Vendor Commmunity Coordinator @ Shop Makers- External

Position: Vendor Community Coordinator - External

Location: Hybrid, with 2-3 days a week in office (in Mt Pleasant, Vancouver)

Salary: $46,000 - $50,000 based on experience, + bonus

Extras: extended health benefits after probation, 3 weeks paid vacation prorated to your start date, 36 hour work week with half day Fridays year round!

About Makers

At Shop Makers, we’re redefining retail by offering a curated experience of the finest locally crafted, handmade goods. With 27 locations across BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, and our first US location in Seattle, we are proud to be Canada’s largest retailer of handmade & local products. Our mission is simple yet bold: empower local artisans by giving them a platform to grow. We believe in nurturing community, sustainability, and creativity, and that starts with our people.

Why this Role Matters

The Vendor Community Coordinator - External is the face of Makers to our vendor community.

This role sits at the intersection of vendor relations, community management, and grassroots

marketing; equal parts support specialist, community builder, and brand ambassador.

You'll be the primary point of contact for our vendors' day-to-day needs: helping them get the

most from their memberships, grow their sales, and feel genuinely supported. But you'll also

think bigger: identifying vendors we haven't yet found, building partnerships that expand our

community, and creating the communications and content that keep our vendor base informed,

engaged, and proud to be part of Makers.

This is an ideal role for someone with a background in community management, account

management, or marketing who is energized by working with independent makers and small

businesses.

Key Responsibilities

Direct Vendor Support

● Serve as the primary vendor-facing point of contact for the Canadian and U.S. vendor

support inboxes, managing day-to-day inquiries related to inventory management,

merchandising, sales performance, and platform questions.

● Provide proactive, solutions-oriented support that helps vendors make the most of their

memberships- not just answering questions, but coaching for success.

● Partner with the Internal VSM to ensure vendor inquiries that require store-level action or

retraining are flagged and addressed efficiently.

● Communicate operational updates, policy changes, events, and deadlines directly to

vendors in a clear, warm, and brand-consistent voice.

● Become the first point of contact with vendors during store openings, helping answer

questions directed from the onboarding flows.

Community Management & Communications

● Own the Makers vendor newsletters end-to-end with oversight from Head of Vendor

Success: developing content, sourcing vendor highlights, coordinating with relevant

internal teams, and managing distribution through EmailOctopus or equivalent.

● Moderate and grow Makers' vendor Facebook groups, fostering a sense of community,

surfacing relevant announcements, and facilitating peer connection among makers.

● Develop and execute a vendor engagement calendar that keeps the community

informed, celebrated, and connected throughout the year.

● Identify opportunities to spotlight high-performing vendors across Makers' internal and

external channels.

Vendor Recruitment & Outreach

● Lead cold recruitment efforts, identifying potential new vendors through research,

in-person events, social media, and community networks.

● Build and maintain a recruitment list, tracking prospective vendors and managing

outreach pipelines to ensure a steady flow of high-quality applicants.

● Develop and refine messaging and materials for vendor recruitment, in collaboration with

the Head of Vendor Success and Marketing Team.

● Represent Makers at in-person recruitment events, markets, and maker fairs; identifying

strong candidates and representing the Makers brand with enthusiasm.

● Research and regularly share events with staff to encourage them to also engage in

in-person recruitment.

● Research and recommend specific vendors to fill identified product gaps (e.g., if we're

underrepresented in a certain category, actively source vendors in that space).

Partnership Development

● Identify and cultivate partnerships with organizations that align with the Makers

community, including youth entrepreneurial programs, maker collectives, arts

organizations, and small business development groups.

● Develop and manage our trial shelf and community shelf programs, reaching out to

relevant organizations and managing the intake process for emerging or first-time

vendors.

● Collaborate with the Internal VSM on any vendor onboarding that stems from partnership

pipelines.

Vendor Performance & Retention

● Regularly review vendor reporting and sales data to identify high-performing vendors,

seasonal trends, and areas of opportunity.

● Identify vendors who may benefit from expansion to additional locations and initiate

those conversations proactively.

● Monitor vendor satisfaction and engagement signals (renewal rates, responsiveness,

community participation) and flag at-risk vendors for proactive outreach.

● Work with the Internal VSM to ensure that product quality, audit findings, and compliance

issues are addressed in a way that supports vendor success rather than purely punitive

outcomes.

Product Gap Analysis

● Maintain awareness of the current vendor and product mix across all locations,

identifying categories that are underrepresented or trending.

● Use this insight to prioritize recruitment outreach and make targeted recommendations

for new vendor categories or geographies.

Who You Are

● A natural relationship-builder who genuinely enjoys supporting small business owners

and independent makers.

● A skilled communicator- both written and verbal- with experience in community-facing or

customer-facing roles.

● Someone with an eye for marketing and community content: you understand what

resonates with a maker audience and can write with warmth, clarity, and brand voice.

● Highly organized, with the ability to manage a large, active vendor community without

letting things fall through the cracks.

● Proactive and entrepreneurial; you see gaps and opportunities and move to address

them without being asked.

● Comfortable with data: you can read a performance report, identify what it means, and

translate it into action.

Nice to Have

● Experience in community management, account management, or a

vendor/partner-facing role.

● Background in or personal connection to the maker, artisan, or independent business

community.

● Experience with email marketing tools (Zapier, EmailOctopus, Mailchimp, or similar) and

social media community management.

● Familiarity with retail analytics or vendor performance reporting.

Sound Like You? Apply Now!

When applying, please include a cover letter with your resume (or email it to me at adam@shopmakers.ca).

While related experience is important, we have built a strong and supportive culture at Makers, and want to ensure all our team members share the same vision and goals. Tell us a bit about yourself; what you enjoy doing for fun, your passions, and what excites you about joining Shop Makers. We’d love to hear why shopping local and empowering artisans matters to you, and what supporting the handmade community means in your life.

To get inspired, check us out at shopmakers.ca or on Instagram @shopmakers.ca.

We sincerely thank everyone who applies to join Makers. While we may not be able to respond to each applicant due to capacity, please know we truly value the time and interest you put into connecting with us. Our hiring decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs, and we are committed to developing, retaining, and celebrating our teammates.

At Makers, we foster a culture of inclusion and respect and are dedicated to providing accessible employment practices in compliance with the AODA. Requests for accommodation can be made at any stage of the recruitment process; applicants are asked to make their needs known.