0:00
[Music] welcome to the craft to Career podcast with Elizabeth Chappell or every week we
dive into how you can turn your craft into a successful career get ready to have the career you’ve always dreamed of
[Music] welcome to the craft a career podcast this is Elizabeth Chapel of Quilter’s
candy I’m very very excited about this week’s episode it is completely unique and I
feel like I’m not going to have the opportunity to introduce something like this much in my lifetime
there is a brand new platform that I think could very much
revolutionize businesses for Quilters and that’s why I say I don’t think this is going to happen often because I don’t
feel like that’s going to happen very often so okay before we dive in however I want to read this review because so
much about it that I love so let me read it and then think Pitchfork quilt pieces for writing this
so Pitchfork quilt pieces says I love Elizabeth from having a voice for radio
to her fantastic mind fabulous questions and amazing guests I love her personal
episodes where she talks on a topic I love when she features a guest from within the industry and I love when she
invites a marketing guest onto her show I gained so much insight there is never
a dull moment my favorite though is episode 41 which side note I need to now go myself and look what episode that is
by the way this review took me about an hour to write because of so much hassle with understanding Apple music and
iTunes but I’ll do anything to help Elizabeth thanks Elizabeth wishing you the most success
oh my goodness Pitchfork quilt pieces this is possibly one of the sweetest
reviews because I know how much time and effort went into this review and you
know how much this means to the podcast so thank you so much
and it’s funny reading this review because I guess I am a typical female and I feel weird not only receiving
compliments but then reading one out loud I had no idea that people thought I
have a voice for radio I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but that was one of the things that I was like uh I want to have a
podcast I love asking questions and all the things but like really I don’t know
that’s my voice will be enjoyable to listen to so that means a lot and just how much you are getting out of the
podcast and how much time you spent writing this review thank you thank you thank you if you
have not had a chance to go and write a review hopefully it doesn’t take you an hour to do that I do wish that Apple was
a little more intuitive but um but please do if you haven’t left a review yet
so this week the platform that I’m introducing on the podcast is called
what not and I’ve been talking to Carly and I honestly cannot remember the title
that she has at the company I think I said last week in the podcast that she’s the owner she’s not the owner but she
helps you should I’ll let her explain in her own words because I’m gonna get it wrong but I’ve told Carly this next
little bit of information so I feel like it’s fine for me to share it here I have
a friend Belle of seem so me who went and sold some things on whatnot and I
heard through the grapevine I didn’t even hear from her I heard from other friends who were like hey Belle went on
this platform and sold so many things it was very successful it’s called whatnot have you guys checked it out and I was
like uh no what is that so I went and looked and saw it and then what not reached out and asked hey would you like
to meet and honestly head Bell not gone on it and had I not heard through the grapevine I would have said no because
it’s a startup company for one thing it takes there’s something about social
proof right like having a friend who can vouch for it so thank you Belle for
unknowingly vouching for it Through the Grapevine but how how would you know so it’s a
younger company and they’re just you know recently ish reaching out into the quilting community and it’s very
different from anything I’ve ever done and like branding it’s not their
branding is obviously not my branding so I was like I don’t know but because I heard of the success I was like I’m
actually very intrigued and because I teach a whole course on how to write and
sell quilt patterns and here is a brand new platform that could be really amazing for people to sell their
patterns so I hopped on a call with Carly and as we were talking and my mind started getting very excited about oh my
goodness this could actually be very revolutionary for our industry particularly shop owners whether you’re
selling Fabrics Notions or patterns this is a game changer you just don’t see
that often and I don’t think a lot of people know about it yet or might you
might be kind of hesitant because it is new and you may not have heard of it and you might be like who what what is this
so that’s why when we were chatting I was like Carly can we do a podcast
episode I need to share about this with my audience and can I go on your show and sell
something so that I can experience it and speak to what that is like so coming
up in a couple of weeks I believe June 7th I’m still working out the date I am
going to be going live either June 5th 6th or 7th in the evening there is an event that they’re hosting and I will be
going on and sharing some products along with Liza Taylor so we are going to be going on and
selling and I just want to experience it see what it’s like so that I can actually go to my students and say okay
here’s a cool idea and I’ve tried it out and either it worked or I didn’t so um
I’m very hopeful that it’s going to be amazing when I go on there because I know it’s been amazing for other people
so without further Ado let’s go ahead and let me introduce you to Carly and
let’s dive in so you can learn about this new platform and hopefully you can
find it as amazing as I do
excited to have of you here Carly thanks for being on the podcast can you introduce who you are and what you do
for what not of course it’s so nice to be here I really appreciate you having
it having me and having what not on the on the podcast uh so I am the general manager of the Arts and handmade world
over at whatnot so leading the charge uh expanding uh our platform into the
crafty The Crafty community and helping people expand the The Crafty careers
