via Megan Auman on Etsy
Megan at Crafting an MBA has written an interesting series of blog posts about her experience with pricing coffee cozy / wrist cuffs on Etsy.
These laser-cut wool coffee cozies double as a cuff-style bracelet, an eco-friendly alternative to disposable java jackets that contribute to landfills. Their $32 price sparked some controversy on the Etsy Facebook page as well as considered meditations at Everyday Object (where I found the story) and Queering Domesticity. Megan Auman has struck back, asserting
- Etsy’s prices are artificially low because most sellers are amateurs who undersell their goods because they have no business / profit model.
- Wholesale costs leave her with a slim profit margin.
- She designs, manufactures and lives in the US and deserves a living wage as a crafting professional.
The discussion that has followed has been interesting, with many supporters arguing that mass retailers like Wal-Mart have convinced Americans to undervalue goods; that Etsy encourages sellers to underprice goods so as to reap their own profits by increasing sales volume; that consumers are ignorant of the inputs into craft and need to be educated.
My take?
While it is tempting to just assume that customers are a confederacy of dunces who don’t know what is good for them, what is well-made and what is well-worth-it, I think that the failure of a niche product is usually due to the product or the marketing of the product rather than price competition. While large scale discounters do indeed encourage price-sensitivity, I think a “Walmart has ruined the craft market” argument ignores a number of realities about Etsy and indie craft that is marketed online generally:
1. Quality. Quality is highly variable on Etsy (and arguably generally poor) which makes many customers shy about large investments in largely unknown and unscreened designers.
2. Product differentiation. While I understand that an artisan likely sees a great deal of individuality in what they do, there is a glut of certain products –silkscreened posters, decals, stencils, letterpressed stationery, limography, t-shirts come to mind– that are replicated along familiar themes and motifs and most consumers cut through the clutter by price comparisons. If you want to charge a premium, you are going to have to innovate.
3. Uncertainty of value. Many crafts on Etsy require the buyer to make a largely uninformed valuation of the item. For instance, if you’ve always considered coffee cozies disposable, how do you know what you are willing to pay for one? And while you know the difference you can expect in say, Cartier versus Tiffany versus Alexis Bittar versus Claire’s jewelry, how do you know which Etsy seller’s agate ring has the worksmanship or even the aesthetic that justifies the price? You are essentially buying into an unknown brand or even a new category.
And that is no dig at Ms. Auman–her cozy/cuffs are quite successful and apparently worthy of their price. But many of the Etsy offerings inhabit a nebulous space of either poor conception, uncertain execution or confused marketing in a very crowded marketplace. I would suggest that if artisans want their goods to bear a luxury price, they follow the lead of say, Confetti System and target a more upscale and edited marketplace and not blame the mass craft buyer.
Do you go to Etsy to bargain hunt? And do you think that customers should be more willing to pay premiums for artisanal goods. Please let me know in the comments.
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