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Artists & Fleas is a multi-city marketplace allowing artists, designers, and creators of all types to sell their wares while getting much-needed support from outside resources. Desires to travel, connect with creators, and foster a community for small businesses inspired founders Ronen Glimer and his wife, Amy Abrams, to open Artists & Fleas in 2003. With an art dealer father and a grandfather who dealt with antiques, Ronen’s entrepreneurial spirit was in his blood. Artists & Fleas has become a local haven for those on the hunt for unique goods, and with a bi-coastal presence, buyers flock from all walks of life to peruse one-of-a-kind textiles, aromatic soaps, handmade jewelry and more. But as his business grows and evolves, Ronen is always looking for new resources to improve its day-to-day operations – especially now.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners around the world were forced to adapt to ever-changing safety protocols. When Artists & Fleas was affected, Ronen had to rethink his entire approach. In an attempt to balance the fun, energizing feeling of a busy marketplace with a safe and welcoming space for shoppers, Ronen had to redesign his business. He began by limiting the capacity of both sellers and buyers, putting up ample signage to encourage social distancing, and enforcing temperature checks and contact tracing for all merchants. Now, Ronen is taking the extra step to help both sellers and customers feel safe and secure when shopping by partnering with PayPal to offer a touch-free payment solution. He’s setting up his merchants with PayPal QR Codes so buyers can simply open the PayPal app on their own phone and scan the seller’s unique QR code to pay for their items.
“At Artists & Fleas … we want people to be able to come and bring their best creativity forward. We don’t want [sellers] to be bogged down with the operational intricacies … of running their business and so wherever we have an opportunity to bring in a technology partner … or some kind of tool, best practice we take it to help create some space so they can do what they do best,” Ronen says.
PayPal QR Codes have already proven to be invaluable for Ronen and his vendors at Artists & Fleas. One merchant in particular, Renee Harris, owner of I.E. Spa Indulgences, found that it gave her customers exactly what they wanted — a safe way to purchase products without touching cash, credit cards, or other devices.
“The QR codes are very visible and [customers] can just scan and make their payment and they don’t have to touch anything. … They don’t even have to pull out their credit card!” – Renee says
Renee’s natural bath and body shop started as a labor of love to help a few family members suffering from illnesses that affected their skin. After refining her recipes and developing more products, it flourished into a small business that now has a loyal fanbase. But during the worst peaks of the pandemic, Renee was forced to keep her interactions strictly online. Now that Artists & Fleas has resumed in-person markets, Renee is happy to see her customers face-to-face again while using PayPal QR Codes to keep them safe.
“Honestly, it just makes things easier,” says Michelle Fleet, owner of fiber arts company Suri & Caya and another Artists & Fleas vendor that’s excited to adopt PayPal’s touchless transactions. “When you’re fiddling for things or if someone is hesitant to get too close, all of that goes away when they have these options available to them… they could just scan the QR code.”
Michelle’s business began as a small hobby while she toured as a professional dancer, and it soon became a thriving success. After having to rely on online sales throughout most of the pandemic, Michelle’s unique business found a home at Artists & Fleas last October, and she has been nothing but pleased with the results. Michelle finds PayPal’s QR Codes to be a huge improvement in the way she interacts with her customers.
Both Renee and Michelle have worked hard to earn success in their small businesses and they would encourage any aspiring entrepreneur to do the same. Their advice is simple: Focus on what you want to make and whom you want to serve, and don’t be afraid of failure. Once you do that, the rest is determination and assembling the right team of people to help you succeed.
“Perception becomes reality for many shoppers,” says Ronen, “and I think to walk in [a local business] and see … [touchless payments] with small, creative entrepreneurs and small businesses, I think it gives people a lot of peace of mind and allows them to feel better than they already may have by supporting small businesses.”
PayPal QR Codes help make an easy, fast and safe check out for both business owners and the customers they can rely on. Visit Artists & Fleas in Williamsburg (70 N 7th St., Brooklyn, NY 11249) every weekend in June to help support local small businesses and experience paying touch-free in person with PayPal QR Codes.
