FAQ’s Related to Upcoming Changes
There have been quite a few questions asked related to the upcoming changes. If you missed the info about the ‘changes’, you can read about it here.
We keep getting a lot of the same recurring questions, so we thought it would be better to have an easily accessible compilation of them here. We will do our best to clarify and make things as clear as possible. FAQ’s
Q: Why are you changing your business model?
A: Simply put, it just wasn’t working. We want you to know that the decision to change our business model was not a light one. After weeks of intensive research, discussion and planning we came to the decision/realization that we needed to adapt our business model in order to achieve our ultimate goal, which is to see Zibbet become a thriving artisan marketplace.
Q: Why wasn’t it working?
A: As you know, Zibbet’s current, and soon to be ‘old’, business model is ‘pay no upfront fees, and pay us a 7.5% commission when your item sells’. Most of our sellers also sell their items on other ‘handmade’ sites such as the popular Etsy.com. When given the choice, sellers would choose to promote their Etsy shop rather than their Zibbet shop. Why? Because if they make the sale on Etsy they would pay them 3.5% versus paying Zibbet 7.5%. Putting ourselves in the sellers shoes, we would do the same! Why would you want to pay more than you have to. Because of this, Zibbet had become seen as a great ‘additional’ venue to put your items on, which had led to sellers setting up shop with a few items just to ’see how it goes’.
Statement: 15 items is not enough items for the free, Basic account.
A: We’ve heard you and have taken your feedback on board. We’re excited to announce that we will be raising the Basic account item limit to 25, instead of 15! Due to the increased amount of items allowed in the Basic shop, we will now also be adding the ’shop sections’ feature to the Basic account.
As a recap, I want to remind you that a Basic account will be totally free. There won’t be any listing fees as always, but there will also be NO commission paid to Zibbet after a sale. So you can sell as many items as you want and you won’t pay us a cent. A ‘Basic’ Zibbet shop is not so basic as it will still have all the features you currently have available to you, plus we’ll also be releasing a lot more features that will be available to Basic sellers as well, over the coming weeks. One other thing, because you don’t have to pay us commissions on your sales anymore, we’re lifting the link-out restrictions which means you can feel free to link to your other sites and even include your email address in your welcome message if you wish.
So here are the things that will be changing if your choice is the free, Basic account…
- You now won’t pay us any commission when you sell your items. So now you can promote your shop as much as you want, because you’ll be keeping every penny.
- You’ll be able to have up to 25 items in your shop at a time. Once you sell an item from your shop, you can simply list another item to replace it. Therefore, you can sell as much as you want for FREE!
Quick Facts:
The average number of items a Zibbet seller currently has in their shop, is 11.
There are currently less than 60 sellers that have more than 25 items in their shop out of over 1,600 registered sellers.
Q: If I have more than 25 items in my shop, what will happen to them?
A: On launch day, all existing shops will be set to a ‘Basic’ account. If you have more than 25 items in your shop, the ‘most recently listed’ items will stay active in your shop and the ‘least recently listed’ items will be put back to ‘draft’ status. If you choose to upgrade to a ‘Premium’ account, you will easily be able to ‘re-list’ the items with one-click of your mouse. Since there are not too many sellers with more than 25 items in their shop, we’re more than happy to do it for you if you like. Simply email us for this service.
Q: What are the advantages of having a Premium account?
A: With a Premium account you will have the freedom to list as many items as you like, plus have the flexibilty of having full control over the customization of your shop’s color theme, and layout. The are many other features exclusive to Premium account sellers, such as the ability to rearrange the items in your shop via a very nice ‘drag and drop’ design. You will also be able to add Widgets to the right hand column and bottom of your shop. Widgets are simple, fun and useful applications that can be embedded into your Zibbet shop. As an example, you can keep your customers up-to-date with your latest blog posts, display your tweets from Twitter, input your Etsy mini and so much more.
There are many more Premium account features that we’re working on, some of which will be ready for release within the first few weeks of launch.
Q: How much is the Premium account going to be?
A: The Premium account is going to be launched at $7/month. This special price won’t be around for long and will only be available to the first 2500 sellers. After that, the price will be going up.
Q: How can I get my Premium account for free?
A: We have a new Referral Program that should be ready about 1 week after we launch the new changes. For every friend you refer who joins at a Premium level, we’ll take $1 off your monthly membership, for life. For a limited time, our upgraded Premium accounts are only $7 per month. Therefore, if you refer just 7 friends, we’ll convert your upgraded, full-featured account to ‘FREE FOREVER’. That means, for the rest of your life, you can enjoy unlimited listings, no sales fees and all the’ benefits that a Premium Account holder gets, for FREE!