that they’re building onto our platform I love it so for our listeners can you
tell us like let’s assume no prior knowledge what is what not the history
of it like what how has it come to be what does it do of course so we’re about uh I think at this point about three and
a half years old and so we started uh right before the pandemic and we
initially started actually in the collectible space and live video shopping was not a part of a platform right now I mean now we are the largest
and fastest growing livestream shopping Marketplace in in the in the in North America so come a long way from being a
market you know Marketplace for we initially started with Funko Pops actually those dolls with the big heads
that are highly collectible uh and we’ve you know discovered sort of early in the pandemic
that video was going to be a huge part of how people were going to engage going forward and so once we launched that it
kind of exploded and it’s we are I sort of think of it like twitch meets Etsy uh but there’s a lot
of different you know analogies that you can use we are it’s live stream live stream is the primary mechanism by which
sellers are interacting with customers uh and it’s a Marketplace so sellers can
truly be you know a store in New York City or a
content creator on YouTube or a person who is streaming and selling items from
their from their basement and it’s really uh what’s really cool about that is we started in Collectibles and we
found that live stream shopping has really taken off in Niche highly engaged
communities that are passionate about a topic or a product and so when I started
uh my you know my goal was to figure out how do we enter the Arts in handmade world and so I was I looked for sort of
where was the community uh in the Arts and handmade world that was most like that
and I think you probably know that Quilters and sewers are very much
meet that profile yes I’m curious well this is this is making me so happy because I
talk to my audience a lot about finding a niche and a lot of people in my audience are Quilters and like this is
that that amazing Niche so I’m curious to hear what are some other niches like
knitting I want to say crochet those yes that’s another one for sure uh we have a
lot of uh a lot of content around around knitting crochet and that’s within the Arts and handmade outside of Arts in
handmade we have like a really passionate I mean there’s just CR there’s so many different communities that exist within the within one
platform and that’s what like one I think that’s really cool is you enter the platform and it says what are you interested in and based on what you
select when you open the app you’re going to see something entirely different from what everyone else is seeing so if you like sports cards
you’re gonna see people selling sports cards and that is going to be the content that you most engage with the
things that you buy if you like vintage Decor you’re gonna see you know I I
selected vegetables one of the things I like and you know it’s Pyrex collectors
and swung swing vases and all sorts of things that you might not even know about unless you’re in that Community
um sneaker collectors are another one and then within the Arts and handmade World we’ve really been focusing at
least in the you know initial months on building up our community around Fabric and patterns and quilts
this is so odd and off topic so I’ll say it and then we’ll get back but the
entrepreneurial part of my brain is very intrigued and could go down a major Rabbit Hole of wanting to know all these
different Niche markets like I don’t I bet there’s Pokemon but that I can come up with so I would love to know yeah
anyhow so that’s the nerdy part of me that’s like tell me all the niches I want to know why I know and I totally
get that when I started I I feel like every time I open the app I feel like an anthropologist like I just love to go in
and see what the different communities are doing um and even if it’s not you know the community I’m working on or the
community I you know associate with as a buyer it’s just so fascinating to see
how deeply engaged these can these communities can be and I guess prob well I’m intrigued yeah
more like sociology you know what are people interested in but also I guess from a marketing standpoint like
I just Taylor Swift Harry Potter these fan bases how are they marketing why
like why are people loving these Pyrex that blew my mind I didn’t know that was a thing so it’s very from a marketing
standpoint I’m like how have they done that how have they created these pockets of people I love it I find it
fascinating so okay back to whatnot thanks for you know letting me go off on
a tangent there um this is perfect for my audience because a lot of people who are
quiltrepreneurs they’re trying to figure out how to Market their thing like one of the
biggest questions I have is how do I launch how do I get more sales and then this fell in my lap and it’s like this
amazing platform where people can sell from anywhere um and so how how do you choose who
you’re gonna feature so I think those are sort of two parts to that question like who can sell on
whatnot and then how do we you know who do we highlight within within the app um so
in terms of selling we have we have an application um you know I think we have we call it a
rigorous Eventing process and it is because we do want to be bringing our audience the highest quality content and
items that they can sell um but I think in the Arts and handmade world like who am I to say whether or
not your art is any good uh you know it’s very subjective and so we look for people that are serious
about it um and will bring you know something high quality to the to our audience uh
whether it’s from a Content perspective or from you know are they instructing something um you know we have a lot of quilt
instructors and pattern designers um and they’re everyone’s bringing something really unique and that actually is one
of the things that kind of sets the Arts and handmade World apart is that you know it’s not a collectible where
everyone knows the value of everything that exists um now fabric of course you know I know
there’s like that old joke that you know there’s two hobbies in quilting uh fabric collecting and quilting so
