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follow brands and creators, not stores. shop directly from their sites or support local stores
As a small business owner (blacksmithing), I fully support this. However, about 85% of our business is through an Etsy storefront, about 10% through Amazon, with the remainder through our own site.
I'd appreciate advice on additional storefronts.
Ebay. I buy new and used things there fairly frequently.
Have you looked into selling to reenactors?
They seem willing to pay for handcrafted stuff.
Haven't focused on reenactors specifically. Most of our stuff is home furnishings. Hooks, plant hangers, curtain rods, pot rack bars, drawer pulls, joint braces for woodworking, fireplace hardware, decorative chains (like for chandeliers), etc.
Ren faire folks LOVE stuff like that, you should absolutely see if you have one nearby. If you're in the states, each state usually has one.
Most small creators do not have their own online stores. They depend on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, or some combination of the three
Ugh fuck Etsy. I used to sell on there. I'd make maybe $60 on a $100 item after their stupid fees
Great point. The limited times I have purchased from Amazon in recent history was accidentally in this manner. I think that purchasing directly from the creator's/company's website might send a message that some folks would like an alternative, but I don't know that. Either way, it is less amazon.
I think if the only way to buy from them is through Amazon and you have the option to buy it from their site via Amazon you should definitely still take it! Like you said, at the very least they’ll see more traffic going through their site and folks who would’ve probably bought with or without Amazon.
Agreed. Except for one time last fall, I knew it was going to happen and did it anyway, thru the company's website. That one company had their own portal and everything, didn't know it came from amazon until it arrived 🤷 I'll do it again! If I was selling stuff I am sure I would have to look at these few options out there.
Huh that’s interesting. I wonder if I’ve experienced this but didn’t notice
As a business it’s possible to use Amazon for fulfillment only so that you can sell anywhere and have it shipped by Amazon.
Many small creators also sell directly on social media. Unfortunately that's mostly corporate owned social media, but at least they dont typically get a cut of the sale.
Even still, local creators will often pop up at events and conventions and stuff. They may not have a permanent presence, but you can still often buy stuff from them in person if you keep up with where they'll be.
What social media are you talking about? If you’re talking about Facebook marketplace, they absolutely take a cut so it’s functionally the same thing.
These pop up events you are talking about are heavily concentrated in densely populated areas. If you have access you should absolutely take advantage of them but a LOT of people rarely have access.
From what I've seen, Instagram. I've never bought anything from Instagram so I'm not sure if it's a built-in function, or if they use something like messaging and Venmo.
Instagram takes 5% of the sale straight off the top
I never thought to look it up (since I don't use Instagram) but there is a way to set up a shop in Instagram and THAT is where Meta gets their cut.
All these years, I thought it was like some sort of Craigslist deal where people would advertise there but deal with payments in other ways. Oops.
All good. I do a lot of buying/selling of video game consoles and parts so I have a little more knowledge of these platforms than most.
The funny thing is Facebook marketplace is truly a Craigslist 2.0. It’s generally a great experience. I hate that zuck has control of it and I’m sure enshitification will hit it soon enough
I have always liked the concept of Facebook Marketplace, but the fact it was a Meta product made me not use it. The unfortunate side effect to Facebook Marketplace taking off was that Craigslist got a lot less listings. LetGo was pretty good for a while but OfferUp bought them and I haven't found any alternative quite as good since.
Doubly frustrating since Facebook is also the hub for many Buy Nothing groups. Oh well.
Yeah I really avoid it where I can and keep it as a marketplace of last resort - especially for local purchases where i can meet the person and pay cash and never use their platform for the actual commerce. Still, I want it to be 0% lol
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This is what I do too. I try to go directly to the source either online or in person
This is great advice.
Your range is pretty broad. For digital media I have found myself using the Library more and more
Libby- ebooks, audiobooks, magazines
Hoopla- music, ebooks, audiobooks, and TV
Kanopy- films and documentaries
For real I cannot overstate how amazing a library card is with these apps.
Wish and Temu? Sell about 90% of the same shit for pennies on the dollar.
