Where to sell my crafts?

[feedtheworld]

Been doing this for a couple of years now and sell a lot through word of mouth, and craft fairs, however I have yet to find a decent online selling platform.

Facebook shops is just rubbish, impossible to navigate and places restrictions on you for no reason. Etsy is completely flooded with sellers and their fees are extortionate. Tried Folksy for a while but it was very slow. Tried a couple of smaller sites like The Crafty Me but nothing.

Any suggestions? I appreciate buying hand made decorative items is low down on a lot of people's lists, but I would like to give it one last try before I give up!

I only use etsy or Facebook when buying online. But I'm more likely to buy at craft fairs in person.

Can you find a local shop that will stock your products?

What do you make OP? Is your work original or do you have a lot of competition from people making similar stuff?

Yeah local shop or Facebook. If you create a page, get everyone you know to share and do some kind of, get this page to 500 and I will give away x as a prize your numbers will sail up.

I do have a Facebook page, but the shop function on there I find terrible. I sell quite a lot on there but I really want somewhere I can list all my items. A lot are custom made too which makes things tricky.

I'm not sure if I can put my business name here but it's certainly not something there's a lot of in the market, at least not locally to me.

All original, hand painted and in some cases hand made from scratch by me.

what price point are you aiming at? for high-end, there are things like the AffordableArt Fair and the Craft Council which might have events.

For low-end & mid-range, you are probably looking at market stalls in tourist locations. Most online sales aren't worth it for goods costing £10-30 - the price of running a website and sorting the commissions etc is too much.

would notonthehighstreet.com work?

I've had an Etsy shop for around 6 years and make sales of between £600-£1000 per month now (more in Q3). Anyone who says their fees are extortionate imo is looking at it the wrong way. All of my prices account for those fees (it's around 11-14%) and other costs involved.
Likewise, if you sell via shops on a commission basis (normally at least 20%) you'd include that percentage in your cost, but your market would only consist of the people who visit that shop.
Etsy has been amazing for me (once I got everything such as tags, photos, etc on point) and it's a truly global marketplace.
I also have my own website but it involves a lot of work keeping it fresh and updated, a lot of time on directing traffic via social media, and a hefty chunk of cash each year too. Honestly, Etsy is by far the best and most cost-effective way to sell your stuff. They'll give you that global marketplace, free advertising, and a brand name that people know and trust.

I sell on Etsy. Fees look high, but if your pricing's right you should be accounting for them as an expense. It's been the best thing I've done for growth. I've got a website too but that needs me to drive traffic, where Etsy largely does it's thing itself.

Thank you for all the advice, perhaps Etsy is worth another look. To be honest I really don't charge enough for my items so that would have to be the first thing I looked at.

I agree with posters above, Etsy has been great for me too and I don't find the fees extortionate. However I wouldn't recommend Etsy to people selling one of a kind items, as Etsy listings have a 'legacy' and they get more exposure the more times they sell. If every item is unique and takes a long time to complete I would stick to art fairs.

If your work is genuinely original and high quality I think the best way is to build up a following on social media and then sell directly through your fb/Instagram page. This works especially well for customised work. You need extremely good images and a high level of interaction with your followers, which in itself takes time and creativity.

I just use my fb page and sort sales via messenger (couldn't bear to pay commission!) and fully support myself from my 'crafting'. I don't keep stock as everything I make sells immediately once I post it on my page, but if you do have stock I suppose an additional website shop might work for you - you'd direct customers there from your social media platforms.

Thank you. So do you not use the Facebook shop facility? I sell a mixture of one off items and items to order. So an online shop is quite helpful as I can give examples.

You can also use SM for traffic and direct them to your shop on Etsy if it is already set up, so long as your prices already take into account their fees.

@feedtheworld I don't use fb shop, just a regular page in my business name. My work is all one-offs or very small numbers of a design, and very occasionally I take commissions.

When I've made something I post a photo (needs to be the absolute best quality pic), put the details eg size/price in the comments and then followers message me to sort out buying. Getting my posts seen on fb relies on lots of interaction and shares from my followers so I put a lot of effort into having an interesting and friendly/inclusive page - I never take my followers for granted!

Thank you

Make your own website via Wix or whatever is best for that, I use wix.

Link that to your fb, insta, whatever, tiktok probably... I use ITTT to make everything post from one thing to all of them so I don't have to post the same content everywhere, manually.

I wouldn't bother Etsy these days, its not favourable for sellers, its so ridiculous what Etsy will refund people for (out of the sellers money) and if you produce and sell enough to be in their marketing/advert schemes that costs you a fortune. If not, you do all your own marketing really, you may as well do that with your own website!

Thank you. I have thought about my own website, can I please ask roughly how much it costs? Thank you

Not sure off the top of my head but Wix at least is pretty up front on costs.

You can do it entirely for free however the domain name will belong to them - I would recommend buying a domain name from somewhere like 123 Reg.. and using that straight away for one of their cheaper packages, you don't HAVE to use the e-commerce package, you can use the website as a gallery and contact details page effectively, and sell privately via messaging/email... and then upgrade as and when necessary. Depends on what you do/how you do it.

That works for me, because I don't make huge amounts of identical stock, its one offs and commissions so not a huge faff to put up images of exact items and remove when sold.

This is so helpful, thank you. Somewhere to display my work would be ideal. I take payment privately at the moment through Paypal/bank transfer /cash and it works well for me, I always take payment up front for custom orders. I'll definitely look into it, thanks so much for your help.