definitely you know there’s part part of it is that but we look for people that have you know access to inventory or you
know something and I think inventory is kind of a funny word here you know because if you’re a pattern designer of course
you have unlimited access to inventory of your digital pattern um and so you know you might only have
made one pattern but like you still have unlimited access and you know that counts too um and then in other categories we have
looked for people that have social presences just like are they serious
about you know getting out there but that doesn’t mean that you have to have
a large audience in order to sell on our platform in fact we our favorite and best sellers are ones who have really
built Their audience within whatnot
um you know like any new platform it takes it can take a little time to kind of get noticed get in the community but
the really cool thing is we have all these features these built-in features so giveaways
um there’s a feature where if you offer a giveaway in your stream people have to follow you in order to in order to enter
and so that’s how a lot of people have you know built up their initial following once you have followers
um people will get notified every time you go live so and people also form kind of this
community of like a very supportive community of like knowing when your friends are alive and a lot of the
sellers are you know going in to support each other um we have a feature called rating where
people you know if a if a new seller is looking to get you know help build their audience and they happen to know someone
or have in maybe they’re a buyer from an older seller who already has a large audience you see this all the time
people do like a pop-up and raid show uh so someone who has 5 000 followers May
pop up and do a 15-minute show and then read a new seller so that new seller is kind of starting right off the bat with
a built-in audience um because I love that they’re one of their
costs you know one of their favorite sellers has you know is supporting them and you see this a lot in all the
categories of people just really wanting to support each other in a a way that’s
not like the it’s obviously like they’re competing but I think especially in the
handmade World everyone has different things and no two people are sad that selling the same handmade items and even
we talk about fabric most people have different fabric inventory too
love it very very much up my alley of a rising tide lifts all boats you know and
I love that who is the marketing genius behind this like who came up with this with whatnot yeah and like and like I’m
assuming they’re they have a marketing team or a creative team that’s like oh we should try this we should add this
you know so it’s really I mean a lot of that is built into our product and we really
operate under the like you hear this in business a lot like what do users want
and listen to users get in the mind of users one thing that’s really unique and cool about working at whatnot is that
there is a huge emphasis on dog fooding the product um you know that’s if you’re familiar
with the term dog fooding it’s kind of like an old Tech term of you have to eat your own dog food and I think it came
from Purina and you know you know back in the day sort of like this idea of you
really have to be using your product and empathizing with the users so everyone
at whatnot is in the app all the time um you know going to shows and hosting
shows I’ve you know I was actually nervous about this when I started because I hate being videotaped and I
was like uh live streaming like that sounds really scary but like also interesting because like I clearly am joining the company uh but when I
started doing it I was like oh wow I actually really like this it’s fun and it’s interactive and it’s like about as
scary as a zoom call so you know because it’s live it’s not I
think you know when you post stuff to Instagram there’s like it’s gonna live forever it’s it feels high pressure
um you know it has to be perfect this does not have to be perfect now obviously you want to be good
um right like definitely you know having higher quality listings and you know having a good camera setup like all of
that is helpful and you know we’ll definitely make people more effective but it’s not at all required
um and so I think like making it like it’s not scary as sort of the thing
that I always like to remind people just try it it’s actually really an awesome experience
so I have so many questions so first of all okay I meant to ask this a while back and I just remembered so QVC when
you’re like it’s Stitch meets Etsy is that right I said twitch but there’s
like 10 different ways you can say yeah because we’re you know we’re so unique that we’re like a combination of any one
of 15 different things that exist right um but not uh you know not exactly like
anything which is perfect so when I bring up QVC what what does what not think about that is it like oh no we’re
not that or is it like actually yeah you could kind of relate it to QVC so I think there’s something to be said
for the fact that QVC has been as successful as it is for so long clearly
people want to buy from people that are
you know selling to them via video in their homes like there’s clearly something there
um and I think we’re kind of like the next generation of that like whereas QVC is
you know more produced it’s more um you know
you know it’s like in a studio um right and I think we are
democratizing it in a way of really anyone can be their own like can host their own show and sell and you don’t
need to you know apply and go to the studio to do it which I love I love that like you want
to do it you can you know so but okay you did mention you have standards of
quality so who is the judge of that like how do you
know if this is a good quality thing because you said it doesn’t necessarily matter if you have a large audience so
we’re not judge I would say like we’re not the the quality police I think you
know the market will decide um and I think like if it sells well
we’ll do it again or or like yeah how yeah I think yeah so I
mean as a seller you are you’re in control of your channel and your content
