FAQ

If you have a general idea what it is that you want to sell, say quilting fabric, but don't know the type, or brand, you can sell it as a "bundle buy", and list it as a fabric bundle. The same goes for notions (zippers, buttons, elastic, etc) and yarn, wool, or other craft items. Bundle buys are often the easiest way to move a substantial quantity of goods in the shortest amount of time. You can also join our Weebill - All About Textile Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1HcxRoJmMn/) and post any questions to the community there.

Or get in touch with us via messenger or the contact us page. There is no fee to list on our marketplace. Yes, there is a service fee payable, and it will be deducted from your payout after a successful sale. By not requiring upfront listing fees or subscriptions, we are keeping it fair for everyone. If you don't sell, you don't pay. To create a listing, just click on the green text "Post a new listing" link, top right, on any page. If you want to know more about how it works, please click on the start selling link in the header, it will give you more information.

That is ok, we are all different. Reach out via the contact us page and let us discuss your needs.

We are not a social enterprise, or not-for profit, so we do not accept donations. If you would rather donate your goods, than list it for sale, please feel free to look at the "Charities and recyclers" page, but please also ask your question in the Weebill - All About Textile Group for charity recommendations in your local area. It keeps the carbon footprint low to donate locally. Besides that, some charities are overwhelmed and periodically stop intake, while others have ongoing shortages to meet their specific needs. We are slowly building a resource list for reference purposes, but in the meantime, group members may be able to give you ideas on how to donate. Please feel free to reach out to Weebill Online – All about textile (https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1HcxRoJmMn/) any time.

Of course you can sell via your socials! Unfortunately, many people are not users of the specific platform on which some textile groups exist. Socials are also increasingly demanding that sellers pay to advertise, or sign up to subscriptions to share links, and while those advertising fees and subscriptions may not necessarily result in a sale, it can over time cost substantially more than paying a service fee on actual sales.

The good news is, you don't have to be approved as specific group member, or be a spinner or weaver or list only a certain type of textile, or live in any geographical area, other than Australia, to participate on Weebill Online's Textile Emporium. It is like having a permanent destash market on your doorstep. Destash here to raise some cash, or make some space for something else. Books, fibres, yarns, textiles, patterns, new and upcycled goods, services and tools of the trade, all welcome.

The marketplace is keyword searchable across all listings, from all vendors. There is no feed or algorithm that blocks access to your listing. Anyone looking for e.g. "linen", will find find all listings with linen, including yours. Your listing won't just disappear into the feed, and you don't have to renew your listings weekly.

NO PROFILE GATEKEEPING.
Nothing stops you from listing here, and adding your Weebill Online Textile Emporium seller profile link to your social pages too. Or from adding your social pages and other websites to your Weebill Online Textile Emporium profile. Win-win! After all, we are not gatekeeping. Our objective is to achieve real, meaningful impact. Of course, we would appreciate your honesty to not move transactions that started on this platform here, off the platform. If that happens we will have to start charging listing fees. So let's keep it fair.

YOU MATTER
So while you may not necessarily share our opinions or ideals, your support may have an impact for good - on the environment, and also the lives of others. Therefore you matter, and your contributions, matter.

Besides helping you turn a potentially valuable resource into cash, or create space, we believe that collective action can have great environmental and social outcomes. When we collectively make small changes to keep textiles in circulation for longer, we decrease the demand for new goods, and we may impact the quantity of textile waste exported, incinerated, or dumped as landfill.

Weebill Online also aspires to generate funds of which a portion can be invested back into organisations that support women.

This means the marketplace has amazing potential to link like-minded people to trade goods they value, while simultaneously having a meaningful environmental and social impact.

Weebill Online's Textile Emporium is a multi-vendor site just like those marketplaces.

The main difference is that people visiting the Textile Emporium are likely looking for exactly that which you may be selling. Listings here are not competing with household goods, livestock or car sales. It is a dedicated trading space where anyone can destash only textile and craft goods, every day.

Weebill Online's Textile Emporium is open to anyone residing in Australia. So there is no disappointment discovering that you have to pay extra for overseas shipping, or import duties.

The marketplace is keyword searchable across all listings, from all vendors. There is no feed or algorithm that blocks access to your listing. Anyone looking for e.g. "linen", will find find all listings with linen, including yours. Your listing won't just disappear into the feed, and you don't have to renew your listings weekly.

We don't charge listing fees, or ask you to pay for advertising/bumps, or ask buyers to pay for "insurance". By the time you sell, you may have forgotten about those fees. Unfortunately, all marketplaces are incredibly expensive to maintain, much more than ordinary websites, and therefore we can't do it for free, but we don't want anyone to pay for services that did not have the desired outcome.

