Why artists and customers need curated marketplaces

Just over a year ago, I left Redbubble after 15 years championing unique, original, human artists and working with teams from Product and Engineering to Content Operations to prioritise them in the marketplace. For some time, I had felt my vision for our artist strategy was increasingly diverging from leadership’s direction. The tidal wave of low-quality generative AI content was beginning to hit, and I could see the way the wind was blowing. 

I was in need of some time out, but I also wanted to find a way back to making a meaningful difference for human artists creating original art and design. Those for whom creating art was more than just a side hustle for passive income.

This past week has seen interesting news in the world of online marketplaces. Society6 announced a sweeping cull of accounts as they move to a more curated marketplace model. Articore (Redbubble and TeePublic) announced they were laying off 17% of their workforce, and TeePublic launched a white label service for merch creators called Dashery.

Marketplaces have been cracking under the weight of vast amounts of low-quality content for years. Anyone watching from the sidelines can see that many want the best of both worlds. I’ve been waiting to see marketplaces take more drastic measures to preserve spaces where customers can easily find great, unique products, and artists and makers can thrive. Instead, I have witnessed platforms like Etsy continuing to champion original, human artists as part of their brand positioning (Keep Commerce Human) while still allowing plenty of space on their platform for knock-offs and resellers. It’s a tough call to remove content that sells, especially if you need to demonstrate growth and have shareholders to please. 

Many marketplaces have also opted to monetise their artist communities to counter the revenue hit they’re taking due to a softer market, lower repeat customer numbers, and declining conversion, rather than investing in solving content quality issues and improving discoverability.

Recent data estimates put the number of images created with Stable Diffusion in the region of 12.950 billion. It’s difficult not to see a future where more heavily curated marketplaces are the ones that thrive, and brands that offer consistent, high quality products and experiences for customers become lasting favourites.

Artists will invest less time in platforms where they have to compete with an ever-growing pool of low-effort, low-quality content. They will prioritise brands that are truly rooting for them and providing more opportunities for their work to be discovered and loved. Those brands will be better positioned to provide quality, uniqueness, and variety to customers.

There may be a place in the e-commerce world for truly unique and talented artists incorporating AI in ways that haven’t even been imagined yet. But low-quality, low effort, generative AI stuff ain’t it. It’s a short-term strategy to maintain growth at the expense of brand reputation, customer trust, and loyalty.

In a world that’s desperate for more human connection and meaningful, conscious commerce, brands that take bold steps and curate their platforms to support verified, original, human artists, tell their stories and provide authentic connections will emerge as success stories.