and but also you know you’re a business person and so what we tend to see what
we tend to see is that if one person does something and it works really well
within a few days it permeates through the system because everyone’s paying attention to what’s
going on um and I think similarly if someone does something and it doesn’t work you’re not
going to see a lot of it because clearly you know it wasn’t an effective strategy
okay so I think I’m realizing my more of what I don’t understand about what not
so it sounds like on the platform and you mentioned this there’s the two ways to sell and so your watch anyone can go
and sell on platform a and then there’s the featured people and so you’re
watching who’s doing well on platform a and then they’re invited to come and do option b which is no so it’s one
platform um but we do have like we’ll have events that we are more curated so for example
you know we may have a content creator from YouTube that is coming on to do a
tutorial and as part of that you know whatever the tutorial the topic of that tutorial is we’ll find some we’ll find
other sellers that are doing similar things and create what we call a rate like what gets called a raid trade so you know the
very popular content creator brings In Their audience from outside and we say
oh you know welcome to the platform here’s the content you came in for but oh by the way you know they have five
more sellers like this one afterwards and so getting pulled into those featured events tends to be you know a
is it relevant and B like you know are you doing things that we know work
um and it’s not even really a measure of quality it’s a measure of Effectiveness like we if you upload photos there is a
much likely chat like more likely chance that you will sell your items and yes so tell us more what else Works tell
us all the tricks of the trade yes uh no I mean of course you know the marketplace evolves we’re always adding
new features so things will change over time actually even this is actually very relevant but even just yesterday we
released a feature where sellers can get tipped um and that’s like really exciting
people it’s something our users have been asking for for ages and I think it’s extremely relevant in this industry
um because people you know are craving tutorials [Music] um
and I think you know makers your teachers um want to make sure they want to be
compensated for that um as they should be you know you should you you’re giving something away and I
think are allowing our users to show that they’re valuing the content
um and people have sort of been doing it in unofficial ways you know people may
bid up the price of an item as a thank you for um to a seller so it’s kind of
like an unofficial tip like I’m just gonna pay you more for this item but now we’ve created that as an official
feature so I’m intrigued yeah let’s say there’s someone who’s been on YouTube or no
let’s let’s even go back further there’s someone who’s thinking I should start a YouTube channel
could this be a different platform like if they create a tutorial would it live there forever
it does we have a CIS we have a like a feature right now called video on demand
where essentially you can opt into having your live streams recorded and then people can go watch them
um I would say it works best if you’re doing something where you’re selling
like a kit or something maybe you’re doing a demo and there’s also a you know an Associated kit with it yeah because
that way you can say oh you know I’m gonna show you the product I’m going to show you how it works and by the way if
you buy it you can come back and watch me you know free watch this after um because the thing that really sets us
apart from the other video platforms is that Commerce is fully integrated a buyer has a profile they enter their
credit card one time they enter their address one time maybe twice if they’re sending a gift
um but it’s so easy you can buy literally by moving your thumb half an
inch across the screen okay we actually need that it used to just be like you literally touched a button and like it
was almost too easy to buy so uh we made it like like wait a minute I’m gonna swipe for like I didn’t mean to do that
yeah I do I do oh that’s funny so okay and then you had mentioned something
about education which makes me wonder when someone’s selling can they sell you
mentioned a PDF can they sell paper physical products can they sell it does it have to be a product that is
shippable or deliverable or can it be join me for this course you know
yeah so I would say you can pretty much sell anything and then there’s like
there’s what you can do and then there’s what’s like productized and optimized so PDFs as a great example and we are we
have this in beta right now so right now you can sell a PDF and it will
but you know it won’t automatically send to the user so there’s just like a little bit more work involved but that
said hopefully by the time you know if anyone’s listening to this in a few months uh you know this product will actually exist because we are a tech
company and we’re constantly you know investing in new features similarly with like a course like you could sell
tickets to a course it just we just won’t automatically fulfill it in that way
um but it’s it’s definitely doable um you know if you think about kind of like what’s required to sell things it’s
payment processing and you know for physical Goods shipping and that’s all
built in and then as we get into different like variations of products we will be able to offer other you know
other ways to sell to we do have a feature we’re called a private screen so
we had actually um a Woman by the name of so Becca or her name is actually just Becca but she
goes by so Becca on YouTube and she has a membership program and she was doing a fabric sale and she
was like well I really want to give my members first dibs so she hosted before
she did her you know public sale for everyone she hosted a private stream just for the members uh and it was like
a really small you know a small audience I think she had like 40 people in the
Stream half of them made purchases um so really high like incredibly High
