Selling your crafts online has got to be one of the easiest outlets for your business. Many of them do not require a large outlay to start and can open a whole world of customers up to your products. Below is a list of the best online selling platforms. Have a look and see if your products would be well suited to any of them. Here are my top 10 places to sell crafts online.
There are a few benefits to using an online selling platform to sell your items as a starting block.
- Test the market and assess customer reactions
- Benefit from advertising done for the selling platform nationally eg Not on the High Street TV Adverts benefit all sellers on that site
- Form like listings enable you to complete a product listing with prompts for what information to include
- Many of the selling outlets give hints and tips to improve your product listings for better sales
Facebook is the logical first online platform to use to try and sell your items online. Many people already use Facebook on a day to day basis so it can be easy to utilize for business. In addition as so many people use Facebook it is easy to target customers and put your products in front of them. Facebook doesn’t currently have an integrated system which can track orders and manage payments. However it is very easy to use Facebook along side a payment service like PayPal to take online payments.
To reach a wider audience it is a good idea to share your business page and occasional posts to local and national selling sites. Have a look for your local sales and wants page and post to this group some of the items that you offer. This will get your business known in the local area and will bring you new likes and customers. It is also a good idea to join some Facebook groups that are national either Craft groups or groups relevant to the items that you sell.
This will help you to target customers that are interested in the items that you are selling. Again occasionally share posts to these groups about your available products. Have a read of this blog post to get an idea of how to get started setting up your business page on Facebook https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/facebook-the-first-step-to-getting-your-craft-business-started/
Some people have made great sales through the use of instagram. Personally I use Instagram to raise awareness of my business and that products that I make. However others have gone on to make sales through their posts.
As a general rule of thumb you should always have links in your profile bio that give the details of where to find you to make a purchase. Be it a link to a shopping platform or your own website. Therefore if a customer wants to make a purchase they know how. It is also possible to link your instagram to a shopping platform like shopify where customers can make a purchase direct from the image posted.
Etsy
Among the handmade business community Etsy is probably the most widely known selling platform for crafts. Etsy is an online selling platform dedicated to handmade products and craft supplies. This means that customers on this site are already looking for a particular type of product that meet this criteria. This removes any competition from mass made, cheap, wholesale suppliers which sometimes cause your items to be overlooked.
It is easy to set up and is easy to view orders. In addition they provide statistical information on how many times your products have been viewed and favourited. Further statistical information is also available on what customers are typing in the search bar to find your items.
As Etsy is currently the biggest selling platform for handmade items there can be a huge amount of competition particularly in certain craft areas. It is also important that you educate yourself on how the Etsy searches work to ensure that you are optimising each of your product listings to try and attract the highest number of customers.
If you would like to get started selling on Etsy the following link can give you 40 free listings to get you started http://etsy.me/2mFiMkJ You will not have to pay to list your first 40 items and will only have fees to pay if an item sells.
Amazon Handmade
Amazon is one of the biggest companies on the planet at the moment. As a handmade business you can work along side Amazon. They have an division called Amazon Handmade where handmade businesses can list and sell their items on Amazon. Sellers are then required to ship their handmade items direct to the customer following sales on Amazon. This could be a great outlet where your can take advantage of a worldwide recognisable brand.
More information on joining Amazon Handmade can be seen on their site at https://services.amazon.co.uk/handmade.html
Not on the High Street
Not on the High Street is an online selling platform where you can apply to sell your items. Orders and payments are managed through Not on the High Street and you are sent payment once you have fullfilled orders by sending them direct to the customer.
The application process can be quite grueling and many people are often declined for their first few submissions. They are very hot on photography and the whole process of how your items are designed and created. If you are just starting out at selling your items this selling platform may not be the best place for you to start. However could be an outlet to work up to.
More information about how to join Not on the High Street can be found by following this link https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/join/why
Folksy
Much like Etsy, Folksy is an online handmade only online selling platform. However Folksy is for UK based sellers only. Customers can come from all over the world however your will only be competing against other creators from within the United Kingdom.
One downside to Folksy is that currently there is no app for the selling platform. Therefore you are required to log in to the web based site to manage your listings and orders. Many people have expressed a desire to have an app that will send notifications of sales etc. Personally I do not see this as a huge stumbling block as I often prefer the web based versions of the online selling platforms to fully manage orders and my listings.
More information on selling on Folksy can be see by clicking through to their site here https://folksy.com/selling
Ebay
Ebay is an easy platform to use and many people have already used it to buy and sell their items outwith their craft business. In addition they often run promotions where there are dates where there are no listing fees for your items. These are a good time to test your items on Ebay.
Ebay however is often flooded with cheap poorly made items that can cloud the market. Customers may be wary of purchasing handmade items on this platform as it is not obvious who the seller is and how the item has been sourced. In addition there are a lot of fraudsters on Ebay who will purchase your items and try to wangle free products by using the dispute centre. Unfortunately disputes tend to rule in the customers favour.
nuMonday
nuMonday is a relatively new selling platform however it is rapidly growing. Their main selling point is that there is monthly fee without any listing or handling fees. If you are therefore successful at sales it can work out significantly better financially than other platforms. However as it is fairly new, it may not be very well known amongst the wider public and may make it limited in customers. Saying that recently promotions of the site have increased recently and awareness is growing. For more information on selling on nuMonday please have a look at their selling information over at http://www.numonday.com/sell/
Shopify
Shopify is slightly different to the other selling platforms mentioned above. Shopify can integrate with other applications like Facebook or Instagram to provide a shopable experience to viewers of your items on these sites. It enables you to set up an online shopping outlet without having to work out how to create and manage a website. More information on Shopify and how it works is available on their site at https://www.shopify.com/
Own website to sell crafts online
In the long run a higher rate of return is to be expected from selling your products through your own website. This is as you do not need to pay any listing or handling fees to the market place provider. Although a transaction fee will still be applied by your payment processor eg Stripe. I would personally suggest that having your own website is an end goal. There is a lot of work involved in setting up your own website. In addition it can be quite a steep learning curve to understand SEO (search engine optimisation) and analytic tools.
One important point to remember when writing listings to sell crafts online is that the customer can not see or touch your item. So you need to ensure that through your photographs and description the customer gets all the information that they might want. For more information on how to write good product descriptions check out this post https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/etsy-descriptions-how-to-write-them/
Good photographs which demonstrate your item are also vital, check out this blog post for a few pointers https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/how-to-take-product-pictures/
To ensure that you are making the best attempt to target as many different customers as possible it is vital that your listings are different. As tempting as it is to copy a listing from one location to another, this will actually do more harm than good to sales.
Some customers will come directly to your online shop from a search engine like Google for instance. If your product listings on Etsy and your own website, for example, are the same the search engine will become confused. This will result in both online shops to be penalized and neither of the product’s locations will be shown in search results. However if all your listings are individual there is the potential for a search engine to show a customer your item several times on several selling platforms. This is as the search engine sees the products as different.
Let me know if there are any other outlets that you have found to sell handmade online. I have recently worked my way through a sales challenge. This challenge suggested that the best way to optimise sales was to have your products available to purchase in a variety of outlets. Therefore I am always on the look out for new selling avenues.