We charge a service fee only if you sell. If you don't sell, there is no charge. It means that those that don't sell anything, are not funding the sales fees of those that do sell.

But more than that, our marketplace is intended to have environmental and social impact. What we are doing here, goes beyond just selling today.

We have limited the use of the Textile Emporium to Australia to address textile waste here, first. A significant portion of Australia's textile waste is exported. It needs to stop. We can't keep passing the buck downstream, and partake in waste colonialism. Yes, textile waste is a global problem, but Australia lags behind Europe in its approach to textile waste. By keeping the marketplace local for now, we can gain a better understanding of the obstacles people face - whether circumstances, overwhelming or too little resources, a willingness to pay, or a behaviour-intention gap. Keeping it local, also means we are not encouraging drop-shipping, which impacts local businesses and yes, we are limiting our carbon footprint.

I worked for a social enterprise for 10 years and in that time learned a social enterprise is no guarantee of ongoing funding or support. There is also a perception that people working for a social enterprise should all be volunteers and thus it operates "FREE". That is neither true, nor realistic when a social enterprise has overheads like any other business. What is more realistic is that every business should adopt a strong social ethos. We work with, and for, people after all.

A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE NEEDS PEOPLE TO SUPPORT IT
Like any other business, a social enterprise must have a product or service to offer that the community wants/needs, for the project to really have "legs". People may in theory support an idea that contributes to the establishment of the social enterprise, but that is no guarantee that they will use its services, or make financial contributions to support it. And that is why at this early stage I have not set up a social enterprise yet.

COUNTING THE COST
To establish and maintain a multivendor marketplace requires grit and funds. There are an extraordinary array of fees involved that goes far beyond what the owners of normal websites ever have to deal with. It runs into thousands of US$ per year without even a single transaction having taken place. To date I have entirely self-funded this project.

I honestly believe in the good of, and need for this project. We can no longer sit back and wait for our governments to invest in circularity. The textile waste problem is so large, and still growing. Investment into circularity/recycling will continue to play catch-up, and even more so while financial modelling of most circular projects are unattractive. As consumers we must take some personal responsibility. This is why I set up the business in its current format. As they say, if you believe in something, you have to risk playing your part, boots and all.

WHAT ABOUT THE SOCIAL ASPIRATIONS?
Yes, besides the obvious environmental aspirations, I have strong social objectives too. I have lobbied government for over six years to improve the plight of Australia's hidden homeless women. Homelessness affects not only people's financial, physical and mental wellbeing, but also their access to employment, economic participation and social inclusion. Women may be forced to live away from their natural support networks of friends and family when they need it most. As a result they may be stuck in survival mode, suffering emotional pain, and being ostracised due to circumstances which locks them into unforeseen poverty. Women not having social stability and appropriate employment, affects the government resources too, as it will inevitably lead to a greater outlay on social and health services and a smaller income from taxes when women are either un- or underemployed. To the best of my knowledge the full impact on women, and related cost to the economy, have not been published publicly, if it was calculated. I doubt whether the government knows how many women are homeless and unsupported on any given night as even this year's census made no provision for homelessness..

There are many women in this situation. It could be your mother, your sister, or your daughter one day. One only has to drive the coastal roads to see it for yourself. Older women deserve better after years of suffering employment opportunity inequality and sacrificing to raise their children. We can, and should, do better.

I believe that existing support organisations are better equipped to do what they are already doing, and that is why I am not embarking on setting up another charity, but prefer to support others to do their very important work.

By keeping textile in circulation, we can,
* reduce pollution,
* save energy and water,
* reduce the need to extract, or produce raw materials.

Using what we have for longer, shows respect for the labour of those that produced the fibre and manufactured the textile and/or garment. When a new garment after resource extraction, spinning, weaving, dyeing/printing, manufacturing, packaging, overseas shipping, import duties, in-store markup, and labour costs, costs less than a barista made cup of coffee, it is clear something is rotten.

Current online sources claim global production is estimated at 132 million tonnes, and textile waste is estimated at an annual 120 million tonnes. Roughly 40% of all new clothing is never worn. What makes it more disturbing is that 60%+ of fabrics now either contain, or is made entirely, of polyester (plastic).

When we understand that not only is textile to textile recycling woe-fully inadequate, but most recycled fibres used in clothing are actually originating from plastic bottles that we intentionally recycled to keep from landfill, it becomes very important to keep textiles in circulation.

PASSING THE TEXTILE BUCK DOWNSTREAM
Australia is the world's second largest textile consuming country. Annually about a third of our textile waste is exported. I don't want my textile treasures to cause angst for my children, or become a waste problem passed downstream, when it could still be put to good use within a local creative community that may value and utilise it.

This is why we want to keep textile in circulation with mindful trading. Every little bit adds up.