North Dundas Makers Market

The Makers Market is an e-commerce website designed to promote and sell local products in and around North Dundas. When Covid-19 shut down so much, many artisans and crafters of North Dundas found themselves unable to get their products to customers, and customers unable to find local products. This Makers’ Market is designed to connect shoppers and vendors.

Sandy Burns and San Baynham created the Makers Market to give local vendors a way to sell their products. As local craft and artisan markets were being canceled one after another, Sandy and Sam decided to help makers in the area who depend on Christmas craft shows to sell their products. Sandy says, “As a web designer, I’m well-versed in how to create an e-commerce site, but I knew that for most local vendors, having a professional website made is out of the budget.”

Sam is a graphic designer. Sam and Sandy have collaborated on many mutual client projects over the last few years. Sam is a vendor herself, and as such, knows quite a few vendors in the area. When she reached out to other vendors to see if there was interest in such a project, she found strong support for the idea to create a site similar to Etsy, but on a local level. Sam created the logo and handles the social media marketing and promotional materials. Sandy built the site, and hosts and maintains it, while also providing tech support to the vendors.

The Makers Market launched on November 14. Currently, there are 18 vendors, and over 150 products.

In order to be a vendor selling with The Makers Market, your products must be handmade by you, and you must be able to bring any products sold through the website to Loucks Pastures near Chesterville every Thursday, so that orders can be sorted and distributed to the pickup locations for Saturday pickup.

Becoming a vendor is easy. Go to the Vendor Login page and complete the Vendor Registration Form. Make sure you click on the box beside “Apply to Become a Vendor.” Each vendor is manually approved. Once approved, your first step will be to connect to a Stripe account to allow you to collect your payments from the orders. The system is user-friendly, and walks you through each step. Vendors can then upload a banner image and profile image for their stores, and start uploading their products. Your store can be up and running in minutes!

Sales and refund policies are up to the individual vendor. If a customer wishes to arrange direct pickup, delivery, or shipping, they can choose that option during checkout and contact the vendor directly.

Orders received by midnight every Wednesday can be picked up Saturday between 9 am and noon at one of the three pickup locations. Vendors drop off the orders at Loucks Pastures near Chesterville on Thursday afternoon. Items are then sorted and orders packaged. On Friday afternoon, the vendors who run the pickup locations collect the orders for their location.

Sam and Sandy created this site for artisans, crafters, and makers in North Dundas and surrounding areas. These are incredibly talented vendors, offering high quality, hand crafted products. They don’t currently have the option of a brick and mortar building to showcase their wares. Sam and Sandy wanted to build an online community where makers can connect with their customers. Makers can use their store address on the Makers Market website to market themselves to potential customers.

Commission is low, so that talented vendors receive fair compensation for their work. Vendors who provide their location as a pickup location pay zero commission to compensate for the extra driving required to pick up the orders in Chesterville on Fridays.
Sam and Sandy are excited to be able to bring the Makers Market to life, and are in awe at the variety and quality of products. Supporting local is always important, but this year more than ever. You can view all the wonderful products available on their website at themakersmarket.shop