Whether you’re just discovering Farmstead Seed Supply or you’ve been buying seeds from us for a while, you might have noticed that you can’t purchase directly through our website. Instead, you’ll find our seeds on platforms like Etsy and eBay, with Amazon coming soon. This article explains why we’ve chosen to sell through established marketplaces, what that allows us to do as a small seed company, and how our selling platforms may evolve over time. No matter where you place your order, our focus remains the same: dependable, high-quality seeds for growers who value consistency, quality, and reliability season after season.
When Growing Meets Online Selling
Farmstead Seed Supply didn’t start as a polished ecommerce brand with a custom-built online store. Like many small seed businesses, it began with a simple goal: making quality seeds accessible to other gardeners and growers. Selling seeds online started as a practical solution, not a grand business plan. At the time, building and maintaining a standalone ecommerce website wasn’t realistic. Marketplaces offered a straightforward way to list products, process orders, and ship seeds without needing extensive technical expertise or upfront investment.
Platforms like Etsy and eBay also came with something we didn’t have in the beginning: an existing audience. When we first started selling seeds, we didn’t have the budget, time, or infrastructure to drive traffic to our own website. Marketplaces allowed us to reach customers immediately and focus on fulfilling orders instead of troubleshooting payment systems and backend logistics.
So if we have a dedicated website now, why are we still selling on Etsy and eBay — and expanding to Amazon next?
The Not-So-Exciting Business Side of Selling Seeds
The biggest reason we continue selling through marketplaces is not glamorous, but it matters. In 2018, a major Supreme Court decision changed how sales tax laws apply to online sellers operating across state lines1. Practically speaking, this affects nearly everyone selling online. The ruling reshaped ecommerce by making some aspects easier for small businesses, while quietly introducing new layers of complexity behind the scenes.
One of those complexities is something called economic nexus2. In short, it means an online seller can be required to collect and remit sales tax in states where they have no physical presence, as long as certain sales thresholds are met. Those thresholds are set by individual states, and over the years following the ruling, nearly every state adopted its own version of these rules.
There is one major exception. When you sell exclusively through a large marketplace facilitator like Etsy, eBay, or Amazon, the responsibility for collecting and remitting sales tax generally falls on the platform instead of the individual seller. Because these marketplaces already meet economic nexus requirements nationwide, they handle tax compliance on behalf of sellers3. If we were to sell directly through our own website today, that responsibility would shift entirely to us.
Building the Right Foundation First
If you’ve made it this far, here’s the short version. We continue selling through marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, and soon Amazon so we can stay compliant with modern tax laws while we grow responsibly. Our business is built around many small transactions at higher volume, and several states enforce transaction-based thresholds that can be reached faster than you might expect. Selling through marketplace facilitators allows us to stay confident in our tax compliance and direct our time and energy toward sourcing seeds, fulfilling orders, and supporting our customers.
We have long-term plans for Farmstead Seed Supply, and this is only the beginning. Building a business the right way means laying a solid foundation, and improper tax compliance is not a risk we’re willing to take. We do plan to offer direct purchasing through our own website in the future, with expanded offerings to match. Until then, everything we sell is still just a click away through the platforms we trust.
