Amazon Is Giving Etsy a Run for Their Money  

By Marie Lodi  |  October 9, 2015 | 1:30am
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Now you can get hand-poured, organic soy candles at the same place you lazily order toilet paper with two-day shipping and marathon episodes of Transparent. Online retail giant Amazon is entering the world of indie goods with a new subdivision called Handmade.

According to USA Today, Handmade will launch with over 80,000 items from the United States and around the world. Each section in the new store will feature photos, information and sometimes video of the artist and their work. The new site will put them in direct competition with Etsy, who was criticized in 2014 when they changed their policy to allow vendors to use third-party manufacturers. For sellers who wanted to depart the marketplace after the update, alternative places to peddle their goods were limited.

In June of this year, Etsy made a big change to their policies again, by banning the sales of metaphysical services. While there doesn’t seem to be any information specifying whether or not Amazon will allow the sales of spells and hexes, the Handmade FAQ says it is currently open to jewelry, home products, party supplies and stationery, and promises to expand its categories in the future.

To become a Handmade vendor, sellers must submit an application with information about the items and their production process. “From the point of application, it takes almost four weeks to be vetted by them,” Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, told USA Today. Amazon also discovered many of their Handmade vendors at craft fairs.

As for being able to get some of those fine artisanal goods with your Prime subscription, options are limited, but there are currently more than 600 items available for two-day shipping. I wouldn’t mind being able to order a crude cross-stitch along with some fruit fly traps.

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Image via Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.

 
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