Is Handmade dying?
I'm not talking about sales specifically, while slow my sales have remained steady, but I'm talking about this platform in general. It seems like Amazon is taking steps to "quiet quitting" Handmade. I've had a lot of thoughts lately but I'm finally finding the time to put it all out and just ask if this is going to continue to be a viable platform, and if not what we can do to be prepared?
One time on Prime Day in 2021 Amazon promoted Handmade and my coupon sale resulted in 30 items sold in a 2 day period. This latest coupon party that lasted a whole week, I sold 6 items. I normally sell 1 item a day, so most likely these people were already buying my items anyway, not because they saw it on sale.
The latest "coupon party" seems like amazon forgot to send out the invitations, but it really got me thinking. This has been an underlining theme for the past few black friday/prime day sales, I get it Amazon doesn't want to show off Handmade on it homepage, but it still has many other tools at its disposal it can use to promote Handmade.
Amazon Handmade has an Instagram account for social media (630k follower) Why are things like Prime Day and Coupon Party not advertised on it? Why are handmade vendors so rarely posted about on it? The last 5 posts were June 7th, May 12th, May 3rd, March 14, March 13...now you go a bit further back and it seems like back in March Amazon Handmade was posting on Instagram at least once a week...so what has happened?
Taking a look at Amazon Handmade's facebook page...which has 1.7million likes....the last time they posted was January 25th!
Amazon's main competition Etsy is posting on social media daily. They are also sending out daily emails curating different finds. Why does Amazon Handmade not do this?
Handmade can't even seem to send out emails to it's own sellers regarding changes, or even post threads about it. Most of what I've figured out lately is because I am putting bits and pieces together from different comments or different forums.
Like the whole brand waiver thing. It was never really announced that this program went away. I never paid attention because I had my brand waiver and it didn't effect me...I read it in a comment somewhere because someone else asked and some mod somewhere said it was discontinued. Now it got me thinking lately....if the brand waiver is discontinued and all the old store URL pages were removed.....what does anyone new coming in to Handmade get? Do they really not get a store page at all? That's crazy!
This new thing now, where it's a "multi year" project to move everything from Handmade into Standard categories. That seem so suspicious to me as well. It makes no sense why it can't be an automatic process just to change a category. It also makes no sense as we have seen threads in the past where people have seen their items be moved out of handmade and then are no longer found in handmade. So it does seem very odd to me when Amazon says that things will still be found in Handmade after being moved to Standard. But it also gives amazon a great opportunity to just get rid of Handmade since everything should now be found in Standard.
I have to wonder if Amazon's insistence of doing everything manually is just to actually see how many truly handmade vendors are left on this platform? We can already tell that the top sellers pages in Amazon Handmade are filled with imports. As much as we don't like competing with imports....the money amazon makes with these import vendors being on Handmade is probably what has carried Handmade this far. The handmade forum only has 4,000 people registered. I don't know if that is 4,000 people who chose to be a part of the new forums, or if that is the total amount of Handmade sellers they have left? Either way with 4,000 people registered, this forum only seems to have maybe a dozen of us who actually post in it?
It's a double edge sword to ask they get rid of all the imports, and realize there might only be a handful of us left, at what point to they decide it's worth the money to invest in the platform? There doesn't seem to be much money that Amazon is throwing towards handmade anymore.
Remember Amazon's Handmade 5th birthday? In 2020 Amazon handmade had a contest where 5 sellers would win $15,000 each. For Amazon Handmade's 7th birthday, 7 artisans got $70 gift cards. Should I mention that birthday #8 should be right around the corner?
Can someone chime in and tell me what the future of Handmade is? I'm sure the Mods will pass my concerns onto the Handmade team as always...but maybe they could come back here, or send out an email or something that outlines the future of Handmade?
31 replies
Seller_4b9oWTPkLmX64
I think you hit it. They didn't do what they promised us and are just quietly killing us off.
Seller_qUdoi6XLICFHs
I agree, I think we lost (or are losing) Amazons focus and with that, the uniqueness and sense of community we once had.
In the beginning, Amazon wanted something to compete against Etsy. We became that cute puppy - but like puppies, we grew up. Now they don't know what to do with us. We're not puppy-cute anymore , we use more resources, and ask for more of their time.
Unfortunately, what Handmade contributes to Amazon's bottom-line could be considered a rounding error. For Etsy, I think artisans are slightly closer to their core business so they try a little bit harder.
In summary, we are no longer cute and Amazon is seemingly getting tired of us.
um... coupon party? never heard of that... guess they posted that on their Facebook group. Which goes back to a previous post - Amazon should make a dedicated space here - on Amazon - to communicate to us. And make that space pinable on/to my dashboard.
Seller_gwzuNYC3ogYNo
Not to mention that the only way to find this "Celebration" was to look on the Artisan Advantage facebook page. Being that that facebook page Name contains neither "Amazon" or "Handmade", I doubt many people even follow the page, let alone remember it's name once they've followed it.
Seller_MoGbTyff168AW
Yep, they have killed our visibility, My sales are down 60% from last year. All they want is for you to spend money on advertising with no results. I hope and pray someone figures this out before I am forced out of business.
Seller_2azHBWt7FzGTG
You are not wrong in your thinking! Another handmade seller @Seller_MoGbTyff168AW also posted the sudden drastic death in sales of their business as well! They pinpoint it to June as do I. I detailed on that post what I have been seeing as well. I was even messaging back and forth with a member of Handmade Mangement team about it.
Seller_xOjrzfzAmBZik
The previous platform was good. Amazon decided to create a new forum platform with different rules that upset a lot of regular posters. I also feel that the new forum platform is not very good compared to the first two forum platforms. Many Handmade sellers including the most experienced posters actually did what they said they would do and left. This is evident in the very low participation in the current Handmade forum.
As far as selling, I think Amazon just makes it difficult with many changes making more work for the sellers. I used to hear a lot about massive sudden sales drops from all different levels of sellers. I experienced this one year and never recovered.
You will know when Amazon wants to get rid of Handmade sellers when they decide to charge Handmade sellers a monthly fee, which would destroy most sellers.
Seller_PLoLYOEcibF06
I too feel like they are forcing me out of Handmade. I returned from vacation a week ago and I am paying for advertising and I offer free shipping yet I have not received any sales. I have complied with all their rules yet I am not getting any sales. I am not happy.
Seller_xouAbPXPlUfbu
You did not read this right. They are not moving HM items to the general categories, they are ADDING those general categories.
All items will remain in Handmade AND they will show up under the main catalog categories.
This is a GOOD thing giving us far more visibility than in the past.
priscilla_amazon
Hey @Seller_Gd8HNmQJSr4l8and all the sellers that have commented on this thread sharing your concerns and observations.
We hear you, and definitely take these to heart. First off, let us assure that Handmade is not dying, and we are not quietly quitting. Amazon continues to invest in Handmade to improve the customer and selling partner experience.
We're currently working with the Handmade Business team on an official statement that will address the main comments and concerns that the community has expressed lately. We appreciate your patience!
Seller_MxyR30NXlGuuX
I can't speak for anyone else, my sales are 90% below what they were before the pandemic. Every time I get my sales up, i feel like something slaps me down.
