1. Investigating the Reception of Multiple Provider Handmade
Markets: An Experiment
M Williams
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Recently there has been a surge in handmade wares, crafts, and their sale.
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There is a large portion of crafters who are motivated to create but cannot sell their work.
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Successful crafters, on sites like Etsy, face a problem of scale
Proposed: Reallocate the efforts of unsuccessful crafters to the production of the desirable goods
that are in short supply.
•Thus, sites like Etsy become more analagous to sites like Amazon
Objective: Investigate the consumer reception of multiple provider handmade markets in
comparison to existing marketplaces; using consumer satisfaction as a measure
Motivation
Independent Variables
Variable 1 - handmade / not handmade
Variable 2 - multiple providers / singular provider
Dependent Variables
-time: time task takes to complete
-accuracy: binary note on if user chooses cheapest/most-cost-effective overall item
-retention: rate at which user looks at alternatives and buys original/initial product
-choice: rate at which user chooses to look at alternative providers of the product
-satisfaction: to be observed from post-procedure survey results
Experiment Variables
Future work for this project includes getting
funding to run this experiment with a significant
amount of consumers. If my initial hypothesis
cannot be proved to be correct it is unclear if a
site like Etsy moving forward with Variation 2 will
be accepted by the end user.
*
Future Work
I. Participant gets introduction to pricing satisfaction cover story
•“We are running an experiment to see how satisfied customers are with the current
pricing of our [handmade] products”
II. Participant receives instructions to buy product A
III. Participant is randomly assigned to either Variation 1 & 2 or Variation 3 & 4
IV. Participant arrives at product screen 1 or 3 and makes purchase action
V. Participant is sent to order confirmation/ satisfaction survey
VI. Participant receives instructions to buy product B
VII. Participant arrives at product screen 2 or 4, respectively, and makes purchase action
VIII. Participant is sent to order confirmation/ satisfaction survey
IX. Participant arrives at 'thank you'/ending screen
Experiment Sequence Design Choices
Experiment is hybrid within and between subject
Text is modified to reflect handmade/not handmade status
Product A and B are within the same product type or category
Survey is extremely succinct to lessen participant tiring
Assumption: learning effect can be disregarded as target audience is already
familiar with variations 1 and 3
Variable 1 Variable 2 Analogy
Variation 1 Handmade One provider
Variation 2 Handmade Multiple providers Proposed*
Variation 3 Not handmade One provider Brand Store
Variation 4 Not handmade Multiple providers
User Experiment Experience
Instructions
Survey
Survey Thank You / End
Why measure satisfaction?
© 2007 SureVista Solutions
Related Work
Human Computer Interaction 3rd
Edition; Dix
Rise of the Expert Amateur: DIY Projects, Communities, Cultures
http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/DIY_NordiCHI2010.pdf
Handmade 2.0
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16Crafts-t.html?pagewanted=4&_r=0&adxnnl=1&
To Each His Own? How Comparisons with Others Influence Consumer's Evaluations of
Their Self Designed Products
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/644612