So, you have this passion for handmade and boutique stuff and decide to sell on Jane.com to make some extra profit. I can totally understand your choice because the platform is a popular shopping site so it does seem like an ideal place to get more eyeballs on your products.
But what does this opportunity mean for you as a seller? This is what I found out.
Who Buys on Jane
Jane’s targeted customers are mostly female shoppers who are into women clothing, beauty, home decors, kids and miscellaneous fun items. However, unlike other sites, products are sold at discounted retail prices, which last for 72 hours, before the marketplace listing is refreshed with new deals.
Based on that, it’s likely that people who frequent Jane are bargained shoppers too, and most do this conveniently through their mobile app.
How to Get Started as a Seller
The first step of the process is to send in an application to the team, requesting to be a seller. If you are accepted, you’ll be able to create a seller’s page to list the products that you want to be featured as deals. On this page, customers can also leave reviews of their purchase from you so it would look really good to the public if you have a lot of rating stars.
Jane has a little requirement though. According to them, you need to have an active business website and a proven sales record for at least 3 months. In order to prove that you are a unique vendor, they also want to see samples from your products during the online application. All deals must have at least 100 pieces in stock and if it is handmade, a minimum of 50 pieces.
Sellers are expected to set their own shipping price, pack and deliver within 6 days after an online purchase takes place. Jane will collect payment from customers on your behalf and distribute the funds after deducting their take from the sales.
The Advantages of Marketing on Jane
1) Since Jane offers a surge of online traffic (like every 3 days), it’s a valid reason to use it for moving products out of your inventory – fast. So if you have unique stuff that has been sitting around for a long time and not seeing any buyers, chances are, Jane shoppers will want it. All there is to do is to get them featured on deals and follow through with the shipping process.
2) The other advantage I could think of is that Jane can give some exposure to your pre-existing business. You see, on the seller’s page, you can actually list your business website so whenever customers read your ‘About’ page, they can click through the actual site to learn more about you.
I’ve seen sellers link to their page on the Etsy marketplace (another platform for selling boutique products), their Facebook business page as well as their online stores. So clearly, most people who market on Jane already know a thing or two about eCommerce.
3) The third point that I am going to mention here isn’t so much about the sellers, but rather how it benefits bloggers, especially those who are into the fashion/lifestyle niche. Jane offers an affiliate program that pays 10% commission for every referred sale.
The last I check their stats on ShareASale affiliate network, they are one of the higher-performing merchants with a fairly efficient conversion among mobile shoppers.
The Disadvantages of Marketing on Jane
1) Noticed that I haven’t mentioned the cost of selling here. Well technically, there isn’t, but for every sale you make, 25% (minus shipping) goes to Jane and 30% for any items priced under $4.99. That means if you sell anything for $10, Jane takes $2.5 and if the product is $4.50, their take is $1.35.
Since they are providing free traffic and not charging for product listings, it seems fair to pay them some commissions, but let’s admit it, those are some big profit cuts from your ALREADY discounted price tags.
2) If you are a true artisan or a handmade artist, you may have a certain value perspective for your products and lowering the selling price will not justify the effort that was put into your work. The way I see it, the pricing system seems to work better for wholesalers who can order and sell in bulks. Granted, there must also be good quality products, to begin with.
3) Frankly, the seller’s page has a very limited feature. You can’t blog about your business or share additional information about products that aren’t on deals. One thing for sure, your page will not show up on Google search because it’s not optimized for the search engines in the first place.
4) Product competition is probably one of the biggest challenges that you’ll be facing. At any promotional hour, there are easily 20 to 30 vendors offering somewhat similar items under the same product category. Instead of using brand names, products are featured according to their descriptions and discounted prices as you can see in the examples below.
Given the fact that most shoppers are merely looking for bargains on Jane, it’s pretty obvious that the latter is what attracts people’s attention the most. Hence, building a loyal customer base would be a difficult thing to do on this platform and sellers need to constantly think about how far they would slash down prices while still be able to make profits.
5) While Jane prides themselves as a unique deal site, it still has its own share of negative reviews, especially when certain sellers don’t deliver as promised. Poor quality products, long shipping time and failure of refunds are a few reasons why some people complained about and avoid shopping on the site.