conversion they had a blast they all knew each other they were in the chat you know just having like a great time
um and like that kind of that is available as a feature that’s built in so for that would you do you send like a
private link invitation to exactly certain people okay exactly this is my
mind is going behind the scenes you cannot tell how much is going through my brain right now of like oh my gosh I’m
very excited about this platform because it offers so much potential for sellers
you know like it’s very exciting I think it’s a really exciting place to
build a business not only because of the features but also just because of the connection that you can make with your
customers yeah and it’s doing some marketing for us so like I can bring my
audience but you’re also gonna bring me some new people which is very valuable yeah I mean if everyone brings even just
five people and like five people is not that many if everyone brings their mom like that
alone would be a massive Community everyone just brought their mom I’m very excited about this potential so
I am curious if I go on and I don’t know sell a PDF
or a paper a pattern quilt pattern do I then get the email addresses of the
people for me like that’s very valuable or do I or not uh so not nor so normally
no um because they haven’t um necessary like they haven’t opted into
like marketing from from people I think it’s an interesting question because it’s something that like we may I can
see that being obviously very high value um to what I would say is we do have
like we a lot of people will say like hey you know here I am and whatnot come
follow me on Instagram yeah you know sign up for my newsletter um and so I’ve definitely if I look at
like who is following some of the sellers who like I see people whose names I recommend like I recognize just
because I know them from the platform and so there’s definitely a lot of people wanting to connect with each
other not just on whatnot although obviously you know there’s a lot of great ways to connect on whatnot as well
so for someone who is selling what obviously this is a business for you
guys as well so what kind of profit margin um and and for my listeners I just want
to point out it’s still worth it well depending on the profit margin is if it’s like 100 obviously not worth it but
um so yeah what’s what’s the profit margin that you guys keep yeah so I mean I
think it’s we think it’s a commission so we’re a Marketplace we’re not a retailer so we are not buying your patterns and
reselling them on your behalf you know at a markup you are the seller you are the merchant you set the prices
um and you you know based on kind of what you you want your margin to be and then we have a what I believe to be a
very competitive commission um it’s you know I don’t we don’t talk
publicly about exactly what that number is but I will say it’s very competitive in the industry and relative to other
marketplaces um and then we also have Payment Processing which you know you can’t really avoid um and
it’s the the small praise to pay for being able to have buyers check out with the swipe of a finger right thank you
thank you thanks to credit cards I know right right which side note I did have
someone send me an invoice the other day and I went to go pay it and they had me pay the difference of that fee and I was
both appalled and like wait a minute I can do that I can make other people pay that I think PayPal lets you do that
so everyone sets like as the seller you set your prices and like if you want to
factor in the payment processing by marking your prices up by you know right yeah it’s like three percent whatever
you know whatever that number is and like that you should do that um and that’s same with shipping we have
our shipping is fully built into the system so we essentially Auto populate
like what the cost of shipping will be we have extremely competitive rates with
um our friends that the US Postal Service um and we you know the buyer the default
is that the buyer pays it and then it gets you know if you buy multiple things from a seller over the perfect per over
alive like the shipping is all bundled together encouraging people to buy more things from you know for each person
yeah okay but we’re introducing new features that will allow the seller to
kind of if they’d prefer to you know if they’d prefer to offer free shipping
and you know charge higher you know make up for it but you know with their margin in other ways like that is going to be
available to them oh soon so if you do the shipping like I’m assuming then how
this would look technically I would tell you how much something weighs and what the box measurements would be and then
you create a shipping label and email it to the seller and they print it is that right it’s we have it’s on our platform
so you would just go in and generate and you it’s really just based on USPS cares about weight um and then they okay
what’s really cool and especially in you fabric if anyone is selling fabric flat
rate boxes are going to be coming soon oh nice you can put a lot of a lot of heavy Fabric in a flat rate box
yes you gotta we all know people who shipped fabric you are like fitting everything in there and just
like squeezing it and taping it and yeah so yes we do know that so profit margins
then it’s I’m assuming that that’s like individual basis you talk about it might
be a different percentage based on different things or so we have
um we have like a standard a standard commission so okay um it’s very it’s competitive
um and then I would say like in terms of what like the seller’s margin is is based on you know what are your costs
and yeah what are you you know what are you charging and I think I mean as you know if you’re selling digital patterns
high margin you know of course right yeah once you make back the the time you spent exactly creating the pattern yeah
all the things that go into it then it’s just net profit so I love that so then
I’m curious for myself included since I am going to be going live with Liza
Taylor in June which I am curious if you can share more about that event in a minute but
um what does this look like is it just gonna be me with my camera whether
that’s my phone or my computer and I’m gonna be you know what kind of equipment do I need to go live yeah so I think I
