaged audience you may be able to, but it is difficult for most people.Â
How do people get started on your site?
For our marketplace, it’s a two-step application process. First they go to our website, which is https://thevirtualmarket.ca and there they will pick to sell on the platform and fill out an application. We absolutely make sure that every seller on our platform is a real human being, as a real person. And so that’s really the point of the first step.
You fill in some information about where you live, about, you know, accounts and products that you sell and that kind of thing. Once you have approval that you’re a real person then you’re given access to build a shop. And so then once you build your shop, it comes back again to us for review.Â
We really do our best to make sure that people aren’t copying other people’s work. We also check that they’re putting out things that are appropriate. There’s a lot of responsibility that goes into running a marketplace that can be shopped by young people. So we try to make sure we’re doing our due diligence on that side of things and making sure that the things that are being sold are appropriate and fall in line with our code of conduct.
After the final approval, then you’re live. And people shop from you. We drive sales a lot from our big, engaged Facebook group. And then vendors drive a lot of their own sales from their own social media platforms.
