In just a few years, Artisans Cooperative has crafted an online handmade marketplace for an inclusive network of creatives. We are a member-owned, member-run, and member-benefiting co-op. We’re member-made, and that’s why we’re holding our first Membership Drive since the launch of our marketplace. In this article, we’re going to go over what you can expect if you choose to become a member.
Before getting into it, let us address a concern you might have going in so that it isn’t in the back of your mind while we discuss benefits: membership is not a lifetime contract. If you end up changing your mind after becoming a member, you can leave. If you’re on a payment plan, you can just stop paying, and monetary contributions to buying in as a member would be bought back by the Coop. Then, once the board approves and the books are closed at the end of the year, you could get your money back.
While we leave this pain-free disbursement open to you (and it’s important that you feel secure with your options), we hope that you ultimately stay and take full advantage of our member benefits. Now let’s get into it! We’ll start with a bulleted breakdown for you to peruse before a wordier discussion.
Consider the following to be a summary of the rest of the article.
ALL MEMBERS, whether they are an artisan or a supporter, have the right to–
- VOTE:
- in elections held for Coop board positions.
- on major decisions for the Coop.
- RUN FOR OFFICE in the aforementioned elections.
- SUBMIT PROPOSALS to directly influence the direction of the Coop.
- EARN POINTS in order to pay for your membership buy-in, if you so choose (making membership much more affordable to more people).
- Points are earned through collective maintenance of the co-op.
- SHARE PROFITS with your fellow members as a co-owner of the business.
- This will be accomplished via the points & tiers system alluded to in the previous bullet, which determines your membership tier, and thus the precise fraction of dividends you receive at the end of a fiscal period.
ARTISAN MEMBERS have access to–
- a selling platform that is exclusive to actually handmade products.
- lower commission fees than non-members and non-artisan members*.
- potential marketing benefits such as our search filter, inclusion in gift guides on our blog, and social media connections with fellow shop-owners and potential supporters.
- an inclusive community of artisans and craft-lovers who believe in a worker’s right to their own labor’s value.
*Supporter members may also benefit from lower commission fees if they choose to open a shop, but their fee is higher than artisan members’, and they cannot earn points through subsequent sales.
How does that sound? Attractive? Tempting?
Let’s go over each point to try and answer as many remaining questions as possible. But remember: our Discord server is free to join, and many of our members would be more than happy to fill in the blanks if you need more information when we’re done here. This project is all about community and cooperation.
Voting & Proposals
There are a few different ways you can interact with the Coop once you’re a part of it. You could theoretically sit by — content with whatever happens on the governance level, and earn your personal benefits without influencing the wider function of the business. However, you are encouraged to take part wherever you can. One way to do that is to pay attention to when voting opportunities arise.
As a member, you’ll receive emails about various topics, e.g. gift guides, meeting dates, and voting opportunities. Most of the day-to-day decisions are made by active team members and elected leads, so you won’t be asked to address every. little. thing. but team leads aren’t appointed without member input; you have the right to a say in who gets to make these everyday choices. Our very first election for a new board of directors took place in February 2024. After the vote, our new board members began work by speaking at the first Annual Owners Meeting since the incorporation of Artisans Cooperative.
Beyond representative elections, things like funding, how we draw the line on handmade goods, and the design of the marketplace itself have been ultimately determined by community vote via poll and survey. We even have a system in place for individuals to propose changes, and for fellow Coop members to vote on moving propositions forward. Should you choose to become a member, we highly, highly encourage you to take advantage of these systems.
If you want to be more directly involved, joining one of our teams is as easy as taking a look at our Member Activity Board (more on that later).
Points & Profits
Artisans Cooperative is not funded by capital from outside investors, but rather from buy-ins, donations, and sales. As our growing revenue supports it, we intend to hire staff to assist members with vital operations, but our member-owners will never be placed in an exploiting class over employees. No one gets to sit by and rake in cash for simply owning a share of the business. We have to earn points for that.
Points are earned at 25/hour through Coop participation, e.g. marketing, tech work, buying and selling on the marketplace, performing moderation, writing blog posts (hello!), and so on. Our MAB is an up-to-date list of activities that need membership participation. If you see an activity you’re interested in, you can use the form linked at the top of the board to get in contact with the appropriate members to get you started.
When buying in to become a member, you’ll be expected to commit to either a payment plan, or to earning the equivalent number of points at a one point per dollar exchange rate within twelve months. After that, points will be used to distribute profit. The more profit is available at the end of the fiscal period, the more financial benefit you receive. For this reason, it will be in your best interest as a member of Artisans Cooperative for our handmade marketplace to succeed.
We hope for the points system to make membership accessible to a much wider range of artisans, but even a cash payment plan is more affordable than a decent subscription service to host your own website. For example, the cheapest Shopify plan is $29/month for as long as you use their service; our lowest payment plan on a cash buy-in is $20.83/month for just forty-eight months, then you stop paying and continue to reap the benefits of membership.
Handmade is Human Made
Artisans Cooperative provides both customers and artisan sellers a marketplace comprised exclusively of handmade products. We were born, in part, as a response to the corporate beast that is Etsy running rampant with dishonest dropshippers and resellers of factory mass-produced items.
As customers, we want to know that we’re buying things that were genuinely handmade, aren’t dirt cheap Shein quality, and actually exist.
As artisans, we want to know that we’re not competing with dropshippers, mass production, AI, or any entity taking advantage of workers so they can sell at slave wage prices. Instead of a race to the bottom, our artisans enjoy a marketplace shared only by other artisans.
Thanks to the members who surveyed the community to put together our comprehensive Handmade Policy, we intend to keep our marketplace free of scams and exploitation.
Lower Fees
Another push from Etsy—possibly the biggest one—came in the form of their rising, increasingly confusing fees. Artisans Coop boasts a simple fee structure: a percent of the price as sale commission to the Coop, and the unavoidable payment processing fee from the banks. That’s it! Every seller on our platform benefits from this, but as a member, your sales commission will be lower.
To break it down, per item sold:
- artisan member sellers pay an 8% sales commission plus a payment processing fee of 3.49% and $0.49. Or, in short, 11.49% + $0.49.
- supporter member sellers pay a 9.5% sales commission plus a payment processing fee of 3.49% and $0.49. Or, in short, 12.99% + $0.49.
- non-member sellers pay a 12% sales commission plus a payment processing fee of 3.49% and $0.49. Or, in short, 15.49% + $0.49.
And we have a handy calculator tool that you can use to avoid all that extra math.
Our fees are lower than most, predictable and transparent, and any changes are made as a democratic decision by Coop members themselves.
The Whole Community Of It
As a cooperative, our members don’t have to do it alone. We have the community of our dedicated teams and our Discord server, where you can commission another artisan to make that thing you want (or be commissioned yourself!), and where we discuss professional topics such as product pricing and marketing. Just as important, we’ve found, is the moral support and camaraderie that we share while just hanging out.
The Coop takes on the lion’s share of marketing member artisans. We promote their products on Pinterest and social media, coordinate with journalists for feature articles, and publish gift guides, among other things. You’ll enjoy periodically seeing your own products in our marketing efforts.
Besides that, you’ll find that many members readily promote each other via their own accounts on sites like Mastodon, Bluesky, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Shared benefit comes naturally from shared effort and community. We hope you’ll join the Artisans Cooperative Community, and grow with us.
So, what do you think? Does cooperative ownership sound right for you? Then you can join now at artisans.coop/pages/membership.
Do you believe in our mission but find yourself not in the position to join right now? That’s okay, you can still help to spread the word about the Artisan Cooperative’s 2024 Membership Drive.
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