It’s interesting to note the new marketplaces that are emerging now in real and exciting ecommerce niches. Yumbles is a new one on me that’s a specialist marketplace honed to people who are selling food stuffs.
It’s a lovely site and it’s got lots of mouthwatering items up for grabs and I can see that it’s got some good traction bringing some interesting suppliers on board. It was founded last year by a husband and wife team. Obviously, it currently focusses in things that can very easily be sent in the post. Jars of jams and preserves, sweets and luxury items too. I registered with the intention of buying.
Unfortunately, I didn’t finalise my order because I got a bit of a postage cost shock at checkout. The 2 – 3 day delivery charge for two jars of chutney from the same producer was an eye-watering £8.20. That more than doubled the total price I was paying. It seems to me that getting to know some of the 3 -5 day couriers which can provide much cheaper shipping should be on the Yumbles’ to do list
2 Responses
My partner would be interested in this BUT nowhere on their web-site does it give indication of their fees to sellers, other than the customer pays Yumbles directly and then they pay the seller.
So I took to trawling Google and the only information I got was that “sellers are individually approved”! Still couldn’t find their fees.
Somehow I feel that goods on this site will be no different than but much more expensive than the great food range already to be found on Etsy.
Thanks so much Chris and Roger too for taking the time to visit Yumbles and sharing your really valuable feedback here – much appreciated.
As a curated marketplace of the UK’s most exciting indie producers, we hand-pick food makers to appear on Yumbles based on their commitment to delivering something extra special and unique. Not just in terms of the food itself (which of course, needs to be high quality and delicious!), but the overall experience they offer customers.
While the vast majority of Yumbles sellers offer very reasonable shipping costs and delivery options, we’re aware there a few anomalies such as the one you spotted Chris. As such, we’ll shortly be rolling out a new delivery framework for our sellers which will address any issues, and this is something we’ll be following-up on closely over the rest of the year and beyond.
In terms of your feedback on seller fees Roger: we’ve just recently come out of our pilot phase after launching in December 2013. With just over 100 independent food makers and 1,000+ products live on Yumbles.com, we’re now happy we have a commission structure and pricing model that works for everyone involved. Publishing more information and guidance for potential sellers (including fees) is just one of the things we’ll be doing very soon on the site as part of a planned refresh of our content. So watch this space and if your partner is interested, please ask her to get in touch – we’d be more than happy to have a chat.
Whether or not the range of food on Yumbles is anything different from that you’ll find on Etsy: as already mentioned, Yumbles is a curated marketplace and all our sellers are hand-picked. We really do believe that every product on Yumbles is extra special and unique….but of course, the proof is in the pudding! If you do decide to give Yumbles a try and buy from one of our sellers, please do get in touch with your feedback as we’d love to know what you think.
You can contact me directly Claire (at) Yumbles.com
Thanks again – really appreciate the feedback, have a great week.
Claire