Notice of Marketplace Relaunch, Effective January 2nd, 2025
December 9 2024
Dear Makers and Retailers,
Retail is changing and PBP is retooling to take advantage of emerging opportunities we see in the market.
Our mission remains unchanged: to enable makers, independent brands and producers of responsibly-produced goods worldwide to reach markets, access financing and use effective digital tools. We seek to be the trusted destination for conscious retailers sourcing from sustainably-minded makers everywhere.
Over the past year, retailers have been asking vendors to dropship products to support e-commerce expansion. At the same time, buyers are more selective when purchasing wholesale inventory for their physical stores.
To meet this evolving demand, we are scaling up our dropship offerings, which have grown dramatically in recent months.
But we want to do it better.
Better means driving more purchasing power away from industrial mass production, towards artisan producer groups, independent brands and sustainable factories. We want to replace 15% of fast fashion, home decor and accessories with high-quality, more sustainable, well-made products.
Better means vetting our makers to ensure they meet Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) benchmarks through our PBP Verified sustainability program.
Better also means equipping makers and retailers with the right technology to integrate with retailers’ complex systems.
In addition to dropship, PBP will continue to support wholesale purchasing for retailers, hospitality and trade buyers upon request. We will also continue to offer makers financing on orders. Please contact rana@poweredbypeople.com if you are interested in PO financing.
To provide a more effective service over the long term, we are rebuilding our marketplace at www.poweredbypeople.com. As this transformation takes place, we will publish a maker directory where buyers will be able to view makers and selected products, and request additional information.
Starting on December 10th, 2024, retailers will no longer be able to undertake direct transactions on our marketplace. (Please note that orders placed on our marketplace before December 10th will be honored and serviced under standard payment and shipping terms).
Starting on January 2nd, 2025, makers will be invited to manage their dropship orders through the new Maker Portal.
Dropship requires inventory to be available in the United States and is therefore for now only available to makers who can make this happen.
For makers who do not currently have inventory in the US, PBP is offering third party logistics and warehousing solutions to global maker brands who want to dropship but don’t yet have the required infrastructure to do so.
We are also working to enable dropship from select places in the world and will update you as these solutions become available. If you are interested in learning more about warehousing please contact: rick@poweredbyeople.com.
Next steps:
Makers join us! You will receive an invitation for your new account on our new Maker Portal in January 2025. It will have your information already.
Retailers, join us! Gain access to thousands of sustainably-made goods through our expanded dropship and wholesale opportunities, including our maker directory.
To all of our partners, thank you for being part of PBP’s journey so far. We remain confident that by serving you better, we can give makers in the Creative Manufacturing and Handmade (CMH) space even more profile, have even more positive impact on their lives and communities, and offer retailers distinctive new ranges of products on an even larger scale.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at support@poweredbypeople.com.
Warmest,
Powered by People Team
