Business Matters - Marketplaces - Zibbet

Zibbet is a relatively new artisan marketplace (the name Zibbet comes from the word 'exhibit'!). It only started in February this year and is still in Beta phase. There was a lot of publicity about it's opening - but the start was then delayed, and then delayed, and then delayed.....

My friend Fabienne from Turkey told me about the site. She was quite enthusiastic about all the run up to the opening and I too was looking forward to seeing somewhere new and what they would offer. We exchanged quite a few emails about it.....but I have to say that out excitement has abated somewhat since it started!

Zibbet was created by two guys from Sydney, Australia. It makes no charges for an artist to open a store, no listing fees and then charges 7.5% commission for any items that you sell. There is no maximum on the number of items you can list.

You then have the option to pay a small fee ($1-2) to show pieces in the showroom, to increase your exposure.

The whole look of Zibbet is clean, open and quite minimalist - quite different from a lot of the other marketplaces. As it has turned out, in my opinion, it seems to be a popular site for buying and selling paintings and prints and the like. That seems to be the most common type of seller on there - so maybe it will develop into that niche....a bit like Boundless gallery?.

They have had a few problems with scams - ie people trying to "purchase" things out of the system but really trying to scam the artists and not pay anything. That's unfortunate when a marketplace is so new.

The other problem with the site is that it is so new and thus doesn't get that many visitors....yet... But who knows - maybe that will change. Go take a look.

Here's a snapshot of Fabienne's store there - Easterya

Let me know what you think.