Q: What’s happening with the old Referral Program?
A: The ‘old Referral Program will be replaced by the ‘new’ one as it clearly doesn’t work with our new model. If you have referred people to Zibbet we will be contacting you over the next few days and you will be eligible to receive $1 off a Premium monthly membership for every person you have referred. As an example, if you have referred 2 people to Zibbet, you’ll be getting a coupon that will allow you to get a Premium account for $5/month instead of $7/month. If you have referred 7 or more people to Zibbet, you will be getting a coupon that will enable you to get a FREE Premium account forever.
We appreciate your support, and wanted to make sure you were rewarded for your efforts!
Q: When are the new changes launching?
A: We’re working hard to launch the new structure within the next 7 days. We will do our very best to get it going sooner rather than later.
SOME INTERESTING COMPARISONS…
Etsy VS Zibbet (old and new)
Etsy model:
If you listed 25 items on Etsy it would cost you $5 (25 x $0.20 = $5). If all these items sold for an average price of $15 each (average sales price on Etsy), you would be paying Etsy a further $13 in commission fees (3.5% x $15 x 25 items = $13.125).
Therefore, for you to list and sell 25 items on Etsy it would cost you approximately $18.00
Zibbet’s ‘OLD’ model:
If you listed 25 items with Zibbet’s OLD model and sold 25 items for an average price of $15 each, you would be paying Zibbet just over $28 in commission fees (7.5% x $15 x 25 items = $28.125).
Therefore, for you to list and sell 25 items with Zibbet’s OLD model it would cost you approximately $28.00
Zibbet’s ‘NEW’ model (based on a ‘basic’ account):
If you listed 25 items with Zibbet’s NEW model and sold 25 items, it would cost you absolutely nothing…$0.00!
Therefore, for you to list and sell 25 items with Zibbet’s NEW model it would cost you exactly $0.00!
The above comparison is not intended to ‘put-down’ Etsy in any way. It’s merely to point out that our ‘new model’ is the best value for money for sellers.
We hope you found this blog informative and that it answered any questions you may have had about. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions on mail@zibbet.com. We are more than happy to help!
Image credit: Oberazzi
Tags: changes, FAQ's, questions about changes
Thank you for hearing us. THAT is the reason I moved over to Zibbet completely and do promote it as much as I can. I’ll be staying around because you do interact and listen to us as well as give us the best value.
When my sales DO start taking off I will go to the premium account but just cannot swing it at this time. I don’t have enough contacts to swing the referral although I’m trying.
Again, thanks for listening.
Thanks guys for making the Basic limit to 25! I am one of the very first registered sellers at Zibbet, and I joined mainly because it is a new community and will value feedback
Thank you for that!
I moved to Zibbet exactly for the cost factor that you have mentioned, but since I never sold anything, did not realize that the old model was more expensive than Etsy! I hope I sell enough to afford a premium account.
This is another THANK YOU for listening. I hope to be the FIRST (or one of the first) Premium Sellers. In this economy I applaud your brave decision–and have no doubt it will pay off for all of us. And for the record, I did a lot of research before I opened my first Zibbet shop, Palmeta, on July 4th. I am only selling on Zibbet and have been delighted to watch the stats from each of my promotional efforts–mainly twitter and links to my blogs. The changes you are about to make–make Zibbet even better. So THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
It all makes sense now. Thank you for keeping us sellers informed, and I can’t wait to see all the new features!
This is great news, and if some of the features of other sites (like a better shipping listing) are implemented, I will definitely be considering the Premium shop! Thanks for this…now i’ll have to get busy listing all those extra items!
Fabulous news, off to list afew items now…
Also, could we have an option to adjust the shipping fees for buyers who buy more than one item ?
thank you
Kalicat
Thank you very much for great info! I’m first in Zibbet and I already referred 4 people to Zibbet for Etsy, when I was on Chat room. How can I inform you about it?
Thanks
Natalia
Hi Everyone,
Just dropping in to thank you all for your support and encouraging comments. We’re very much looking forward to the bright future of Zibbet. There are so many great features on the way for both ‘Basic’ and ‘Premium’ account…we can’t wait to tell you about them!
And ‘mizdarlin’/'kalicatJewelry’, we will be improving our shipping option considerably, to include the things you have asked for, over the next few weeks. We’ll make sure it’s put higher on the priority list since a few people have been asking about this.
‘NataliaDesign’, we will be in contact with all ‘referrers’ in the next few days.
Keep the positive comments coming everyone! We love to read them!
