Pixelsmith Studios has always been about connecting, promoting and celebrating South African creatives. This brainchild of Ruan Smit, Matt Davison and Neal Strydom has become a design-oriented hub for over 800 creatives. Used by Animators, illustrators, VFX artists, game developers and more, the online environment encourages sharing, learning and expertise development amongst local creatives. Since its inception in 2010, the site has become a popular place to find reliable tech reviews, networking connections, local and international artist interviews and more.

2021 has seen the site be redesigned, optimised and given a whole new purpose. More recently, The Marketing Mill made a strategic investment in the site. This was done to enable creatives to make money online through services on the site and help to create an income for digital creators in South Africa. Now if you head to http://pixelsmithstudios.com, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of proudly South African digital products for your creative projects.

While we’re initially opening our doors to Illustrators and Graphic Designers in South Africa for free, we’re also setting the foundations so that we can expand to assist Animators, Game Developers, 2D and 3D Modellers and VFX artists, encouraging them to open stores on our platform. Signing up is completely free for a year, and artists will take 90% of the proceeds for the sale.

While not the first digital marketplace in South Africa, Pixelsmith Studios aims to be the best for both sellers and customers. Ruan Smit explains that “there’s not currently a beneficial place where South African creatives can promote and sell their work. We wanted to create a site where we could empower designers in SA to sell designs and services to an international audience.”. The goal of the site is to build a network and digital marketplace not just in South Africa but one that has international opportunities. Pixelsmith Studios was started to help creatives gain more exposure and essentially help build their career. The team behind Pixelsmith Studios has always had a passion for helping people and looking after fellow creatives. This has become increasingly important over the last year during this difficult time. Covid-19 hasn’t made things easy and creatives need a way to sell their products online and that’s what we have adapted our site for.

But this doesn’t mean that the original purpose of the site has been abandoned. Creatives will still be able to promote themselves, network, find jobs and help each other out on the subdomain, creatives.pixelsmithstudios.com or hop on our Discord server. Here you can find a like-minded community of over 100 creatives who are passionate about what they do. If you need feedback on your creations, advice or are looking for work, our Discord is the place to go. 

Local artisans and vendors wanting to sell their products and unique gifts in an online craft shop in South Africa are increasingly signing up with The Market Place.shop, who recently launched  their new-look website.

The Market Place.shop was founded in 2005 with the aim of providing a platform for South African artists, designers, home crafters etc. to sell their unique gifts and crafts online. It operates as an electronic based business on which people are presented with the opportunity to sell their goods or services as well as connect with a broader group of customers within their target market.

1. Their clientele consists of two types of people:
2. Individuals who are searching  unique gifts South Africa on the Internet 

 People who sell these items or offer those services within South Africa and wish to use our online craft shop as a network to do so.

We prefer to move away from the distribution of mass-produced goods that can be imported from the international markets and pride ourselves as being known to proudly support vendors and crafters in South Africa.

Our online craft shop is still in its early stage of initiating the electronic exchange of goods and services however, we currently offer a wide range of categories for potential vendors to list their products or services under. These are not limited to, but include:

• Handmade Clothing and Accessories
• Skincare
• Handcrafted Gifts
• Arts and Crafts
• Home Décor
• Eateries
• Men’s Gear

Our online shopping portal is best described as “a local farmers market on the web”. We strive to bridge the gap between the seller and any potential buyers that are using the internet as a tool for online shopping.  The organization has realized this gap when it comes to internet trading and aspires to create direct contact between the two parties with the use of an online craft shop. This ensures that possible buyers visiting our website can view products and connect directly with the local artisans and service providers that make use of our platform.

.By simply using the internet as a source for information, customers are granted complete access to search and find exactly what they are looking for. The Market Place online craft shop operates just as any other shopping website that you would find on the internet. Buyers can easily facilitate transactions, add items to the cart and successfully complete the checkout process all on our dedicated website.  On the other hand, the seller has the ability to convey important information such as prices and provide a useful short description about the items on sale without any hassle.

Looking ahead, our main objective is to be able to grant local businesses, that fit our company profile, the advantage of increasingly overwhelming traffic towards their small-scale business by simply using our website as a well-established online market.

If you would like to sell your products on a South African best online craft shop, why not create an account on our website today?  Alternatively, you could visit our online craft shop to search and find beautiful unique gifts proudly made in South Africa to present to family and friends this festive season