The Indie Sellers Guild Foundation is launching a large-scale research project to learn what sellers and buyers need from an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods.
Up till now, the discussion about e-commerce platforms has been dominated by investors, economists and academics—not the sellers who use the platform everyday to make a living.
The Indie Sellers Guild Foundation is working to rectify that with a survey based research study conducted in partnership with Dr. Samantha Close at DePaul University.. The survey will asks sellers and buyers alike what they are looking for in an online marketplace, including topics such as:
- Shipping
- Customer service from the platform
- Type of sellers on the platform
- Search features
- Fees
- Platform policies and enforcement
Those surveyed will be able to answer from the perspective of a buyer and/or a seller and can answer as many sections as they want. All survey answers will be stored anonymously.
After we have conducted the survey, we will publish the results in a white paper accessible to sellers and marketplaces alike.
We expect the survey to be available in late June.
If you are interested in participating and filling out the survey, or would like to be contacted when the results are published, please provide your email address below. We will not use this email to contact you for any reason other than for this research study.