But you also didn't specify that the alternatives have to be ethically superior. 🙃
Let's say ethically better then, to be more specific and explicit. Although, if we want to talk rock bottom ethically, I think we'd have to go darkweb, no?
Nah my darkweb dealer network is unionized, so it's better for sure.
I guess it depends on whether you want to buy drugs or people.
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wheres that's peep with the info on the upcoming ActivityPub version of etsy
Flohmarkt?
Bandcamp or 7Digital for music
Lots of mid-sized local stores opened web stores during the pandemic, at least here in Europe. I'll often shop at those, even if they're not truly local to where I live.
Who are they?
From: https://www.baen.com/faq
Founded by Jim Baen, Baen Books has been bringing readers pulse-pounding, thought-provoking adventures straight from the heart of science fiction and fantasy for decades. We publish books in hardcover, paperback, and electronic form, and are one of the few traditional publishers that maintains its own ebooks webstore (with at least four new titles added every month). We are also perhaps the only book publisher to make our electronic advanced readers copies (eARCs) available for sale to devoted fans before a book’s official release date. In addition, we also sell ebooks from other publishers. We sell more than 2000 books from over 500 authors published by 24 different companies. Good reading to all!
One of the first and longer lasting ebook publishers for a LONG time. You get DRM free books at reasonable prices.
Well at first glance it definitely seems a lot better than supporting Amazon!
Baen
Google shopping or duckduckgo shopping are an easy first step. You can also search the name of the Amazon seller and see if they have their own store.
Ebay.
Go local.
I need a local searchable storefront
Aren't pretty much all storefronts searchable, or is it a Europe thing?
I shop primarily local and find stores with ddg/Google/Google maps. I live in a country where Amazon doesn't exist, and shipping takes at least 3-7 days, so I've always bought stuff from local stores. Of course not everything is sold in a physical store, for which you'll probably have to use ebay.
For large chain stores that happen to be local, Google is fine. But I can't get an inventory from the local mom&pop grocery. Or even the local game stores that have a website with an inventory, Google doesn't search among them, so I'm stuck going to multiple websites to search by hand.
It's just a pain, and if it's a pain, I'll only do it half as much as I could.
Idk what a local store is here. Everything is a chain.
Food? Publix or Winn-Dixie. Thats about it, save for the Asian market on the corner and a once a week farmers market that I never seem to be able to attend.
Meds? CVS or Walgreen's. We have a local pharmacy, insurance doesn't cover them.
Electronics? Best buy. There's no mom and pop computer store
Furniture / clothing / household items? Thrift stores maybe?
Big Box stores didn't just reduce mom and pops in my area, it killed them.
The only non-chain stores are for niche products like a smoke shop, the aforementioned Asian market, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
mercadolibre.com is like Amazon, but in the amazon...
eBay and Etsy are my go-to alternatives to Amazon. My wife uses Shien for clothes.
All 3 are like Harbor Freight for tools; maybe good, maybe bad, takes some experience and discernment, which can be costly.
Bol.com
Posted most of this in another thread but I'm glad to spread the word. I usually find things by searching what I want to buy and then adding "-amazon", "-etsy", or "-wayfair".
Some general recs:
B&H Photo or Microcenter for anything electronic or computer related
Sweetwater for music stuff, there's a lot of great small music stores, or marketplaces like Reverb
For clothes, if you have any clothes you already enjoy, go directly to their brand website. If you don't, go to local secondhand shops and touch, handle and try on some clothes to see them in person. I've discovered some brands I like by finding something in a thrift store that was well made but not my size or preferred color.
For house DIY stuff, we order from a local building supply store, but there's also hardwareandtools.com, 1stoplighting, Waysource, Lightbulbs.com, Timothy's Toolbox etc.
For food items, local grocery stores often offer online shopping and delivery. If it's a specialty item or imported the import companies sometimes have their own websites.
For super fast, need it now shipping, Target has a lot of the same things Amazon does and even does same day delivery for an extra fee for certain items.
For something hard to find you can't find another site for, try Ebay.
I do business with all sorts of independent retailers and have only had good experiences with them. These are sites that I've personally bought from but there are a lot of smaller sites just trying to make a place for themselves on the internet
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this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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