Would you consider an Etsy/handmade/selling section?

I can see the value of a site that promoted high qualify female run businesses.. but it’s a very different business to mumsnet. It’s a lot to have to get involved in disputes

There is a good website here in Finland - https://thefinlandshop.com/. Everything is handmade and can be trusted and verified with the made in Finland seal. It's maybe an idea for someone to step up to the Etsy giants for women in the UK?? I would love to start something like this! I've totally had enough of temu it's makes me sick how they can sell so cheaply!

I also love the sound of this! I do think moderating it will be hard though. There will be so many non hand made sellers trying their luck plus all those " I can get you many more sales" people plying their trade!. For genuinely hand made products that take hours, days, weeks to make, 'many more sales' wouldn't be workable!

Would we include unwanted craft supplies? Our genuine surplus?

Love this idea

@IncompleteSenten

As a buyer I'd love Genuine Posters to be able to link to their small businesses on threads. I'd also like them to have a place to talk about their small businesses/other platforms such as Etsy (great when it started, utter crap now.

you sound lively & if everyone else was I can see it working, but in the real world, not so much (sorry). I think there's just so much moderation required, it's not feasible.

id love sellers to link to their Etsy or website whatever, as I'd love to support them.

And it would be a completely different business from running a forum alongside a bit of sponsored content.

If Mumsnet had their own version of Etsy where they made sure it wasn't full of tat from drop shippers etc.., I'd be interested.

I'd love to see a pro women company set up a hub for genuinely hand crafted items from female owned small businesses.
That would be the USP for me & I'd trust the Mumsnet brand to bring it.

If it's just a bunch of links to Etsy or elsewhere, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

Or at least, the shop name and location, if not the actual name.

The seller. People won't buy from an anonymous person.

How do you mean? Who would be using their real name?

People would be far less likely to comment adversely if real names were used.

It couldn't be anonymous, as people won't buy from a seller without knowing their name and approximate location.
Otherwise you could end up with a UK buyer unwittingly buying from other far off countries.

Well, OP suggested Premium membership. Which is not a paid area.

I guess I'm just trying to save everyone a bit of trouble, by pointing out the problems with the idea. I've seen things like this go wrong before. Just like Etsy has.

OP seems lovely when she says this:

Re sabotaging other shops first of all I would hope people would be more grown up than that! And embrace the idea of a mutually beneficial and supportive community.

But have you actually been on the internet, OP? Or even in AIBU?!

I buy a lot on Etsy but I don't think Mumsnet is quite the right forum for this sort of promotion. It would be hard to monitor. There are plenty of other places where sellers can advertise their shops.

Did you even read the first post? It clearly suggests a paid area. MNHQ will know whether a person is a regular MNer when they "apply" for permission to post.

You seem strangely aggressive in your opposition.

So it would be a paid area? Would you pay per post, or per account? How would anyone prove they were a "proper" MNer?

Your problem is - who polices it. Who decides what's handmade or tasteful enough to be allowed in?

And don't fool yourself that a load of trans badges and merch etc won't start to be posted. There's a lot of that on Etsy.

I would like this. I haven't used my Etsy shop for a few years now, as their definition of 'handmade' became very elastic.

It might inspire me to continue making my products.

It would need to be carefully managed, to make sure that no mass produced products are listed.

It could be exactly what Etsy started out to be.

Very interesting idea - I'd sign up

I’d like it as a buyer but only if it were actual homemade things by Mumsnetters, not any mlm ‘businesses’ or those horrible word/phrase stickers that appear on everything in Etsy. If there was a way to police it so those weren’t allowed then great, otherwise no.

There are already topic(s) where people pay to post there.