Bandcamp or 7Digital for music
Wish and Temu? Sell about 90% of the same shit for pennies on the dollar.
But you also didn’t specify that the alternatives have to be ethically superior. 🙃
Just go to Alibaba bro. At least they also have high quality products
💀
Let’s say ethically better then, to be more specific and explicit. Although, if we want to talk rock bottom ethically, I think we’d have to go darkweb, no?
Nah my darkweb dealer network is unionized, so it’s better for sure.
I guess it depends on whether you want to buy drugs or people.
Not dark web, you just steal what you need
follow brands and creators, not stores. shop directly from their sites or support local stores
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Many small creators also sell directly on social media. Unfortunately that’s mostly corporate owned social media, but at least they dont typically get a cut of the sale.
Even still, local creators will often pop up at events and conventions and stuff. They may not have a permanent presence, but you can still often buy stuff from them in person if you keep up with where they’ll be.
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From what I’ve seen, Instagram. I’ve never bought anything from Instagram so I’m not sure if it’s a built-in function, or if they use something like messaging and Venmo.
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I never thought to look it up (since I don’t use Instagram) but there is a way to set up a shop in Instagram and THAT is where Meta gets their cut.
All these years, I thought it was like some sort of Craigslist deal where people would advertise there but deal with payments in other ways. Oops.
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Buying a domain and a webhost costs money and people would need a regular income for that
What I’d like to see is some co-op online platform where people can collectively contribute to online costs though a small percentage of fees and / or donations
And often a bit cheaper through outlets even if they do have their own store. Still, I’ll pay a little extra to keep it in the family.
Ugh fuck Etsy. I used to sell on there. I’d make maybe $60 on a $100 item after their stupid fees
Great point. The limited times I have purchased from Amazon in recent history was accidentally in this manner. I think that purchasing directly from the creator’s/company’s website might send a message that some folks would like an alternative, but I don’t know that. Either way, it is less amazon.
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Agreed. Except for one time last fall, I knew it was going to happen and did it anyway, thru the company’s website. That one company had their own portal and everything, didn’t know it came from amazon until it arrived 🤷 I’ll do it again! If I was selling stuff I am sure I would have to look at these few options out there.
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As a business it’s possible to use Amazon for fulfillment only so that you can sell anywhere and have it shipped by Amazon.
This is great advice.
This is what I do too. I try to go directly to the source either online or in person
As a small business owner (blacksmithing), I fully support this. However, about 85% of our business is through an Etsy storefront, about 10% through Amazon, with the remainder through our own site.
I’d appreciate advice on additional storefronts.
State where your from please
Lemmy is global
Have you looked into selling to reenactors?
They seem willing to pay for handcrafted stuff.
Haven’t focused on reenactors specifically. Most of our stuff is home furnishings. Hooks, plant hangers, curtain rods, pot rack bars, drawer pulls, joint braces for woodworking, fireplace hardware, decorative chains (like for chandeliers), etc.
Ren faire folks LOVE stuff like that, you should absolutely see if you have one nearby. If you’re in the states, each state usually has one.
By states I’m guessing america
Please remember that lemmy is a global platform and not everyone will know what states mean
remember that this is the internet, not america so please don’t resort to us defaultism
Ebay. I buy new and used things there fairly frequently.
Is that america exclusive or global
I’m replying to a lot of people on this post reminding them not to use US Defaultism
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Baen
From: https://www.baen.com/faq
Founded by Jim Baen, Baen Books has been bringing readers pulse-pounding, thought-provoking adventures straight from the heart of science fiction and fantasy for decades. We publish books in hardcover, paperback, and electronic form, and are one of the few traditional publishers that maintains its own ebooks webstore (with at least four new titles added every month). We are also perhaps the only book publisher to make our electronic advanced readers copies (eARCs) available for sale to devoted fans before a book’s official release date. In addition, we also sell ebooks from other publishers. We sell more than 2000 books from over 500 authors published by 24 different companies. Good reading to all!
One of the first and longer lasting ebook publishers for a LONG time. You get DRM free books at reasonable prices.
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Is that platform avalible globally or is it just limited to the country you’re from ?
State where you’re from because lemmy is a global platform
Your range is pretty broad. For digital media I have found myself using the Library more and more
Libby- ebooks, audiobooks, magazines
Hoopla- music, ebooks, audiobooks, and TV
Kanopy- films and documentaries
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Ebay.
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Mercado libre is literally the Spanish eBay.
eBay and Etsy are my go-to alternatives to Amazon. My wife uses Shien for clothes.
All 3 are like Harbor Freight for tools; maybe good, maybe bad, takes some experience and discernment, which can be costly.
Google shopping or duckduckgo shopping are an easy first step. You can also search the name of the Amazon seller and see if they have their own store.
wheres that’s peep with the info on the upcoming ActivityPub version of etsy
Flohmarkt?
Lots of mid-sized local stores opened web stores during the pandemic, at least here in Europe. I’ll often shop at those, even if they’re not truly local to where I live.
@[email protected] might want to add an edit to your post to get people asking for recomendatation and people giving recommendations to state what country and what locality in that country they are from without acronyms or nicknames
Might also want to state the country you’re from as well
Because I’m seeing a lot of what looks like US Defaultism in the comment and lemmy is a global platform
To anyone else reading this comment STATE WHERE YOU’RE FROM IF YOU’RE ASKING FOR RECOMENDATIONS OR GIVING RECOMENDATIONS!
Also this big text is just to get peoples attention so the comment doesn’t get buried
Ebay. Been buying most things through there and it’s been nice. As always, check to see if the seller has a good rating and usually it’s fine.
Go local.
Idk what a local store is here. Everything is a chain.
Food? Publix or Winn-Dixie. Thats about it, save for the Asian market on the corner and a once a week farmers market that I never seem to be able to attend.
Meds? CVS or Walgreen’s. We have a local pharmacy, insurance doesn’t cover them.
Electronics? Best buy. There’s no mom and pop computer store
Furniture / clothing / household items? Thrift stores maybe?
Big Box stores didn’t just reduce mom and pops in my area, it killed them.
The only non-chain stores are for niche products like a smoke shop, the aforementioned Asian market, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
I know these are american stores because you mentioned cvs, best buy and walgreens but I dont know about those other stores being from america and some people won’t be aware that these stores are located in america
Please don’t resort to US Defaultism on lemmy
For electronics try Swappa or Jawa
Reminder to mention the country they are in
Don’t resort to US Defaultism
Thanks I’ll check them out!
I need a local searchable storefront
Aren’t pretty much all storefronts searchable, or is it a Europe thing?
I shop primarily local and find stores with ddg/Google/Google maps. I live in a country where Amazon doesn’t exist, and shipping takes at least 3-7 days, so I’ve always bought stuff from local stores. Of course not everything is sold in a physical store, for which you’ll probably have to use ebay.
For large chain stores that happen to be local, Google is fine. But I can’t get an inventory from the local mom&pop grocery. Or even the local game stores that have a website with an inventory, Google doesn’t search among them, so I’m stuck going to multiple websites to search by hand.
It’s just a pain, and if it’s a pain, I’ll only do it half as much as I could.
