The Meaning of Making: Mixing Craft and Industrial Processes in Social E-commerce

The Meaning of Making:

Mixing Craft and Industrial Processes

in Social E-commerce

look for

actual stitches

A tentative hypothesis for social E-commerce

Etsy Home Page

Tagging and materials

Examination of 10,000 transactions

Labour, work and hours

• Custom items defined for specific buyers

• e.g. "Custom order for jeanie005 - Christmas Tree Skirt in Burlap with Red Accent - 63"

• Or for Blythe - a carousel dress

• Tagging also proves revealing for the type of item and the materials used

• "supplies" used as a tag in 1/3 of the 10,000 transactions

• "cotton" and "fabric" also popular but context varies

• No reference to "labour", "labor", "work" or "hours"

• The missing element in transactions

• Cannot be identified within prices

• Some items are for specific recipient

• Some items appear to be display only

• How to understand this invisible element of social e-commerce?

E-commerce

E-commerce

Social

Frances Bell @francesbell and Gordon Fletcher @gordonfletcher

University of Salford

Hand-knitted garments

Social

E-commerce

• Etsy canonical structure is systematic and visible

• Transactions, sellers, items, likes, favourites

• Key gap in this transparency of data - buyers

• But some hints are evident

Ebay - a (practically) universal market place

Ravelry community:

• focused on knitting and crochet

• not focused on commerce

Ravelry showcases Etsy shops

Value chains and supply chains

Blurring of customer and suppliers

Blurring of personal value and organisational value

Market value approaches an arbitrary value

Identification of what customer needs are being met

Customer is the source of value

Display and comment may already satisfy some of these needs

An effective supply chain is an integrative attempt to

create efficiency from the supplier to the customer (and hence maximise benefits to customer and supplier)

An effective value chain satisfies the needs of a customer and brings financial benefit to the supplier

• Humphreys(2009) cites yarn manufacturer 'presence' on Ravelry (http://eprints.qut.edu.au/26455/1/26455.pdf).

• This contrasts with knitted items and resellers of manufactured items not manufacturers present on Etsy.com

• Acknowledged that difficult for crafters to make money on Etsy.com since Etsy tends to drive down prices - posited as "low-cost entry point into the marketplace" http://p2pfoundation.net/Etsy_-_Business_Model

• But contrast with Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty

Etsy represents an attempt at bringing together of the

integrative demands of efficient supply chains with the

need to create value in the eye of the customer

Etsy (from Etsy's perspective) is an efficient supply chain (as the cost of supply and labour is borne elsewhere - although the position as an intermediary should be considered) and a effective value chain as multiple needs are satisfied (the social of social e-commerce)

Etsy's definition

Last Words

What is Etsy?

(cc) image by anemoneprojectors on Flickr

5+7=

Baby sets in particular are normally made of

bamboo wool and other natural fibres.

These don't come cheap, I charge pennies per hour for my time so when someone let's me down it always costs me money!

http://www.facebook.com/Lollytops

"Handmade items must be created by the seller operating the Etsy shop (or a member of that shop). "

Quote from RHLS founders

"RHLS started in Olympia WA in 2005 with Sarah and myself sewing each piece ourselves! We have been steadily growing year by year. By 2008 we relocated to Brooklyn NY and in 2010, we were able to step back from sewing everything ourselves and hired local manufacturers to take over production."

http://smallknot.com/rhls

A business hub - an electronic mall?

An anti-showroom?

An intermediary?

An aggregator of exploited labour?

An advertising network?

The company as product?

A gift network?

Etsy's reintermediation atypical of Ecommerce ?????

ads only to other Etsy shops, all transactions within Etsy

Ostensibly a social marketplace but relatively closed and socialisation features limited but benefits from links to Facebook and Pinterest

Has 38 million monthly visitors http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/03/01/pinterest-pins-business-etsy-and-kate-spade

Good for buyers but what about sellers?

Implies meaning of making is business BUT business is in supplies (external) and Etsy's sale of marketplace services