Woodworking isn’t what most would consider a high-tech industry. Crafts in the trade are most often handmade using relatively old-school tools.
But an Indiana start-up has created a digital marketplace to help woodworking artisans reach a broader market and aid buyers in finding those one-of-a-kind items they’re seeking.
For the past decade Tyler Jones has watched his grandfather, Phil Jones, painstakingly create unique, often quite valuable, woodworking pieces out of his Decatur, Illinois woodshop. A wood-carved dining room table with seating for up to 20 made by the elder Jones was valued at more than $30,000.
Jones, who works for a tech firm in Indianapolis, began talking with his grandfather about sales channels for his work. “We started talking about the gap in the market for a woodworking marketplace,” Jones relates.
Woodworkers often find their products get lost in the shuffle at larger, broader marketplaces like Craig’s List, Etsy and Facebook Marketplace. The artisans “feel like they get drowned out and the orders are on the smaller side,” Jones explains.
So, Jones and his business partner, Andrew Duncan, came up with a plan. Jones and Duncan know their way around digital sales and have experience with tech start-ups.
The two met while working for Lessonly, an Indianapolis tech firm that sold sales training and coaching software and services. Lessonly was sold to San Diego-based Seismic in late 2021. Jones continues to work for Seismic full-time in Indiana as senior director for mid-market sales, while Duncan now works for Conga, a document automation firm with an office in Indianapolis. Duncan got his start in the tech industry working for Angie’s List.
Jones and Duncan started building the marketplace, dubbed Chizel, in November and opened the digital marketplace to the public February 28.
“My wife would say I’m bad at relaxing,” Jones says. “So, I get up early and work on Chizel before I go to work for Seismic.” Jones and his wife are also busy raising a two-month-old baby.
The digital marketplace is designed to let buyers search by price, artist, geographic location (some items can’t be shipped), type of work and a litany of other characteristics. Artisans have an opportunity not only to list items on the site but have a digital storefront on Chizel with an in-depth personal profile, contact and shipping information, product reviews and other information about their work.
Chizel already has listings from more than 25 woodworkers from around the Midwest, with plans to first expand in this region and then go national.
“For now, we want to focus on the Midwest to make sure we’re doing this responsibly and serving our customers right,” Jones stresses. “There’s not a great space for woodworkers to market their work, so woodworkers are coming faster than we expected.”
Items on the site range in price from $10 to $4,000, with many items in the $35 to $100 range. Buyers, Jones says, include new homebuyers, those looking for unique wedding gifts and real estate agents looking to get gifts for homebuyers that use their service.
It’s free for artisans to list items and have a storefront on Chizel. The company, which vets all woodworkers and their work before posting listings to assure quality, makes money by charging a transaction fee for each sale. While big marketplaces charge a transaction fee of up to 40%, Jones says Chizel’s is “well below that.”
“It is challenging to find a customer base as a woodworker. Chizel has given me a platform to find new customers easily,” says Dillon Fawcett, an Iowa woodworker and Chizel’s first vendor. “I also appreciate that it is solely focused on woodworking, so I don’t have to swim in the unending sea of online vendors selling everything.”
Traffic on the site has already doubled since its launch less than a month ago with no advertising. To celebrate the launch, early customers receive a free pair of handcrafted coasters directly from Chizel vendor, R&K Farmhouse Creations. Jones and Duncan are already planning to expand into another yet undetermined geographic region by the end of this year. The duo also is developing a plan to expand their offering to artisans.
“We think we’ve really hit on a need with the Chizel marketplace,” Jones says. “We’re optimistic that as word gets out, this is really going to take off.”
