Q&A for Store and Website Owners

How can I have my store included in Gem?

We are happy to include all online vintage and secondhand stores and sites in Gem. If you would like your store to be included, send us an email at: liisa@gem.app. If you want your store to be removed, contact us, or add instructions to Gem Indexer in your site’s robots.txt.

How can I see my products on Gem?

Pick a product from your site and type the exact words in the product title into Gem search. This should bring up the product in the results.

Are some stores or products promoted on Gem?

No. Search results are ranked to match users’ search terms as well as possible. Specific products or stores don’t get any preferential treatment. We will work on improving the ranking to provide the most relevant matches for all searches.

Do I need to pay to be included in Gem?

No. There is no cost to be included in Gem.

How do you make money?

Our goal is to create a useful tool that benefits both store owners and customers. To cover our costs and make some profit, we participate in affiliate programs that some of the stores have. In these cases, Gem gets a commission when a customer ends up buying the product.

How does Gem benefit my store?

We believe Gem will bring online vintage and secondhand stores more customers and sales in the form of organic search traffic. We also believe that finding your store on Gem can help you acquire new types of customers who were not aware of your store previously.

How does Gem work?

Gem uses a combination of web crawling, product feeds, and APIs to update products in its search index. Gem Indexer is an Internet crawler, a bit like GoogleBot or Bingbot, that automatically discovers new products in online vintage and secondhand stores. It is built to be bandwidth efficient and a good Internet citizen, obeying all robots directives. The bot visits participating websites once a day to update the search index with any added, changed, or removed items. You can read more about Gem Indexer here.

Is there a mobile app?

Yes, in addition to the website, there is an app for iOS and Android.

Who is behind Gem?

Gem is founded by Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen, and based in New York City. We are also the creators of NYC Looks and Hel Looks street style sites and NYC Vintage Map.

Why did you create Gem?

Our mission is to make vintage and secondhand online shopping easier and promote the use of used clothing. We want to build a useful service that benefits both shoppers and sellers. We believe Gem will bring vintage and secondhand stores not only more sales but also new customer groups. And we love vintage clothing and thrifting, especially Liisa!