How and where to start your own online business
Selling handmade items online is a great way to reach new customers, expand your business, and make extra money. To get started, you will need to choose the best platform for selling your handmade items, such as Etsy, Amazon Handmade, eBay, or other specialty sites. Once you’ve chosen your platform, you’ll need to create a shop, set up listings for each item, take quality photos of your products, and write detailed descriptions. You’ll also need to consider shipping options, taxes, and payment processing. Additionally, you may also want to consider building your own website or using social media to market and promote your products.
Etsy has become a household name for crafters and shoppers alike, but it’s not the only option if you have handmade crafts to sell online. Many other marketplaces cater to sellers and buyers of handmade goods, antiques, art and other creative items. As a seller, you may prefer an Etsy alternative’s fee structure, interface, and user experience.
Decide where to sell your products
There are several options for selling handmade crafts, including:
- Online marketplaces: Websites like Etsy, Amazon Handmade, and Zibbet are popular platforms for selling handmade crafts online. They allow you to reach a large audience and start selling quickly, without having to build your own website.
- Social media: You can use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to showcase your work and connect with potential customers. You can also sell your crafts directly through these platforms by using shopping features like Facebook Shops or Instagram Shop.
- Online stores: If you have a website, you can set up an online store to sell your crafts. This gives you more control over the branding and customer experience, but requires more effort and technical skills to set up and maintain.
- Local markets and fairs: Participating in local craft fairs, farmers markets, and artisan markets can be a good way to get your work in front of potential customers and build a following.
- Retail shops and galleries: You can approach retail shops and galleries to see if they would be interested in carrying your handmade crafts.
No matter which option you choose, it’s important to create high-quality images of your work and write detailed product descriptions to help your crafts stand out and attract customers.
The advantages of selling on online markets
- Marketplaces such as Amazon and Etsy get oodles of traffic. They give you access to millions of potential customers.
- For the most part, buyers trust these sites. They’re generally comfortable making purchases on well-known marketplaces.
- It’s easy to sell on them. The infrastructure is all set up for the seller, and the marketplace handles the checkout process.
The disadvantages of selling on marketplaces
- They charge fees. In most cases, you give up a percentage of each sale as the cost of doing business on the marketplace.
- It’s highly competitive. There might be hundreds, even thousands, of other craft sellers competing for eyes (and wallets) on the same marketplace site.
- It’s not about your brand. Sure, you can promote your products – within the marketplace site’s branded framework.
- You don’t have control over customer information. The marketplace sites do.
The advantages of having your own online store
- When you sell crafts online from your own store, you have control over your branding and content. You can truly build a brand – from the visual brand elements you incorporate into your website design to the customer engagement that comes from having an integrated blog, signup forms and social media profiles.
- You keep what you make from each sale – as opposed to paying a fee per transaction to Etsy or ArtFire (more on that below).
- You have access to your customers’ information. When someone makes a purchase on your online store, you’ve got all the information you need to start developing a longer-term relationship with that customer – name, email, etc.
- You can develop targeted promotions and discounts. With your dedicated website as a lead-generating machine, you can then retarget your email list with special discounts and promotions – and track the effectiveness of each offer.
So, what’s a good general rule-of-thumb? Sell crafts online from your own dedicated store and on one or more of the marketplaces where your target customers spend their time. Tease key products on marketplace sites, with links back to your dedicated site for in-depth product information and other items that will entice buyers.
Selling from marketplaces and your own site multiplies the number of people who find your products.
Sell crafts online with global marketplaces
Global marketplaces like the ones below are a great way to sell crafts online if you’re just getting your handmade business off the ground. Start here and and then use it in conjunction with your own dedicated store when you’re ready.
The big benefit of these marketplaces is their simplicity of use.
You don’t need to know any coding, the designs are simple, and creating your listings can be done in as little as a few minutes. And once your listings are up, people the world over can start searching for them.
As I mentioned, one downside to these marketplaces is that you’re competing with potentially millions of others also trying to sell handmade items online. Apart from uploading a custom banner, you cannot customize your shop to make it stand out among the thousands of others on the marketplace site. And it’s easy for potential customers to be distracted by all the other listings competing for their attention.