always say unless you’ve been actively doing you know live streaming or video
content on other platforms that start with and like you have another setup that you know works and you really like
your phone okay and that’s totally fine I stream from my phone
um I think we have you know like when we bring on YouTubers they always have like these really sophisticated setups and I’m like very impressed by it you know
like their head is in the corner and they’re showing multiple screens that’s great that is available to you if you
you know are familiar with those platforms we do have Integrations with OBS and things that you know I didn’t
even know about I know I’m like OBS I’m envious in the best way of all of that stuff I wish I could snap my fingers and
like oh I have that you know but you really don’t need it um because most people are watching on their phones and
so vertical you know camera from your phone is actually perfect okay good
lighting obviously is is helpful I you know I got a ring light off of Amazon yeah for 15
um and you know I think also just especially depending on like if you’re selling something you know I think we
all know like not in the handmade world like you want to be able to really show off the goods um so you want to have good lighting you
want to be able to kind of get close to the camera um I love like I personally love watching a split screen because I like
to see the person and also the product uh but that’s like again very easy to do
how do you need to have two phones or how how does one do that I feel very
naive that I’m asking this but there we are I don’t like I don’t want to misspeak until and say exactly because
we have like a detailed FAQ that probably that will explain this much but much better than icon
um but yeah for split screen you would I think you can do front and back actually so you don’t even need two phones uh you
just need to be set up at like an optimal way so that you have things on the front in the back I feel so like out
of my league right now why do I feel so good but you know I have to be you don’t have to be like a phone is like what
you’re doing right now a phone a computer is totally sufficient okay and
that’s sort of what I was saying before is it’s very because it’s live it doesn’t need to be
produced okay it doesn’t have to be scary or you know and I think the more
we always say like do it for when we when we onboard a new seller we always encourage them to kind of give it a few
months um try it out see what works for you the same thing isn’t going to work for
everyone that works for one person um and you know that’s like also kind of
what makes it special is that everyone’s bringing something unique and different to the platform which is why people keep
coming back I love it so is it unlimited anyone who wants can go and open up a profile and
start selling on whatnot so you do need to apply to go live um so that is and that everyone can make
it up an account everyone can and should make an account um you’ll have a link where you’ll be able
to give your your audience uh some money to spend on the app as well okay so
everyone should come should definitely do that uh and also even if you’re planning to sell I think coming in and
just seeing the app and like getting to know the existing sellers is a great way to get started
um and then we have an application process but you know we we also have a referral program so
you’ll you will have a seller referral link and anyone who uses your link will kind of go to the top of the pile from a
from an application perspective because we love referrals referrals are you know
somebody has recommended that you would be good to the platform and so we’re
we’re pretty quick at reviewing applications it takes one to two days um and then we have an onboarding
process which is you know me or one of my colleagues explaining how everything works making sure you feel confident and
ready to go um and then once that happens you can go live as often as you want and there’s
there’s no cost to go live we only um we only make money when you sell
items so mutually incentivized to uh to grow your sales is it weird when you talk about like
when you refer someone that goes to the top of the list it instantly makes me feel like I need to be very particular
with who I refer because I don’t want to tarnish my name so that you’re like oh that’s from Elizabeth hers aren’t that
good no no no no no no uh and I think also you know
no I would don’t don’t feel don’t feel like that you can I think anyone who
I think the other thing like we’re a new platform we don’t know what’s gonna work and so you know the best sellers are not
the ones who necessarily have the best applications um okay I would say the best sellers are
the ones who come in and are really excited to
you know spend time on the platform and invest in building their business um we had we had a seller come to talk
to our team a few weeks ago and she’s you know been on the platform I think about a year which is you know has
thousands of followers and she was like oh you know I applied three times
really somehow she fell through the cracks and now she’s one you know she’s a great seller she’s an advocate for the
platform um she’s really popular and you know can you share who it is now I’m like I gotta
go check this person out I think her name is moms and crumbs
um she sells in the women’s fashion category like she sells her own things or she’s
reselling or she’s reselling so there’s a big uh part of the there’s a big part of the app around Fashion resale I just
want to go shopping so bad right now everything you mentioned I’m like I don’t want to buy it
yeah there’s it’s really like fun the things you can buy and I I’m actually more you can’t you’ll be
able to see this but I’m wearing a necklace that I bought on on whatnot right now and I’ve gotten really into handmade jewelry I like it I love that I
can you know bring that to work and kind of showcase you know a support the
community and the amazing makers in the community but also you know I get so
many compliments when I wear the earrings that I bought or whatnot and you know being able to kind of go into
