Sell Your Crafts Online
There are so many fabulous ways to sell crafts online. Technological advancements have come fast over the past few years opening up a whole range of exciting opportunities to craft professionals.
You might sell traditional handmade crafts in an easy to set up online shop, or you might invest some more time and build your own business website.
Instead of selling hard goods, you might sell you knowledge, providing online instruction in your craft in the form of books or courses, or you might design and sell patterns so customers can make their own version of your design.
The need to have complex technical skills to sell crafts online has dropped drastically, and the opportunities are huge.
Let's explore how you might sell your crafts online...
Selling On The Computer
Today, home-based businesses have an advantage that no other generation of crafters had before: the Internet. The Internet offers limitless options for selling your hand crafts. You can sell your crafts on eBay, or sites like Amazon, and/or develop your own website and sell from there; you can contact regional, national, and international craft vendors, and more.
Online selling sites like eBay, Amazon, and such are typically the same in regard to format:
- Create an account
- List your craft items
- Sell to a buyer
- Get paid
- Ship to customer
In addition, online stores hosted by such sites generally offer some site design, which may include banners, shopping and shipping policy information, ample space for uploading photos of your crafts, and your profile. Even offers more potential to reach customers through Alchemy, which offers a point of contact between crafters and potential buyers that enables crafters or sellers to bid on purchasing orders and products listed there.
We will explore the benefits of developing a website for your craft business a little later, but for now, access as many avenues through the Internet as you can. You can focus on selling to distributors, clubs, or crafting businesses that are larger and already developed, or you can create your own supply and demand chain with a bit of effort and dedication.
Online business and auction sites, such as eBay, continue to be popular among crafters. They are relatively cheap, and can reach global purchasers. Whether you decide to sell your crafts on eBay, or another online auction or business site, you will more than likely need to create an account. You may also need to develop a login or screen name, and password.
Most online vendor sites, such as eBay, offer users some form of tutorial on how to set up pages that display your crafts, as well as enable you to communicate with potential buyers. Be aware that such websites will demand a listing fee for any item. Your listing fees can be as low as 25 cents, but may also go up, depending on the overall price of your items.
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