I can see why you might think 35% is high. Compared to Kickstarter or Esty who only charge ~5%, we do take a larger percentage. But at the same time, we are not just a platform like they are. We are actually a retailer, and we take care of payment processing and fulfillment to consumers. Most retailers charge 50% of the retail price for these services (which cost real money).
Though Kickstarer only takes 5%, you pay another ~5% in payment processing fees, and then you must set up and pay for fulfillment yourself, which is time consuming and expensive! We think it is inefficient that every Kickstarter or Etsy creator has to come up with a solution on their own, often at a large expense. We want the creator to focus as much as possible on building the best product they can, not on fulfillment, website, video, PR, etc etc.
I understand where you're coming from, but I would argue that your true value add is discoverability or customer acquisition.
Payment processing can be added easily to any customer-facing website. One-time product fulfillment for any number of customers, for completed products all located at one place isn't too hard. Yes, packaging is a challenge, but there are dedicated e-fulfillment services like Shipwire that don't cost so much.
Assuming I have a product that I would like to sell for $100, after accounting for payment processing and order fulfillment (let's say at 3% and 5% respectively), that leaves around 27% for customer acquisition. So I have to decide if paying more than $25 to acquire each customer is worth it. If we're talking about Costco, Amazon, Walmart, maybe. Some inventors would give their first born to get on a Costco or Walmart shelf, probably for good reason too. I don't think Swish offers the same value proposition, at least not yet.
Though Kickstarer only takes 5%, you pay another ~5% in payment processing fees, and then you must set up and pay for fulfillment yourself, which is time consuming and expensive! We think it is inefficient that every Kickstarter or Etsy creator has to come up with a solution on their own, often at a large expense. We want the creator to focus as much as possible on building the best product they can, not on fulfillment, website, video, PR, etc etc.
You can read more about our wholesale pricing thoughts at: http://swish.com/wholesale