Are you toying ideas on how to start selling crafts online?
Then, you are on the path to turning your passions into a profitable business.
Even if you do not intend to create crafts fulltime. Then, to run it as a profitable hobby, you must be selling crafts that make the most money. Else you will end up losing out on money and time.
Though making the crafts that are in demand is one portion of solving the maze. The other is to build your business on strong fundamentals. There is more to posting all your creations on Etsy and waiting for the sales to happen.
If you wish to create a successful e-commerce business selling handmade crafts. Then, you can read further to know how.
Know How to Make Money by Selling Crafts Online Easily
1. Know Your Niche
This is the most important aspect of selling crafts. If you do not know your niche, you cannot scale up your handmade business.
That is the key reason I stress about it in my handmade business planner.
Though no matter how much one lays stress on niching down. It does get difficult to define your niche. I get that because I still struggle with it.
That is why in my business plan worksheet, the first activity is about defining the business.
Till you do not get crystal clear on who you serve. There will not be much you can do about setting up a craft business.
A simple exercise that helps to niche down is – to think about one specific person you can serve for a lifetime.
2. Invest in Branding
Nobody buys a me-too product. If the packaging, labeling, and the perception of your product do not signify an emotion. Then, chances are that it will not sell much. That is the reason successful handmade brands narrate a story.
If you have identified a niche for your business. Then, branding becomes much easier.
That means if you identify yourself as a natural hair care brand. Then, you should use all nature-based ingredients in your products. Plus, your packaging and labeling should create minimal wastage. Hence, all aspects of your business must align with each other.
3. Learn SEO
The year is 2020 and you cannot ignore Search Engine Optimization.
If you happen to find a drop in your Etsy sales. Then, chances are that you have not updated your tags and descriptions. Or in a worst-case scenario, you never used the right keywords in your Etsy listings.
Taming the search algorithms to include your products in the search results is an art. The topic is wide and requires an in-depth study. But at the same time, it is simple and logical to understand. You can refer to my previous articles on SEO if you are new to the subject.
If you are keen to know how to start selling crafts online, then understanding SEO is a must.
4. Click Beautiful Pictures and Helpful Videos
This one is a no brainer. But still, makers commit this grave mistake of not putting enough pictures. Or at times putting pictures that do not give a clear visual representation of the products.
It is mandatory to put up high-quality images of the product to give a virtual tour of your shop.
Even if you are selling crafts as a hobby, make sure you provide images of your products from all angles. This will lead to engagement in your shop. Thus, that increases the probability of a sale.
You can enroll in a beginner’s course on product photography to take better pictures. From there you can advance to videos that document your creation and usage.
5. Drive Traffic to Your Store
A simple equation of online sales is —-> the more the traffic, the more the likelihood of sales.
This concept is relevant in the offline brick and mortar store and craft shows as well. But in particular, for the e-commerce stores, the traffic is the backbone of the business. That is because, in the online world, the majority of the audience does not drift to a new store. Rather, they arrive at a store through an algorithm. The algorithm could be of a search engine or social media.
That means unlike the real world, the chances of an audience discovering a new shop are rare. So, it is of utmost importance to develop a solid traffic building strategy for your store. Irrespective of whether you sell at marketplaces like Etsy or in your store, traffic is a must.
Traffic building strategies require a blog post on their own. But if you build and maintain your self hosted craft blog. Then, the entire process of scaling traffic to a handmade business becomes doable.
6. Increase Your Inventory
Do you recall a moment when you bought the only product a shop was selling?
I don’t. I cannot even think of a shop that only sold 1 thing. Nobody in business does that.
The same rule applies to create handmade crafts for sale. You have to put a substantial amount of crafts up for sale. Not only the size of your inventory provides options for the customers. But the more the items, the more the chances of scaling up your SEO efforts.
There is no magic number to the number of products you should have in your online craft store. But as a rule of thumb, you should start with a minimum of 10. With time you should scale it up.
Most of the top sellers on Etsy have more than 200 items in their shop.
7. Retain Customers With CRM
Some rules of the offline business apply to online ones as well. One of them is retaining customers to increase brand loyalty.
It is much easier to get your second sale from a happy customer than it is to look for several new customers. That means one should develop strong ties with first-time customers.
To make those ties meaningful, you should know how to make your customers feel special. A well functioning Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System helps with that.
You can store their shopping preferences in a CRM to help create special products for them.
List of Stores for Selling Crafts Online
There are several options to sell crafts online. Some of them let you sell crafts online for free up to certain limits. Though some require upfront money to start.
Irrespective of their charges, all of them are worth giving a try. I have used most of them and then settled down with Gumroad and Thrivecart.
Below is a list of some of the popular stores to sell crafts online. Though the list can get bigger depending upon your experiences.
- Etsy
- Amazon Handmade
- Folksy
- BigCartel
- Ecwid
- GumRoad
- WooCommerce
- Samcart
- ThriveCart
- Shopify
- Paypal
Conclusion
Most of the companies are struggling to cope up with the hiccups caused due to the global pandemic. The situation raises workspace insecurities and the further prospects seem doomed.
Thus, this is the best time to start selling crafts from home. You can start testing your creations through family and friends. From there free craft fair events and the ones with nominal charges can be the next step.
Once you are confident of your craft. Then, the obvious step is to sell crafts online to serve a global audience.
If you have never sold online before. Or you have never gone beyond a few sales on Etsy. Then, this is the article you need to read to figure out how to start selling crafts online.
The article lays out the core essentials that you need to make your handmade business a success.
If there is some step left out that you think is beneficial. Then, do let us know in the comments.
Below Image Source: Pixabay
Planning to Read this article later? Why not save it as a Pin by clicking on the Image below.
Leave a Reply