that person’s stream and tell her that um you know I think it’s sort of like going to a craft fair except that you
can find the person again you know yes I bought earrings at a craft fair you know
I may get a ton of compliments and you know they’re not going to be at the same craft fair next week necessarily this is
such a good point because I’ve gone to those craft bears and some of those people I really connect with in their Booth you know and then they’re gone and
I’m like well you know that was cool but this it’s like you have a relationship and you can see them again and again
yeah and I can you know now whenever she goes live I want to go say hi and you
know see what she has that’s new uh and you know support her and kind of she knows you
know we now know each other and I don’t have to travel in person to this oh now that’s the other thing very
easy to do it I mean it’s it’s I think we went to we went to qualcon um a few months back and I was sort of
feeling like my vision for the quilting and sewing part of the app is that it feels like quilt con all the time you
know just like so cool people that are excited about the craft
have a lot in common maybe you know interested in you know maybe spending some money or even just
seeing kind of what’s available what’s out there and you know every Booth had something different and it just like
that exciting kind of like the energy of that uh you know really bringing people
together that’s what this like that’s what what not feels like when when it really starts to take off in a community
okay so now that’s got me thinking and I’m curious if you can tell me when I’m thinking of quilt con there are certain
booths that draw me in just visually are there certain people when they go live that they have an amazing backdrop and
that does better like does do their sales do better so a lot of people a lot of people do
um I always love you know I mean quilting I always like a nice quilt hanging behind you
um I think actually my one seller I’ll just give a shout out to her name is quarter
of Life leave Caitlin and she’s really into rainbows and so she’s often standing in front of her stash
um and it’s like beautifully color according yeah I mean I’d love to see that yeah
it’s just I mean yeah all the honestly there’s like most of the the really like the good fabric sellers just have
beautiful backdrops because they’re streaming from their craft room and yeah you know it looks it looks beautiful
because they want to surround themselves with beautiful things yep I mean
app you don’t necessarily like if you go to the home page and you sort of see what’s happening what’s live you see
what’s what we call a trailer photo and so everyone can upload a like a photo to highlight their sale and so people get
really creative with canva um you know putting up a cool picture of what you have to sell you know a little
text on it so people have an idea of what you know what you have going on and then you can also upload a video so
before your sale starts people can click into and see the video see what you have
like on offer um and get excited about the sale and then once the show is live as you’re
scrolling in the app you can actually see like a little like it will essentially Auto apply in
the feed so you can see without even clicking into it what what’s happening in the sale and decide if you want to
click in man my mind is going with so many ideas right now so this is very exciting for
me and how long when somebody goes live how long are how long does that last
and is it up for like I just want to be on for 10 minutes or you have a 45 minute slot type of a thing it’s not
slots because it’s really we do do like when we do an event um when we do a train we’ll like have people sign up for
slots just because then we can ensure that you know the the trade keeps moving but if someone is you know just picking
their own schedule then they are you know you can go live for whenever you want for hustle however long you want
um so we had I always like to tell this story because I think it’s funny I did not encourage everyone to do this so we had one guy who
have so much fabric to sell that he was like I’m gonna do a 12-hour fabric show and he literally was live for 12 hours
oh tell me he was like I’m eating something now or like I need to go to the bathroom like what did he do I
assume you took bathroom breaks all 12 hours
but it was called like his it was called the 12 hour fabric show and like he did
I mean it was a he made a lot of money in 12 hours uh it was a big sale I would say like
not like I do not encourage everyone to do that but I didn’t get it right you know obviously that’s one extreme and
then you have you know people who are you know I’m just gonna pop up and you know go live say hi to people if you go
out in the morning there’s always a lot of people who are not necessarily even doing sales they’re doing like just chat
with me like sit and have coffee with me you know because it’s a community it’s
you know people wanna be with their community yeah so do you get a notification is
there an app for what not yes and do you get notifications like so and so is on
right now or so and so yeah so when you so basically the way it works is you
download you tell us what you’re interested in maybe you check out a few shows and then you’ll start to get you
get notifications based on your viewing history so like occasional notifications that we you know think might be relevant
to you um and then you could you’ll also get notifications based on sellers you follow so if you know let’s say you went
live you offered a giveaway if people had to follow you to enter the giveaway they’re now your followers and you go
live and um I think they just changed exactly how this works but most of the time you know
you’ll you’ll go live some I see apps like notifications on my app my app all the time and it’s like you know Quilters
candy is live right now with XYZ show um and then I’m like oh you know actually I do want to see that wasn’t I
wasn’t planning on opening the app but right I guess I’ll just check that out and does it send does it send an email
like Quilters candy will go live tomorrow or I don’t know letting people know if
they’re following somebody that it not automatically we do we do like curated