So, if you are a new seller who hasn’t quite build a reputation yet, you need to be very patient while earning trust from the buyers.
Is Jane.com Worth of Your Time
The way I see it, Jane is more of a diversion for small retail businesses to get additional online traffic, especially from mobile users. It’s not a place where you can expect to make a lot of money or even to start an eCommerce business, but there’s definitely no harm in trying and testing your market.
Even so, you shouldn’t ignore establishing a professional business website where you can run promotions whenever you like without having to rely on third-party platforms. What’s more important is that you get to keep most of the profits while building a brand that is trusted by the customers and the search engines.
Well, I hope this marketplace review has been insightful for what you want to pursue as a seller. If you are looking for more help to start or grow your boutique business online, please check out the tools and training that are available at Wealthy Affiliate. I’ll be inside to walk you through the process so let’s hope to hear from you soon.
Question – What are your thoughts or experience about selling products on online marketplaces? Please let us know in the comment section below.
Jane is not really letting any new sellers onto the site. Most of the sellers there have been on there from 2013 on up. I dug around some and noticed it’s the same 10-15 sellers doing most of the business and they have all been on there for at least 3 years. I know several folks that applied to Jane recently and they all got denied with the same generic rejection email. I would say at this point Jane is protecting their established sellers. I do know one company is doing over 1,000,000 a year in sales on Jane, but their margins are low for the amount of work they do. I would think if another site comes along with a different business model for boutique it would do quite well.
Hi Emily, I really appreciate you posting this. I came here by looking for info on why I would have been turned down. I had all of the qualifications, but they just sent me a form letter with no actual information and when I wrote back for clarification, they just ignored me. I have noticed exactly the same things you said about protecting their sellers, etc. and it seems like they are just an online store now, not a real flash deals site for that reason. Thanks so much, I completely agree with everything you said!
Sounds like Jane could be a great way to get some quality traffic. But since most people will have their own business website prior to joining, I think it makes more sense to work on getting your own site to rank in the long run.
It is a lot to pay 25% in commission to someone else, so I like your suggestion about growing the traffic on one’s website instead.
That’s definitely true Mikael. Marketplaces are good stepping stones to get some exposure on eCommerce setups however, they are not ideal for businesses who want to make the most profit and build their own brand. Getting one’s site visible on Google is certainly the way to go.
I’ve never heard of Jane and was wondering if it is an international site. I’m in the UK. In the past, I have looked at sites to sell of my designs, but didn’t go through with the project. I know Etsy is a big deal in this area though.
I must admit that 25% and 30% seems to be a bit steep in charges. It doesn’t give a new small business a good chance to make any really money does it?
Well, it depends on what you are selling and how much you are going to price the item so that it’s profitable, yet affordable for people to buy online. Their cut is definitely much bigger than most platforms I’ve seen so far.
Hello there,
My wife has really been considering the idea of selling on Jane, but has been telling me to look it up for her to make sure it will benefit her.
I saw that they take 25% to 30% for every sale you make. Personally I don’t think is fair since it is too high especially for those who sell below $10. What’s your take on this aspect?
Hi Dave, it really depends on how much you think your product is worth and how far you would go to mark up the price, pass the cost over to the customers so that you earn what’s deserved. Anything that sells within the range of $10 may not be very profitable unless you’re a wholesaler and has the quantity to compensate.
You may want to look at offering something at a higher price range and unique to customers whereby they can’t buy at retail to make the effort worthwhile. Hope this helps.
I think your summation of this Jane review is right on the money. It’s a great tool, but more a distraction for those looking for some real business income. You’re right in that it’s best for items that haven’t sold because the traffic going to Jane may still want it. My wife and I have old wedding decor and items, which I may attempt to sell on Jane – I’m not opposed to the percentage they take off the sale.
Thanks for the review though, it’s good to know that it’s a legit site. One question – is there a site you WOULD recommend for those looking to sell items?
Hi Chase. It depends on what items we are talking about. For example, eBay is quite the destination for collector items, while Etsy is usually used by artist and designers. There are indeed many places, so it’s important to know the cost of selling on these platforms and how consistent you can acquire profitable traffic from them.