Etsy NB Is Online, Offline And Online Again
NEW BRUNSWICK – Online selling platform, Etsy, launched an in-person pop-up marketplace event in 2014. Etsy New Brunswick is taking the event digital this year due to COVID-19. Live call with sellers, browse the digital lookbook and support local businesses across the Atlantic provinces.
Kate Hunter is the team captain for the Etsy: Made in Canada event. But this year, she started planning Etsy: Made Local, the first virtual market experience to come to Atlantic Canada.
“Customers will be able to interact directly [with vendors] via live video chat and be shopping around their shop,” Hunter said.
There will be 71 vendors, all of which are featured in the lookbook released prior to the event date.
“I put the lookbook together – which was a labour of love,” Hunter said.
The market will be promoted locally and across the Atlantic provinces, but it’s also open to customers across the globe.
Hunter is also a crafter and Etsy-seller. She will be a vendor at the event under her shop name, HazelBea. Some of her products include crocheted hats, baby booties, headbands, and patterns to make your own.
Covid-19 has caused a lot of small businesses – like the ones set to appear in Etsy: Made Local – a stress and loss of business since markets are closed indefinitely.
So, Hunter and her team worked fast to create this pilot market. Etsy: Made Local may serve as the first virtual market of many especially leading up to the holiday markets.
“We want to be able to be ahead and to be able to roll out the holiday markets that are really a devastating loss to people,” Hunter said.
“To be honest, a lot of people do the majority of their business at holiday markets who are crafters.”
One of the perks of going virtual, according to Hunter, is that you can shop from anywhere. Vendors don’t have to be behind a stand all day and shoppers don’t have to walk around a room looking at products.
“You can shop from your cottage; you can shop some from the beach. Our vendors can be at the beach and be live chatting with you,” Hunter said.
Hunter said the process is a learning curve for all. Vendors who aren’t tech-savvy are nervous but excited to learn new ways of selling and communicating. Hunter said she had to learn these new platforms and now has to teach them.
But she said it’s a new opportunity for Atlantic Canada.
The event will take place on July 25 and 26. Registration for the event will take place on the Etsy New Brunswick Facebook page.
Hunter said the event will hopefully give shoppers a look into the life of a crafter. The crafters are encouraged to be in the studio where they make their product, be with their family, or be somewhere that gives a peek inside their life.
“Show the customers that real-life people are behind this,” Hunter said.
“It’s bringing that global perspective home.”