RAPAPORT... E-commerce website Etsy, which allows users to buy and sell home-made crafts including jewelry, is to launch Etsy Manufacturing, a marketplace for designers and manufacturers.
The venture, set to go live this year, will let designers search for and contact manufacturing partners. The group is already accepting applications from manufacturers on its website, with the venture following a pilot program by the company earlier this year that found that in normal circumstances “finding a good partner is really, really hard.”
Etsy said in a blog that it would not be conducting direct audits or site visits but would review and approve manufacturers’ applications on an individual basis according to criteria including commitment to transparency, the degree to which the companies allow subcontracting, and the participants’ business size.
Manufacturers are also required to agree to certain commitments on transparency, “safe and just” workplaces, and customer service. Etsy said the next stage was to build the “Etsy Economy”, which is said “prioritizes people and process and emphasizes the relationship between designers, manufacturers and buyers.”
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