Internet opens doors for crafters

Frontiersman

Geographically, Alaska is in a tricky spot for some businesses. The distance between here and the Lower 48 can create logistical problems unseen to business owners in the contiguous United States, with shipping conundrums and the ever-present threat of still rising gas prices.

Then again, Alaska still has the mystique of the “Last Frontier,” conjuring up interest in products made exclusively in the 49th state.

That paradox is creating a boon for some cottage-based business owners in the Mat-Su Valley whose online stores are turning their hobbies into money-making ventures.

Their medium: a Web site called Etsy.com, which, by all accounts, is Ebay for homemade items.

Founded in 2005, Etsy is a community of sellers of handmade goods looking for a larger niche to hawk their products.

Someone, anywhere in the world, looking for handmade products as opposed to mass assembled, Chinese-made items, can simply visit Etsy, click on buy, then shop local, and type the name of the city in which they live. The result is a list of sellers’ pages expounding on their particular products.

Etsy is just one of many examples showing how the Internet has changed commerce and its significant impact on Alaska businesses.

Christina Seine of Meadow Lakes used Etsy to turn her passion for making homemade soaps into an online business patronized by enough people to keep her elbow deep in her products.

“It seems I’m booming,” Seine said of her business. “Faster than I was ready to.”

Seine has been selling soaps for about three years and her Web page on Etsy carries an eclectic line of original fragrances.

From Alaska birch sap soap — a new product of which Seine is particularly proud — to geek soap, which has no fragrance, Seine can take readily available products, such as beer, and turn them into soap bars that have the potential to pad her pockets with extra cash.

Seine’s page on Etsy is simple enough. The title banner artfully shows her company’s name, Swan Mountain Soaps, and an easily navigable menu lines the right side of the page. Click on a picture of one of her handmade soaps and a description along with the price and how to pay for it appears.

This is where living in Alaska makes an impact. Nearly all of Seine’s customers are from the Lower 48, making the Internet the right tool to reach out beyond the state’s borders.

“Alaska has that mystique,” Seine said.

The Internet helps her exploit it.

It helps Wasilla resident Maggie Morock, too, as she uses the Internet to sell her homemade baby slings worldwide. With a seller’s page on Etsy and social networking site Myspace.com, along with Craigslist and www.mandmbaby.com, a personal Web site detailing her products, Morock has latched onto the Internet business train and is hanging on for the ride.

“It allows me to do something I love and that I’m passionate about,” Morock said.

New to the Valley, Morock and her husband moved from Idaho last year. Before moving, Morock sold her baby slings at farmers’ markets and made the jump to the Web when her products began garnering international attention.

These days she ships as far as Florida and Canada, and has even sold slings in Japan.

For Alaskans, the Internet acts as a tool allowing them to reach customers who would be unreachable without traveling to them, according to Thomas Flanagan, an assistant professor of general business at Mat-Su College.

Flanagan said while the Internet is a good way to sell products, face time is still necessary with some potential customers. But there are those like Seine and Morock who don’t have summer sales trips to New York City in their plans.

That type of digital advantage afforded to Seine, Morock and their hobby-based business counterparts could keep their spare time full of creating whatever it is they sell to fill a growing demand. The ultimate gauge of how the Internet — as it evolves and moves to mediums such as cell phones — impacts Valley residents will be their sales numbers, Flanagan said.

Contact Michael Rovito at  michael.rovito@frontiers-man.com or 352-2252 .