YES! We're a new E-Commerce Marketplace working out of Laurium, MI. We are registered with the State of Michigan as Crafty Yoopers Marketplace, LLC.
YES! We're a new E-Commerce Marketplace working out of Laurium, MI. We are registered with the State of Michigan as Crafty Yoopers Marketplace, LLC.
Ahh, this is a great question! We're COMPLETELY different from Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist, etc...
First, our business isn't merely a "business / product listing service". We're a fully functional online store - an e-commerce marketplace similar to Amazon or ETSY just on a local, smaller scale. Think of us like a giant mall for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a lot of space available for many types of sellers. Instead of having a physical "brick and mortar" building, we built ours on the internet.
To make a comparison:
Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist can be compared to grabbing the local newspaper and opening it up to the classifieds section to see what's for sale. There's no ability for customers to purchase your products directly through the newspaper, they have to contact each seller and coordinate how to pay each person and how get what they want to purchase, it's not always easy to find any particular item they're looking for, etc. Plus, the newspaper agency doesn't actively promote your products or your business either unless you pay for additional advertising.
This is where our strength is. Our marketplace allows customers to conveniently shop from multiple vendors across the Upper Peninsula all in one place. Crafty Yoopers Marketplace gives customers a way to easily search for products from multiple vendors, add them to their shopping cart and securely make a single payment (or pay through multiple installments using Klarna) in a way that's convenient for them - all from the comfort of wherever they may be at.
Customers can create "wish lists" to purchase products at a later date, share the products they like to Facebook (which provides additional free advertising for vendors by creating a direct product link that others can follow to purchase), ask vendors a question regarding a particular product through our internal messaging system, or even use an order form for a custom product request that gets sent to the vendor.
Our business mission is geared in helping to promote local businesses, crafters, farmers, etc across the Upper Peninsula to boost their sales. Part of that mission is achieved by actively promoting our vendors and their products at no additional cost to them. Our success is determined by our vendors success - and we wish for each of our vendors to be successful in their venture.
The following payment options are available to your customers on the marketplace. These payment options include
Major Credit Cards
Our marketplace primarily utilizes Stripe as our marketplace payment processor. All vendors will need to create a free Stripe account which will get connected to our marketplace. This is how funds are transferred between the Marketplace and Vendor accounts when customers purchase products. Many people haven't heard of Stripe like they've heard of Square, Paypal, etc. Fear not! Stripe may not be well known to the average person, but their customers include some of the following major companies:
Click here to read about the customers of Stripe.
In some instances due to restrictions with Stripe, another payment processor may be utilized to process credit cards on the marketplace as well.
The marketplace fee % is calculated using ONLY the cost of the product itself. Taxes and shipping ARE NOT included in the calculation of the marketplace fee that we charge on the vendor plans.
We feel that this is an UNFAIR price gouging tactic utilized by the larger marketplace platforms out there...(like the ones starting with the letter "e") in order to squeeze every penny out of their vendors that they can in order to satisfy their investors....But that's just us talking since we're just a small business trying to be fair for everyone.
Nope! Crafty Yoopers Marketplace was created with the intentions to serve the individual hobby crafter who creates "every once in a while" all the way up to larger retail businesses that have high volume sales and everyone in-between.
Non-profit organizations are also encouraged to apply or contact us with questions as well, including educational institutions who would like to sell spirit wear gear to raise additional funds. We have a special pricing plan for non-profits that's low cost and geared towards maximizing their fundraising efforts. Contact us for more details.
Fear Not Hobbyist! Our marketplace is flexible to meet your needs - even if that means you want to remain "hobby sized" like currently selling at craft shows what you have made. Let's say for example, you can only make maybe 1 or 2 items a week and you typically build up your inventory of crafts until it's craft show time. At the craft show(s) you only sell what you have made. On our marketplace, there's no pressure to take on orders for items that you might not have time to make - YOU control that. All you need to do is set how many of a particular item that you have made as what's in stock, and when you run out, you're out....Just like at the craft shows - but without the hassle of having to haul everything to and from the craft shows.
Absolutely yes! The biggest holdup for cottage food producers (unlicensed food producers) is that they believe they can't sell online, but that's not true! We verified with a representative from the State of Michigan food licensing department that "cottage food producers" CAN in fact sell and take payments online. However, because they can't ship the product out, the purchaser MUST pick up the purchased product IN PERSON to complete the transaction. This gives the consumer the ability to talk with the person(s) who made the jams, jellies, bakery items, etc and find out more about the product.
So how does our marketplace help with this? Easy - cottage food producer vendor accounts are restricted to an In-Person pickup only option, but the vendor can create a list of as many store location / pick-up points as they want, plus they can make as many or as few of them available during checkout. During the checkout process, the buyer would select the pick-up point that the cottage food vendor will be located at and the vendor makes a sale even before they get to the next farmers market! All they have to do is make sure to bring the order with them for the customer to take with them.
Let Crafty Yoopers Marketplace help you to generate those farmers market sales before you even get there!
Since we're locally owned and operated, our business is focused on supporting the local businesses and entrepreneurs across the Upper Peninsula (with the exception of Yoopers living in exile).
No, not if you're selling on a marketplace like ours. Just like Etsy, Amazon, etc...we're considered a Marketplace Facilitator and are responsible for collecting and submitting sales tax on behalf of our vendors. As a vendor, you're not required to have a sales tax license when selling on a marketplace. You are required to have one though if you sell from your own website. Here's a link to Michigan.gov for additional information:
Vendors will handle all of the product shipping details. They will have the ability to determine if they want to allow customers to use in-person pickup, create their own shipping options and rates, or both (except for cottage food vendors - they'll be restricted to in-person pickup only due to Michigan laws).
As part of Our Mission to help support and promote local businesses, we will also be supporting local non-profit organizations across the UP as well on a case-by-case basis. Non-profits please click here ---> Contact Us Form for our Contact Us Form.
Great Question! There is a "Marketplace Tutorials" section in the vendor panel menu for our current vendors that will be updated periodically as needed. Vendors can request additional tutorials / how-to information to be added that will help them if it isn't there already.