How to Sell Handmade Crafts Online And Make Money With Ecwid

Crafters and artisans are learning a secret: that now it’s easier than ever to sell their crafts—thanks to a ton of places to sell online. Ecwid works well with a ton of online marketplaces, including the one that’s a good fit for you, your crafts, and your clients, regardless of what type of handmade goods you make or whether you prefer personal selling.

Starting a Crafts Business: First Steps

You don’t have to be an expert crafter to know your way around gorgeous DIY decorations. All you need is an extra hour and a few simple items to get started, and you can expand your inventory as your skill sets grow. Here are some steps for getting started in the world of crafting:

Step 1: Identify your niche

There are a ton of options out there for creative people. Your crafting abilities may readily translate into the ability to produce a variety of goods, but selecting a niche market when you’re first starting a craft business is crucial. You might, for instance, wish to concentrate on a single product that you have already mastered making. Or you might specialize in things like holiday decorations or stationery.

By choosing a narrow path, when you’re just starting out, you can minimize the number of goods you’ll need, establish a brand identity, and master your production process quickly. Plus, it’s less likely that you’ll get overwhelmed in the process.

When determining your niche, it’s important to think about the market. Conduct a simple market study to find out where your competitors are weak and discover where there are opportunities for your unique items, as well as what current businesses are doing effectively and how your company may improve on existing models for making sales.

Step 2: Define your products and services

It’s time to focus in and describe the items or services your craft business will provide. If you’re a new craft vendor, you might want to start off by selling smaller things like jewelry, mugs, or stickers, because you won’t have to worry about high shipping costs.

Consider answering the following questions to help you better identify the items you’re going to sell:

• What types of craft products inspire you?
• What crafts do you have experience making?
• How do these crafts fit into your niche?
• What’s the market demand for these products?
• Where will be the best place to sell these crafts?
• What will you charge?
• Where will you purchase your supplies?
• How much will supplies cost?
• How much will production cost?
• Do you still need to research or develop your product?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can map out a plan to turn your creative business dreams into reality.

Step 3: Determine sales channels

You know what you want to sell, but where are you going to sell it? A local arts and crafts fair might be an inexpensive way to get a feel for the business around you. Alternatively, you may start by selling your items in a local boutique or consignment shop before opening your own store.

Of course, you can always create an ecommerce website or sell on a digital marketplace such as Amazon, eBay, or Etsy

Digital marketplaces offer a ton of benefits for both vendors and their consumers. However, keep in mind that digital markets often charge fees for utilizing their platforms, which can add up over time.

Finally, while these platforms have a lot of demand, they also have a lot of competition, so you’ll need to put in a significant amount of effort to stand out in the crowd. But no matter how you slice it, there are many fantastic ecommerce solutions out there; therefore, it’s important to do your homework and find out which platform is right for you before starting to develop your craft business’s website.

Step 4: Start marketing your wares

After you’ve created a company name and brand, a professional business website, and determined the items your craft business will offer, it’s time to start promoting them so you can build up a steady base of repeat customers.

Consider how you could advertise your items in a novel and exciting way. If you haven’t already, now is the time to get your business registered on various social media platforms. Instagram and Facebook will be essential components of your company’s marketing plan.

Your goal here is simple: to explain what makes your goods stand out and unique. Make use of this as the foundation for your marketing strategy. Your promotional strategy should aim to bring your items in front of as many potential consumers as possible.

Looking for Suppliers: Where to Get Supplies For Your Crafts

What comes next in your journey to learn how to start a craft business? That’s right, locating your materials and suppliers.

Shopping for materials online and in bulk can help you keep your costs low. However, before you go shopping, figure out how much inventory you’ll actually need to get started. It should be easier to locate a supplier if you know exactly what sort of goods you require and how much of each one.

Don’t be scared to inquire about where other crafters get their materials; asking around might surprise you—there are a ton of people out there willing to help a newcomer get started, and to share knowledge along the way. 

You’ll also need a dependable inventory system to track your supplies once they’ve arrived. The last thing you want to happen is run out of stuff just as you’re about to place a huge order.

The Best Places to Sell Crafts Online: Global Marketplaces

No matter what you want to sell, there’s an online marketplace that’s tailor-made for you, your crafts, and your consumers. Finding the right marketplace is a matter of doing your research and not being afraid to try out something new.