marketing emails uh and kind of depending on the category like what what
are the Cadence is and those will generally go out to people that have you know watched in the category or bought
in the category or have said they like that seller and all of that is because it’s curated it’s kind of it’s not
autobat like that’s not there’s not like the necessarily specific logic to that um so there’s there’s op there’s a lot
of different ways to kind of get the word out we also have an Instagram handle um okay shout out people that are going
live so right now it’s dependent on our on our end telling our people like hey
come and check out which then incentivizes let’s say me to go and release something brand new or do a
flash sale something you can’t get anywhere else so that they go yeah yes I think what you know initially
getting people from outside it’s always good to give people a reason to tune in
yeah and I think that’s true for any content that is out there on the
internet you know you want to make it compelling um definitely you know people love an
exclusive I I would love to see a world where the place that you go when you are
releasing your new quilt pattern is what not yep um because you know Instagram is
great for showing finished products and making beautiful pictures it’s not great for sales let’s be honest
it’s not great for selling um and you know listen I love Instagram we have we have an Instagram handle too
I think it’s a beautiful a beautiful place especially if you’re following a lot of the people that we follow
for selling and the great thing is and it’s not as interactive so you’re right
you know if you you know have a pattern sale you
know a pattern really is coming up like you know we had we actually had someone we had a woman named Claudia Porter she
she does patterns for Island batik she did a exclusive pattern release only I
whatnot and you know leading up to it you know she instead of posting pictures of the actual pattern she posted you
know teasers um and then the day of she changed the photo into what the actual pattern was
fun so intriguing and it also highly benefits the community like
I am more benefited by bringing my friends on and having their audience come on to whatnot so that your people
are going to be seeing that I’m selling something so it really is that yeah Rising tide you know lists all votes
yeah what’s really cool is that something that is you that doesn’t really exist on
you know other platforms is the idea that you really can kind of curate a channel if you want like if you if you
said you know what let’s say Wednesdays are you know pattern release Wednesdays we would think of a much better name
much better name than that but uh let’s just say you know you had five people and you guys could plan
train where you know everyone goes from one to the next to see all the different
all the different things that are available um from you know a community of Sellers
and we see sellers doing this all the time organically a few weeks ago there was an event halfway to Halloween
and it was a bunch of people you know Crafters from all sorts of all different mediums selling Halloween themed crafts
in in May oh yeah yeah and it was hugely
successful yeah you know I don’t know that I would have known that it was going to be successful um but they’re the community and they
know it best well and speaking again to let’s just the quilt pattern launch on Instagram
even if you have a reel it’s stale you know like here I’m talking I’m able to
anytime you’re able to interact and engage and show something your sales
will be better because I even think as a customer if someone’s showing you a photo of a product you’re like but if
you can see it and like you’re yeah I don’t know it’s just a better sale like conversion as a result is very high
because not only just you know view of the product able to ask questions also I think just
like you’re you’re literally talking to a person they can see you know they see you join the room they know you’re there
um and I think you know just wanting to kind of support people who you know um or who you have interacted with
um is really is really special in meaningful so could a person I’m trying to think how this would work because I do have
some courses and a membership can you sell those kinds of things and if so do
you then take a percentage of that initial sale or an ongoing if it’s like a member so we don’t currently have like
a subscription product um so like the idea of a membership being something that is charged on a
regular basis I know it’s something that people have asked for and I know that it’s something that’s very relevant in
this community um and you know this is not the only activity that’s relevant in and I think
you know the way we think about our product roadmap is we listen to users and we make what we build what what is
relevant to them so definitely something that is on our like
on our minds I guess as we think about a future roadmap it doesn’t exist today I think in terms of courses I think I
think I maybe I said this earlier but we you can sell you know you can essentially sell kind of like a ticket
to to get the to get access to the course okay yeah my brain I just I need to like
go process all the ideas but I did want to talk a little bit so as I mentioned
Liza Taylor and I will be coming out I guess the term is a train is that right yeah well we’re calling that so the
upcoming event we’re having a we’re calling it a shop hop although it’s really for you know it doesn’t have to be you don’t have to
be like a brick and mortar shop necessarily to participate um but the idea being it’s a three-night
event with trains on each night um mingled with you know some exclusive
contents um you know some celebrity guests um like yourself and that’s very
flattering some some shops that are you know everyone’s gonna kind of have different different products available
um and this is an event we’re planning this this specific event for the first week in June but we do this literally
every week we have a different kind of an event with a different theme sort of based on what the community is asking
for and you know what kinds of they really just even ideas that sellers have on their own
that’s
