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Support Small Sellers – Freedom from Etsy and other Big Tech

How can we work together towards a fairer internet, where artisans, creators, and curators can earn a decent living?

How can we apply those lessons to other industries and platforms?

We will launch our Marketplace Accreditation Program, unveil our new membership site, and discuss how we can continue to fight the exploitation of creative indie sellers by big tech platforms.

The convention is over, but you can still purchase a lifetime access ticket to get the content:

Buy Tickets Now!

Panels include:

Saturday at 4 pm EDT

Did a platform shut down your account, withhold money, or take down your listings? Or even take money directly from your account for supposed terms of use violations, as happened at Paypal?

We know the options are limited for platform workers and small businesses that have been screwed by the tech platform they earn income through. But in this panel we’ll talk about best practices you can take, any steps to protect yourself as much as possible, and the success stories we’ve heard from people who fought back.

Katharine is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at EFF, where she coordinates EFF’s federal activism. Her areas of expertise are competition, broadband access, intellectual property, net neutrality, fair use, free speech online, and intermediary liability.

Saturday at 1 pm EDT

We have both a crowd-sourced database of alternative marketplaces and websites to Etsy AND a math tool that lets you plug in item prices and see the cost in fees of each marketplace! Join us for a live demo, ask questions about these amazing tools and share what other features you want to see.

Saturday at 10 am EDT

ISG President Kristi has over 15 years experience as a creative indie seller and navigating the ever changing landscape of Etsy. Hear her presentation on how to use your Etsy shop to build up the traffic to your own standalone site, all still within Etsy’s rules!

Sunday at 1 pm EDT

A presentation on the results from our Marketplace Research Study! We spent a year collaboratively designing the study with creative indie sellers and gathered over 1300 responses on topics ranging from fees, customer service, who is allowed to sell, search functionality and more.

Learn what the data says creative indie sellers want from a marketplace for handmade, vintage and craft goods. Learn what customers prioritize when searching for handmade and vintage businesses. This presentation is for both marketplaces and sellers themselves.

Sunday at 3 pm EDT

Online platforms are the newest work environment, one that does not yet have the legal protections of other work. Let’s discuss how platform workers can work together to fight against exploitation. We’ll share what has worked for us, both during the Etsy strike and since we formed and grew the Indie Sellers Guild.

Recorded for on demand viewing

We realized that the problems Etsy sellers face are the same problems platform workers and small businesses face on other platforms. And that regardless of industry or type of business, there are a ridiculous number of ways big tech platforms can essentially steal money from those who generate the actual value for the platform!

Hear the stories from our ongoing research on how platforms mess with the money of those who make a living on them and join the chat discussion on what we can do about it.

Sunday at 11 am EDT

Guest speaker Wendy Rosen has been a leader in the American handmade industry for over 40 years. Join us for her presentation on why we need transparency on where products were made, both so customers know what they are buying and authentic handmade sellers can stand out from fraudulent resellers. Learn about the important legislation we are supporting to combat the reselling of mass produced goods fraudulently labeled as handmade. 

In 1982, Wendy Rosen founded the Buyers Market of American Craft, aka American Made Show. The show grew to include 1,600 exhibiting artists and 8,000 attending buyers from galleries, museums and design firms and became a 14 Billion contribution to the nations annual GDP. 

In the 1990’s Top department stores, museum shops and national park stores started to look overseas for products that suspiciously resembled the works of American artisans, Rosen founded the American Made Alliance and advocated on Capitol Hill for improvements to product labeling enforcement. 

Today, Rosen helps individual artists with business strategies for growth as well as providing community development plans for cultural tourism and Main Street organizations.

Saturday at 12 pm EDT

Amanda McCarty from Clotheshorse Podcast joins us to talk about how we can support the kinds of businesses we care about and shop our values. An advocate of the slow fashion movement with over 15 years experience as a buyer in the fashion industry, Amanda will share her insights on how the different movements such as shop local, shop eco friendly, and shop handmade are not always the same, and how we can be better informed to spend our money in line with the issues we care about.