Selling crafts on Etsy

Etsy is a popular online marketplace for handmade, vintage, and craft supply items that has been around since 2005. It’s changed a lot over the years, but it remains one of the most popular places to sell crafts on the internet. And it’s no wonder—when you sell goods on Etsy, you can reach a global audience of 30 million potential buyers! As such, Etsy really has earned its reputation as a marketplace with the potential to turn your handcrafted items into a lucrative home-based business.

Selling crafts on Amazon

When it comes to selling handmade crafts on the internet, the Amazon Handmade platform is a sort of new kid on the block. The premise is simple: they want to work with vendors who sell one-of-a-kind items, and put them on the world’s largest online retailer. Though they are still in an invite stage, it’s worth a try to check the platform out and see if Handmade at Amazon is the right fit for you.

Selling crafts on ArtFire

ArtFire is an excellent choice for individuals who want to sell handmade items online in the most straightforward way possible. With over 10,000 operational stores and 7 million yearly customers, ArtFire is a fantastic way to get your art out into the world.

Selling crafts on Handmade Artists

Handmade Artists started as a result of a forum group seeking a safe and secure location for artists to sell their handcrafted products. To join, you have to pay a monthly $5.00 fee (or $50 for a year). But that’s all there is to it. Otherwise, it’s a safe and straightforward platform, and might be a great choice for beginners with unique goods to sell.

Selling crafts on Cratejoy

Cratejoy’s Marketplace is designed for subscription box companies to locate subscribers in their niche. They work hard to find the right subscribers for individual items. The recurring revenue model is a promising one for makers and artisans looking to earn money on a more regular basis. Every month, Cratejoy’s marketplace works with over 500,000 members, making it the internet’s biggest marketplace dedicated to subscription boxes.

Selling crafts on Folksy

Folksy is a marketplace for artists and makers based in the United Kingdom. So, if you’re a craft seller from England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, Folksy may offer you a more focused market for your items.

The benefits of selling through online marketplaces

• Marketplaces allow you to reach millions of people who may be interested in your product or service.
• Buyers trust these sites. They feel comfortable purchasing from these marketplaces, more so than if they stumbled upon your website alone.
• Selling here is easy. The marketplace has everything you need to sell in place and helps take care of the checkout procedure.

The downsides to selling on marketplaces

• They charge fees. You have to share a percentage of each sale with the platform.
• It’s highly competitive. There will likely be hundreds, if not thousands, of other craft businesses hoping to attract attention on the same marketplace site.
• It’s not your brand. If the brand name and things like web design and a personalized user interface are important to you, you’re unlikely to find an ideal home on a third-party marketplace. People go there to discover products and find deals, not to interact with a brand’s personality.
• You don’t know anything about your customers. The marketplaces keep this information to themselves which can make marketing more difficult.

The Best Places to Sell Crafts Online: Your Own Website

Your own website is perhaps the best place to sell handcrafted goods on the internet. This is because it allows you to interact with clients directly and avoid paying marketplace fees.

The benefits of selling on your own online store

• You have control over your branding and content. You can truly build your own unique 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, everything is yours. 
• You keep what you make from each sale—as opposed to paying a fee per transaction to Etsy or ArtFire.
• You have access to your customers’ information. When someone makes a purchase on your online store, you receive all the information you need to start developing a longer-term relationship with that customer, including their name and email address.
• 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, with so many options, what way of selling makes the most sense? It’s simple: ideally, you’d 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. That way, all your bases are covered.

How To Start Your Own Online Craft Store

Choose the right platform

Choosing the appropriate ecommerce platform for your online business can be a difficult task. The ideal ecommerce solution for your company will be determined by the size of your operation, whether or not you have employees, and what features are accessible with free software. It’s critical to figure out exactly what you need so that you can figure out exactly the solution that’s right for you. 

Here are some considerations to keep in mind:

• How big is your business?
• How many products do you need to sell?
• How often will you manage/update your inventory?
• How do your customers prefer to pay?
• What sales channels do you use?
• What marketing tools do you use?

Arrange shipping

If your company sells online, there’s another important factor you have to consider: shipping. The time it takes to deliver goods is critical, and significant delays can result in negative customer feedback. So stay on your customer’s good side by comparing costs and selecting a shipping service that you feel confident in, whether it’s USPS, UPS, or FedEx. Then purchase proper packing supplies to prevent breakage along the way.

