FAQs and Info for GFS Members on Setting Up Shop on Eventeny
To register on eventeny, go to https://www.eventeny.com/events/vendor/?id=1287
Deadline October 12 to register. You will be approved and the application is pretty basic. Once approved, you can build your virtual studio. To sell through the event, you will need to open a Stripe account to receive payments from purchases. There are charges for selling through Eventeny = just as there are fees from Etsy and other selling platforms. The fees are 5% to Eventeny plus standard credit card charges. GFS will also be due a 10% commission – up to a total of $300. Artists can set prices to account for those additional charges.
If you are not interested in selling, you can set up your store to show your work, but may not redirect to another spot to sell it. I’ll be setting up my studio tour store with paintings available and while the selling event is going on (from November 14-November 30) those items will not be purchasable directly from my website. This protects both you and the buyer. If a piece is purchased, it immediately is marked as sold, artists receive purchaser information and Eventeny sends the payout funds to you.
What steps do I need to take to have my info and images appear on Eventeny on Noveember 14? You must add a product to your virtual store, whether it is for sale or not – in order to appear on the Eventeny site on November 14. If you price the work and set it up to sell it, you will also have to connect to Stripe for payout for your store to show.
What is the advantage of setting up our studio stores in Eventeny (vs. directing visitors directly to my site or etsy, etc.) ? The stores are really good looking and consistent, easy then for visitors to navigate the site, look at your work and purchase from multiple artists from one cart. The more artists allowing visitors to buy directly from the Eventeny site, the more success we are likely to have.
For those afraid of selling online/dealing with Stripe - can they set up their "stores" as a place to look and not buy? Can they have a space without setting up a payout or pricing? They can set up their cover picture and set up their products as unavailable for sale. They can list products for show but they shouldn't navigate people away from the shop page to go only to their website to shop. Otherwise, that would be unfair for other artists and vendors.
In reading through Stripe's site, it mentioned that payouts on new accounts take 7-14 days and that after that initial phase it takes 2 days. That initial payout is REALLY slow as purchasers would expect to receive their purchases promptly and artists wouldn't want to ship or deliver until they know they've been paid. Hasn't this been an issue with other events? Wondering what the workaround is. It's usually the first payment that's delayed but after that it's pretty quick in comparison to other payment processors. It's the #2 leading payment processor in the world and used by Shopify. (Maybe artists can sell something via Stripe so studio tour sales are processed quickly.)
Who can see/access artist's physical addresses they give on their applications? Living in the Washington DC area, we have a lot of people very wary of their privacy. Only the event organizer.
Is an artist able to set up different shipping methods/costs for different items? Yes. You can choose from 4 different methods and do so for each item.
Are artists able to change/remove items in their store? For this event, I want the stores to open on November 14 and have artists be able to adjust what they have for sale until close to that date. For me personally, I want those items to be available for sale through my website until close to store opening and then will remove commerce capabilities for those pieces during the November 14-30 sale. Does that work? If something sells elsewhere before the store opens, then the artist would remove that item. Artists can absolutely update their shop pages and the event organizer has the option to unpublish items if it does not meet your policies. Separately, I think that makes sense to me. (Visitors will not be able to shop/buy from the artists from the store until it opens on November 14)
What happens if an artist closes a store? Buyers will not be able to purchase items from their shop pages.
What happens to the Event page after it is over? It just says this event has ended and the shops will not be visible under the event page.
What happens to the Event page after the organization is no longer on a fee plan? Same as above.
Are you able to offer multiples or variations for an item in your store? Yes – different sizes (like rings or photographs) with each variation able to be priced differently. It’s really flexible.
See an example of a “store” without items for sale here: https://www.eventeny.com/company/?c=10454
See an artist’s page from the Portland Fall Home & Garden Show here: