The launch of AlpacaFleeces and what it means for the fibre industry

As AlpacaFleeces.com launches into the online world we want to take a step back and look at how the website came about and what it means for the local fibre businesses around the world and what makes it different from just selling on auction websites.

When you sell on an auction website you can think of that like selling your fibres in a huge gigantic shopping centre, your products will be plonked down on a shelf in the hope that someone might come by who just happens to be looking for fibre. It has to be simpler we thought.

So AlpacaFleeces.com was launched, pretty much like a local designated shop on the high street but one that is open to the world. And the best part? every visitor to the website will be looking for animal fibres or fibre animals, whether it be hand spun yarn or alpaca fleece, rabbit roving, and your products will be there waiting for that direct market.

We hear all too often how difficult it is for small businesses or individual alpaca owners to market their fibres. Just the other day I heard a man in my local wool shop asking where he can sell his animal fibres and the shop owner said she didn’t know. I myself have sat on the internet for hours trying to source fibres to buy for spinning and visiting numerous different individual farm websites and getting a headache in the process. Something needed to be done to bring that all together and not cost the earth to the small business owner.

Another issue was alpaca owners who also own goats or rabbits, there are a few alpaca websites out there, mainly catering for the US market that will happily let you advertise your alpacas with them but if you own other animals you will have to go elsewhere to sell those. That seems frustrating and I won’t mention the huge membership fees they seem to charge. It’s also much localised and not really catering for the world market. Many British sheep breeds cannot even be found in the US and so the US relies heavily on imports.

So the fundamental concept of AlpacaFleeces.com is to unite everything in one place. You own a fibre animal, then the fleece, maybe the roving, then the yarn if you've spun yarn, even hand dyed yarn which you may have then made into a product to sell. The full cycle in one place, not being specific to just one animal and open to the whole world market even if you do just buy locally in the end.

There are no membership fees on AlpacaFleeces.com and there never will be. We believe this to be the fairest way so you don't pay for something when you don't need it. Animals don't work to memberships so why should we? You can list your animals when they are ready, your yarn when it is spun and have complete control over your own shop. Open it for business; close it when you are on holiday. We charge a tiny fee for listing and take a small percentage when you sell but for that you get your own designate shop, buyers that are there specifically for your products and we do the marketing for you! In our first week we have generated 280 active members, 43 shops with 118 products and over 1000 unique visitors and that's just in the first 6 days!

But most of all we at AlpacaFleeces.com hope that you enjoy being a part of the website and our community on our Facebook page. In time we will be adding lots of great features as well as future free listing days. Any feedback greatly received!