I found a new site today called Foodzie, which is a “a marketplace to discover and buy food directly from small passionate producers and growers.”
I haven’t had a ton of time to browser around, but this looks like a fabulous, perhaps etsy-like, site. They’ve put some reasonable restrictions in place in order to maintain the community and truly help the producers that are a part of the network connect, build, and grow their businesses. For example, no “re-branding” of others’ products, you must officially be in business (with all the local & state licenses and permits required), and your products must be reviewed by a tasting panel or have great reviews.
Beyond the basics, though, Foodzie also offers to help with such things such as food/product photography, and they offer group/bulk shipping rates. On the flipside, they charge producers a whopping 20% sales commission.
Have you used Foodzie? Any favorite producers or suggestions for new foodies exploring? Do you market your products there? Let me know!
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I use http://www.regionalbest.com for my foodie fix. It’s more East Coast centric. The site is not as slick as Foodzie but then Regionalbest isn’t supported by venture capital. It’s more a labor of love of the two women who run it. As to their business model, I don’t think they charge the producers a sales commission but you would have to ask them to be sure.
So basically they included any vendor willing to give them20% of their profits. I agree with the comment above you get better selections from sites like regional best and The directory Food411.com that only includes resources that they handpick ( no payments allowed for inclusion) these sites are backed by venture capital and both site are excellent resources for quality foods.