Sustainable Shop Policy:
Feel good about buying Local
Who are we and why does this matter?
Artisan Direct Connect, an online artisan marketplace, is a new way of shopping for quality handmade items. We connect USA based curated artisans with savvy shoppers. Similar to the popular seasonal art fairs – we go behind the scenes and share the artists story. The e-commerce site offers year round, easy, safe shopping plus the shoppers get the inside scoop on how the products are made and what materials are used. We strongly encourage our vendors to incorporate sustainable practices.
We encourage the talent within our communities by helping artists where they are on their artistic journey – whether full time, part time while working or caring for family or retired. We limit our artisans to the USA because we see the creativity available within our local communities without involving cargo shipping or mass produced items with questionable materials and practices.
We connect the artisans to the shoppers for an optimal buying experience by dealing directly with the artist. We help the artist get their story and products better visibility while providing a real person connection if there are questions on the technical side.
Who's making the products?
We choose only USA artisans who are actually doing the handcrafting of products themselves. We want buyers to feel confident that best practices are being used and they are supporting the artists directly with their purchase.
Each artisan is responsible for their shop and policies but we do encourage and share information about sustainable practices.
Where are the products being made & shipped from?
The artisans create their work in their local home or shop. The artisan ships directly to the customer.
Because we only have USA artisans and only sell to USA customers, no overseas shipping is required. If the artisan and buyer are local to each other, they can arrange a safe meeting place for an in-person pick up and no shipping is required.
Online E-commerce Benefits
We are able to offer benefits from being an online platform, yes, we do have local shipping within the USA, but we don’t require shoppers to drive to a brick and mortar site and we don’t rely on international, cross continent shipping for product distribution. By removing the middleman from the equation, there is less shipping in total.
Consumers have the advantage of shopping the website at their convenience. Our site is always open for business, no gas required.
If a shopper has a question about an item, they can submit a question with the “Inquire” Button and receive a response directly from the maker – hard to get that feedback from other online sites or retail stores.
Website Sustainable Shop efforts
Even though it may seem like online systems do not use any resources – they do. So the more we understand the systems, the better the industry can offer solutions and be accountable to meeting green initiatives.
- Data centers store, process and deliver website information on their continually operating servers. These facilities create heat and therefore need cooling – which requires energy.
- We have thoughtfully chosen our web hosting site with green initiatives and sustainability in mind.
- Our hosting site has chosen Google Cloud platform because of their commitment to carbon neutrality to be their main data center partner. Google’s data centers match 100% of the energy consumed by their global operations with renewable energy and maintain a commitment to be carbon neutral.
- Our web host also prioritizes site efficiency which reduces resources used by optimizing software.
- The site hosting headquarters building is (LEED) design built.
- Our site hosting company as a whole utilizes sustainable practices.
Sustainability Goals
We understand the economy is creating change in buying behaviors – we get it!
Our sustainability goal is to offer more of our good.
- That means enlisting more artisans looking for visibility and fair business practices.
- Getting the word out to more shoppers looking to purchase not necessarily more but more thoughtful.
- Better quality
- Better artist’s journey stories
- Supporting directly local handcrafting artisans
- Support and showcase sustainable best practices and articles to educate and connect our community
- Our immediate steps to do this is to reach out and discover the hidden gem artisans and help them set up their shops on our site.
- The second part is getting the word out about the site to shoppers via social media, website stories and agencies with similar goals.
- These goals will be ongoing throughout our business cycle.