Set up payments

There are a variety of payment solutions you can set up for your fledging craft business, from those which will enable you to accept credit card payments to more advanced alternative payment options to your customers: such as ApplePay, GooglePay, PayPal, etc.

Think about your branding

When it comes to selling your handmade products on the internet, establishing a brand is absolutely essential. This is your chance to display some of your personality and who you are as an artist. It also allows customers to connect more easily with your brand, your values, and what you have to say about the market you’re in. Customers should be able to infer what sets you apart after seeing your brand for a moment.

From business cards to your online craft store’s website and social media profiles, your brand identity should be used wherever possible. Having a unified voice, tone, and visual style will allow customers to better identify with your company faster—and help them develop consumer loyalty more quickly.

Some of the things to consider as you build your brand:

• What sets your brand apart from others?
• What is your target audience and what resonates with them?
• What’s a brand name that’s catchy and memorable, but still related to what you have to sell? 
• What should your logo look like?
• What’s your website’s ideal guiding style (site layout, graphics, typography, and more)
• Do you have an interesting story for your About Us page?

Write captivating sales copy

When it comes to creating product descriptions to sell crafts online, you want to include specifics such as the dimensions and materials employed. But you also want your potential customers to pay attention. This is an opportunity to use a narrative: How did you figure out the idea for the item? How do you create it? What is its ultimate value?

Add compelling images

Without product pictures, you won’t be able to sell online effectively. The quality of your product images often determine how interested a customer is in buying it. To maximize your selling potential, place your items in front of a white backdrop, with natural light only.

Make every effort to take detailed high-resolution photographs from all angles, avoiding shadows and concentrating on capturing as many of your product’s unique qualities as you can through the images. If you’re in a hurry to get started, use your smartphone.

However, if you can manage to acquire a decent camera and a friend with a good eye for photography, the effort you put in here can only help you in the long run.

Add a blog to your online craft store

If you blog about things related to your hobbies, you’ll have a better chance of being discovered by potential customers. Because Google ranks websites in a certain way, blogging regularly might improve the position of your site in Google search results. A higher ranking indicates that your website contains relevant, high-quality information.

Blogging may also be a way to engage with interested potential customers by allowing them access to your life and creative process.

Some ideas for craft blog content:

• Your favorite artists and crafters
• Your favorite materials to work with, or brands you use to make your items
• What inspires you to keep crafting
• A crafter’s diary
• Free craft ideas
• Advice on crafting
• Patterns, or lists of patterns from places you enjoy

No coding

By removing the headache of manually setting up your own website and outfitting it with shopping cart functionality, Ecwid provides automation and an easy-to-navigate solution for helping you sell crafts online.

Secure payments

Ecwid’s ecommerce solution ensures that you will be provided with a secure system for your business transactions, as well as the ability to reach a large, international customer base.

Online and offline

With an extensive background in online technology, Ecwid is able to cater not only to businesses already selling crafts online but to those just getting into the game. We can also provide an easy-to-set-up model for those who are interested in selling crafts but are unsure how to get started.

Marketplaces

Ecwid doesn’t depend on one model of outreach to sell crafts online. Instead, we work with many. We make use of a comprehensive and efficient interface, along with high functionality that enables you to sell across every major ecommerce platform at the same time. This includes Google Shopping, Amazon, eBay, and more!

Social selling

If you’re interested in selling your crafts on social media, Ecwid will help you distribute your products across major social networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat. At the same time, you can still manage everything from one control panel, taking the confusion out of inventory management. 

With Ecwid running under the hood, you’ll have a beautiful store and global reach, giving you the ability to sell your crafts everywhere.

A Promotional Plan for Your Craft Store

Now that your items are live, it’s time to start generating traffic to your online craft store. The goal is to come up with a marketing plan that involves all of the platforms where your followers tend to hang out, as well as various methods of connecting with them.

Keep your audience up to date on the newest trends, challenges they’re facing, and how you can solve them.

• Use social media to share new content and interact with your followers
• To ensure that your material shows up when someone is looking for the information you’ve created, utilize search engine optimization (SEO).
• To generate paid traffic to your crafts store, use Google Ads or a similar service.
• Create and send customized emails to keep in touch with your consumers after they buy so you can be sure they continue purchasing your goods.