We are also conducting live interviews with several marketplaces:

Saturday at 2 pm EDT

Go Imagine is the first marketplace to volunteer for ISG accreditation back when the ISG first pitched the program.

At Goimagine we believe the internet is an extension of the physical world and deserves an affordable and inclusive platform for handmade sellers. Just like a farmer’s market or street fair in your hometown, artisans deserve to have a socially responsible space to sell online that is focused on building community instead of shareholder profits.

goimagine.com

Sunday at 10 am EDT

The Mayfli.co is the first UK marketplace to apply for ISG accreditation and Racheal has worked with us since the Etsy Reserve Payment Policy hit sellers so hard in the UK in 2023.

Mayfli.co is a UK marketplace, designed to empower UK small independent businesses by providing a platform to sell their handmade and unique items online, while also showcasing them on our Shop Local map to support shops on our high streets. We offer not just a marketplace, but a supportive ecosystem with business support and networking opportunities within our vibrant community.

www.mayfli.co

Sunday at 12 pm EDT

Artisans Coop was born out of the Etsy Strike just like the Indie Sellers Guild.

We are a rapidly growing group of artisans and their supporters. We are creating an authentic handmade online marketplace. Think “Etsy,” but more honest and inclusive, more supportive of artisans, and more selective as a “verified handmade” marketplace for shoppers!

https://artisans.coop/

Saturday at 11 am EDT

The Virtual Market is the first Canadian marketplace to apply for accreditation.

We are an online sales platform for Makers and Artists to sell their products where we prioritize the small shops and their needs.

www.thevirtualmarket.ca

Sunday at 2 pm EDT

Indie Untangled is a marketing platform for independent yarn dyers, knitting and crochet designers and makers of accessories for use by yarn crafters.

https://indieuntangled.com

Sunday at 4 pm EDT

Rachel has been a member of the Indie Sellers Guild from the very beginning, and Artisan Made is just one way that she works to help artists.

Artizan Made is a collective of handmade shops selling online. Our mission is to promote our members through the website, social media and other marketing opportunities. Our market products link back to the member’s shops, functioning as an ad for that shop.

https://www.artizanmade.com/

Saturday at 3 pm EDT

We’re on a mission to celebrate and promote handmade-in-America crafts, artisanal goods, and folk art, and we’re especially excited to showcase makers based in small and rural towns that produce sustainable, eco-friendly, and heirloom-quality products. Our aim is two-fold: to strengthen local economies by boosting the reach of these unique and usually small-batch offerings, and to help Americans redefine the value of handmade in our daily lives because we believe that conscious consumer choices can make a real, sustainable difference.

https://handcraftnation.com/

Panels will be a mix of pre-recorded videos, live videos that will be recorded for viewing later, and chat discussion — participate on your own schedule from any time zone! All live events will be held that weekend but recordings will be available for a two week period around the event. Or purchase lifetime access for only $4 more.

Schedule (EDT)

Other events:

  • Information from other organizations for creative indie sellers
  • Research surveys to let your your voice be heard
  • Opportunities to network and build community

Verified seller members are invited to both donate items to the silent auction and create themed merchandise for the convention. To learn more, log into your account and click “Vending and Merch” in the member menu.

Are you a business or organization that supports fair treatment for creative indie sellers? Learn more about how to sponsor the convention!

If you would like to get involved with the event, please reach out through this form:

Sponsors

At goimagine we believe the internet is an extension of the physical world and deserves an affordable and inclusive platform for handmade sellers.

Artizan Made is a collective of handmade shops selling online. Our mission is to promote our members through the website, social media and other marketing opportunities.

Baserow is the open platform to create scalable databases and applications—without coding. With its intuitive interface and flexibility, Baserow empowers teams to manage data with ease.

Start.coop’s mission is to cultivate the next generation of cooperative businesses at scale in order to build a new economy based on shared prosperity. We accelerate cooperatively owned businesses creating more equitable distributions of wealth, lifting up marginalized voices, and unlocking ownership for disenfranchised peoples.

Media Partners and Supporting Organizations