Escalante
This is what I mean. Here’s Etsy.
It looks like the total value of goods sold on Etsy in 2009 will be $170 million. That’s a one-tenth of 1% of the global toy industry. Okay it’s tiny but it’s not the only marketplace. And it is commoditising distribution.
Etsy’s fees, plus Paypal’s fees, plus shipping, these add up to less than one-third of the total cost to your customer. The economics completely change.
If you sell your products here instead of in the Argos Catalogue you get $5 instead of 25 cents in profit and you get $5 instead of $2 for the cost of manufacture. You can afford to do design. That’s what Etsy gives us.