Watch out, Etsy. Amazon is looking to play in the world of homemade items, and it's a retail juggernaut that could have a pretty imposing presence if it find a way to lure home craft-makers to its new to-be-launched service.

To start out, Amazon is apparently sending emails to some Etsy sellers and asking them to come check out a preview of the site's new "Handmade" section. Sort-of. The section itself doesn't appear to be built out, since those attempting to view it are instead taken to a questionnaire that asks them a bunch of particulars: Details about their business, details about whether they are (or or not) selling items on Amazon already, and details about the kinds of products they do currently sell.

And, of course, you can also recommend Amazon Handmade to other sellers you know. Presumably, they'll also then get an email asking them to fill out Amazon's small surveyas well, they'll probably then get signed up for any and all email updates related to Handmade's launch.

As for when Amazon might officially launch Handmadewhat it might look like and how interested sellers might get themselves involvedis anyone's guess right now. The big part of the equation is still Amazon's potential pricing model for the new section. If Amazon still hopes to take around a 15% or so cut, on average, of sellers' sales, that's going to be a pretty big problem when you compare it to Etsy's more meager 3.5-percent commission (and 20-cent listing fee).

Amazon hasn't teased any fee details just yet. Even if the retail giant did come in a little higher than Etsy (say, five percent), that could always be offset for sellers by the sheer volume of items they might be able to sell on Amazona much higher-volume retail presence than other artisan goods sites. According to The Wall Street Journal, Etsy has around 20.8 million or so shoppers who have bought at least one item in the past 12 months. Amazon, in contrast, has around 278 million active accounts or so.

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There's also no word just yet on how Amazon's special servicesnamely, Amazon Primemight factor into Handmade. While it would be great for potential buyers if they could get their items quicker, that might not work as well when it's actual people selling and shipping handmade goods, versus speed-shipping an item out of one of Amazon's warehouses.

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