Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit that assists artisans globally by marketing and selling their handcrafted, ethically traded goods, encompassing crafts, jewelry, and home furnishings.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like Ten Thousand Villages, you’re facing a buy vs build decision. So before you decide to build it in-house on top of Spree open-source, consider using Vendo which is a marketplace SaaS. Go live, start selling, iterate.
Build vs Buy a marketplace?
The decision to use open-source has many upsides, such as having full ownership and the flexibility to modify as needed, but these benefits come at a price. Building a complete marketplace solution is a lengthy and costly venture, often extending over months or years, as observed from various marketplace projects.
Unless you’ve raised a considerable amount of funding, a pre-packaged, all-in-one marketplace solution like Vendo is usually a better choice, advice from a person with extensive experience in charging for marketplace development.
Back to the Ten Thousand Villages marketplace case study
Ten Thousand Villages is a remarkable business that cares about society. Despite the challenges faced by retail businesses, it has succeeded while staying true to its goal of fair trade and sustainability. This store is famous worldwide and has more than 50 stores in the United States. It keeps growing, even though other retail businesses are struggling.
It all began in 1946 when Edna Ruth Byler had the idea to help poor women by selling their handmade products in the United States. Over time, this idea evolved into what we now know as Ten Thousand Villages.
The name “Ten Thousand Villages” is inspired by something Mahatma Gandhi once said. It signifies their commitment to assisting people in developing countries by providing them with better opportunities to sell their products.
Ten Thousand Villages doesn’t just talk about this; they actively support artisans worldwide by providing them with funds and selling their creations. Artisans receive an interest-free loan to make their products without accumulating debt.
The impact of Ten Thousand Villages is substantial. They have been collaborating with artisans from various corners of the world for over 70 years, helping many individuals escape poverty. They ensure that artisans are paid fairly, enabling them to afford necessities such as food, education, and healthcare.
Additionally, they focus on environmental conservation and the preservation of cultural traditions by using sustainable materials and innovative approaches to traditional craftsmanship. As a nonprofit organization, Ten Thousand Villages takes a unique approach.
They work closely with artisans to determine a fair price that covers production costs and living expenses. Artisans receive half of the payment upfront as a loan with no interest, and the remainder when their products reach the United States. This approach eliminates concerns about transportation risks and market fluctuations for the artisans.
How to emulate Ten Thousand Villages marketplace success?
Emulating Ten Thousand Villages success requires considering a quick launch of your marketplace, ideally in weeks, not months. It’s essential to match your product selection with your audience’s preferences and continually adapt your customer attracting strategies based on actual outcomes.
Make sure to test the market before you invest in building it from scratch.
Here’s what you’d be getting with a Vendo free trial:
- Book a marketplace demo call: We’ll set up your demo marketplace and populate it with products, so you could give it a try and start selling in 14 days
- Customize your Storefront: Use the drag & drop page builder or custom CSS
- Onboard Brands: Invite your brands or choose brands from our catalog
- Select Products: Curate products and collections manually or automate it
- Embed products: Make your content, newsletters, social media shoppable
- Get Paid: Get paid as soon as products are shipped by the brands
- End-to-end automation: Brands sync, fulfillment, payouts, invoicing, taxes
When you’ve tried all that and it works, start thinking about building your own, custom-made marketplace project based on Spree Commerce. First, by decoupling the storefront and going headless with Vendo marketplace API, and later with your own backend, if you decide you really need it. Just lift and shift the storefront.
Nobody has to know what’s under the hood, right?
