Etsy announced that the launch of Etsy Wholesale beta. The previously announced product is now live.

“For the past few months, we’ve been doing in-person usability tests, building the site features of what we hope will be the ultimate place for professional buyers and independent designers to connect online,” writes Etsy Wholesale program manager Vanessa Bertozzi. “And now we’re excited to embark on the next — and most crucial — step towards making this marketplace a reality: to populate the marketplace with retail-ready products from remarkable designers.”

Etsy Wholesale is free for buyers, but they still need to apply. It will be free to vendors during the beta period. Fees will apply once it’s out of beta. Criteria for what can be sold on Etsy Wholesale can be found here.

“We are carefully doing more research here because Etsy Wholesale needs to make enough money to cover the costs of building and maintaining a professional marketplace, but we also want it to have a fair and straightforward pricing model, one that works for vendors across so many categories,” says Bertozzi. “Another note: the beta is open to applicants from around the world but will, at first, only be in English and only support US dollars. We plan to add many more languages and currencies very soon.”

Etsy also announced a new delivery process for digital goods. For sellers offering downloadable items, the company has made “improvements” to the way they can manage and deliver these items.

“Previously, sellers emailed the attachment to the buyer after every sale,” explains Etsy’s Jaclyn Fu. “Now, sellers can upload the file to the listing just once, and that’s it! After the payment successfully processes, the buyer will receive an automatic email notification letting them know the file is ready on the Downloads page.”

Etsy community members sold $101.7 million worth of goods (after refunds and cancellations) in March, 9.7% higher than February’s $92.7 million. 4,534,479 items were sold during the month. See the latest weather report for more stats for the month.