Motivating Mum UK

by Viv Smith of Poppy Sparkles

Whether it’s to fund an expensive crafting hobby, to supplement the household income or even to strive for a sustainable wage, selling handmade items online has become easier. There’s a wide range of applications and programmes on offer to help create an online marketplace, from WordPress plugins to marketplace sites such as Folksy, as well as a variety of solutions for creating your own online store. It can be baffling to decide how and where to sell your handmade goods. Most of the options for selling online will require a Paypal account.

Handmade Marketplace Websites

There are a range of sites that enable you to sell handmade items or supplies under their umbrella, such as Folksy www.folksy.com, Etsy www.etsy.com or MISI www.misi.me.uk , to name a few. These offer a ‘pay as you go’ service, which is ideal for those starting up, especially on a limited budget.

• CMS (control management system) i.e. type in the box, no HTML knowledge is needed, for ease of management
• Listing fees, typically around 20p per item
• % commission on final sale fee
• Handmade and supplies only (some sites also allow Vintage items)
• Individual store with unique url e.g. www.poppysparkles.folksy.com
• Basic SEO and keyword knowledge needed
• Requires a lot of promotion and regular listings
• Opportunity for community and networking e.g. Etsy teams, Listing challenges, forums
• No moderation (although, Front page is often curated on these sites)
• A low-risk option for testing the water, as well as another outlet for more seasonsed sellers.

Gift Websites

Gift websites for designer makers are increasingly popular and offer a similar, but more exclusive, service to the handmade marketplace websites previously mentioned. A few examples are Gift Wrapped and Gorgeous www.giftwrappedandgorgeous.co.uk, Not on the High Street www.notonthehighstreet.com , Swanky Maison www.swankymaison.com

• Selection process for new sellers – quality of products and images need to be high.
• Membership fee (No listing fees after this)
• % commission on sales – higher than handmade marketplaces such as Folksy
• Unique store
• CMS for easy listing and management
• Same amount of work as listing on sites such as Folksy e.g. Knowledge of SEO and keywords still needed to get full benefit.
• Increased chance of Press coverage from site owners’ PR. Before signing up, ask about costs of inclusion in promotional media e.g. fee for featuring in seasonal brochures
• For more established designer-makers.

Own website

• Domain name usually required
• Hosting costs may apply, but some offer a free trial.
• No listing fees or commission
• Control over design, categories etc
• No limit on what you can sell i.e. scope to add complimentary product ranges that are not handmade• Can be a drain on time, but there are some quick, easy to use solutions eg Big Cartel http://bigcartel.com/ , Super Simple Shop http://www.supersimpleshop.com/ or Create http://www.create.net/ are just a few examples. Many of these offer introductory offers, but read the pricing and small print before signing up.• Requires promotion and SEO optimisation to a greater extent than any other option.
• Time and money make this a more serious venture when you are ready to commit to selling online.However, when you factor in listing fees and commission taken, it is likely to be less expensive in the long-run, allowing you to sell direct to customers without the middle-man. Just remember that the middle-man does work to drive traffic to their site, which gives you a head start that you can capitalise on with good use of keywords in your item titles and descriptions. Going it alone requires commitment to SEO and promotion.

Regardless of which option you go for, it’s important to realise that a ‘list and wait’ approach will more than likely see your items sitting dormant and making their way further and further down the search results. You need to use keywords effectively and list new items (or renew expired listings) to help maintain a higher place in search results. It’s also important to tell people about your online shop(s) – pop the URL on your business card, have links to them from your blog, tweet listings etc. The world wide web is a huge place and you need to help people find you.

And lastly, please be sure to read the small print before sigining up to anything – an introductory offer may be very alluring, but what happens when it’s run out, are you tied in for 12 months at a premium rate? And, always check the commission taken on the final sale fee.

Viv Smith, is the owner of Poppy Sparkles (www.poppysparkles.co.uk), creating Handmade Birthstone Jewellery. She also shares tips, tricks and thoughts on selling handmade online at www.vivsmithonline.blogspot.com

This blog is one of 45 featured in my ebook  Motivating Business Mums – now available from Brightword publishing.

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