Hello everyone!
I just stumbled upon Zibbet. I’ve been using Etsy for the past year and just now, I’m going to start making MUCH more. I actually recently quit my regular hourly job to do it. I was about to start up a new shop on Etsy dedicated to my screenprinting designs, compared to my one-of-a-kind shop. Now, I’m thinking if I have a large amount of sales, that I would be able to make more here, if I didn’t have to pay Etsy the commission. I’m also excited that this site is still in its growing phase, and that I would be able to be more prominent in the community surrounding it.
So, I’m glad to have seen this! Looks like I found it at just the right time!
Kristinopolis Mayhem
I hope this works, I really do. However, using your own example, if I list 26 items on Etsy, and sell nothing, it costs me $5.20 for 4 months. If I list 26 items on Zibbet and sell nothing it costs me $7/mo.
Hello Zibbet! I know the new changes are going to be coming in soon, but what about any referrals we get in the meantime? I’ve had a few people ask me for my referral link over the last couple of days, but none of them are showing on my stats?
Liking the new ideas, though the ‘advantages’ that will come with paying for an account will have to come in pretty quickly for people to make the switch… cheers!
Hi ThrillyKnickers,
Any new referrals you get in the meantime will be still counted. If the stats indicate that you haven’t got any referrals, it’s possible that they didn’t click on your link. If you think they have, please let us know their name/username and we’ll be able to track it down.
We’re sure you’ll love the ‘advantages’ that a Premium seller has! We’re doing our best to put together a ‘video tour’ of some of the new features that Premium sellers will enjoy.
Hello
The changes sound good to me! Hang in there, things will improve. Etsy is too overloaded for most sellers; Zibbet will help even things out. I think this will be due to Zibbet’s clean design and great customer service.
Thank you.
Why is nothing dated! All the articles say in about a weeks time the new changes should be in place, but I see no dates and i have been reading this for over a week it seems? Also I wanted to ask if there was going to be a community in place, with forums and a place to gather and discuss, this seems to be an important feature for keeping people on your site and involved???
I think the changes give us more options without taking anything away. What I don’t like is that it doesn’t attract more fine art artists, ie painters. However after looking at the Artfire site, I have decided that you are attracting a higher quality of artist generally, and this is more important than quantity. In Artfire I did like the category list at the side as it enabled me to get straight to fine art and avoid all the jewelery. Apologies to all the fine jewelery makers. I guess it’s just a man thing.
Viviano
I have blogged about zibbet! Please look!
http://creativecollective.beautifullywiredlynx.net
BTW, crowhurst, I agree with you in the art area! I am a man too, one that creates art2wear! =)
@beautifullywiredlynx: We’re literally only days away from launch. Tomorrow we’ll be posting a ‘Sneak Peak’ Preview Video of all the upcoming changes, so watch out for it! Building ‘forums’ and ‘groups’ are definitely important to us. Our goal is to build a strong sense of community on Zibbet. We’ll be aiming to have forums in place within around 2 months. I know I’m looking forward to getting to know you all better!
And thanks for blogging about us! It’s a great article…we really appreciate your support.
@crowhurst: You can easily get straight to the ‘fine art’ on Zibbet too, if that is your thing. From the home page you can simply select the type of fine art you wish to look at from the drop-down box under the big heading, ‘Start Shopping’. Once you’ve selected your category, just hit search and the site will return all the items in that category to you.
Alternately, you can go to: http://www.zibbet.com/categories and choose the category you wish to browse. Hope that helps!
Thanks for a great and informative presentation of the changes. It’s refreshing to have a site that values its sellers with prompt customer service and detailed updates, very different from Etsy.
The paid account features have been put together with value in mind, and attractive enough to tempt sellers to pay a monthly fee.
However, without widespread site name recognition, and an aggressive marketing campaign (based on the upcoming holiday retail calendar, perhaps?) shoppers are not going to shop on Zibbet unless they know about it.
Your biggest selling point is that it’s extremely easy to shop on Zibbet; it’s not easy to shop on Etsy.
Please reconsider adding the widgets and Etsy shop links. This will cause a lot of confusion for shoppers who might think they can “look” at a product on Zibbet, but have to click on the sellers’ Etsy store to actually buy it. Etsy no longer works for many sellers, so why would they open a Zibbet store and then provide a front page link in prime real estate on their Zibber page to tell shoppers to go right to Etsy?
I like the sound of all you are doing and it makes sense to do whatyou are doing.. I have been hesitating to put more Items on here but Now it won’t cost and I can refer more people over to here fo my airbrush work..
Nice blog. Thanks a bunch!