7 Tips to Sell Your Crafts in an Online Store

So, you’ve finally decided to sell crafts online. It’s about time. You’ve seen the way the market’s been expanding. Even people who are a lot less talented than you have been able to earn a living from selling crafts online. And of course, they have. If you sell crafts online, you have lower overheads, so as long as you can find customers who are willing to pay the prices you set for your products, your profit margin can be whatever you decide.

But before you can sell crafts online, you’ll need to get a few things out of the way. Like making your website and figuring out web hosting. (We recommend VPS hosting, but we’ll get to why in a second.)

Here are seven tips you should follow if you want to sell crafts online:

7 tips to sell crafts online

1. Choose something to sell

Before you facepalm at how obvious this tip is, take a look around the stores of some people who sell crafts online and see how hodgepodge and confusing a lot of their offerings are. They look less like an online store and more like an assortment of knickknacks that somebody’s very eccentric great-aunt has decided to get rid of.

Don’t just lump a bunch of crafts together and call them a store. Really think carefully about what kinds of crafts you want to sell, and try to fit them into a cohesive brand.

A great way to figure out what you want to sell is to look at what other stores are selling. Sites like Amazon and Etsy are quick ways to see what people are already buying.

2. Create your own website.

It’s not enough to join websites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon. You’ll also need to create your own website if you want to build your brand and develop a larger following. Popular websites where people sell crafts online are great for building your audience in the beginning.

But these websites take a cut of everything you make, which reduces your profits.

The goal is to eventually cut out the middleman completely, by funneling your customers to your own website.

Creating a website isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Every day, totally normal people who have no experience with technology create beautiful websites, and they don’t spend thousands on web designers, either. Instead, they use a website builder to create a gorgeous, impressive-looking website in less than the time it takes to order a sandwich.

If you find the right website builder tool, you can even add eCommerce features like a shopping cart and a payment gateway, even if you’ve never done any of those things before!

3. Find a reliable web host.

The most important part of creating a website is finding the right place to host it. You see, every website on the internet is stored on a machine called a server. To get access to a server, you’ll need to rent storage space from a web hosting company. But you can’t just move your cursor in circles and choose the first web hosting company it lands on. You have to choose a web hosting company that will guarantee at least 99% uptime. This way your website will be up and running almost all the time. Ensure that your host has great customer support 24/7, so that if you run into trouble, you’ll always have someone to walk you through it.

4. Choose a good web hosting package.

Once you’ve found a web hosting company, you’ll have to choose a hosting package. When you’re just starting out, we recommend choosing VPS hosting, because VPS hosting offers more privacy and security than shared hosting packages. Not to mention VPS comes with a smaller price tag than dedicated hosting. (You can always upgrade to a dedicated hosting package once your store starts growing.)

5. Take great photos of your crafts.

Now that you’ve got all the tech stuff out of the way, it’s time to get to the part where you actually sell crafts online. And everybody knows that a guaranteed online sale starts with a great photo. Invest in a good camera and take beautiful, well-lit photos of your products, so that people will want to snatch them up once you put them online.

6. Find a platform that already specializes in selling crafts online.

Yes, it’s true that the tip just beneath this one is “create your own website”. But you also need to join a platform that’s already helping people sell crafts online. Here’s why: Brands like Etsy, eBay and Amazon are already known for producing a steady stream of adorable, handmade crafts. So, when people want to buy crafts (like the ones you want to sell), they’ll head straight for these websites, where you’ll be able to reel them in!

7. Advertise your store on social media.

It’s hard to get your store to take off if nobody knows you have it. Advertise on popular social media platforms (especially the more visually structured ones, like Pinterest and Instagram) and watch the sales pour in!

The Takeaway

An online store is a great way to earn extra money this year. And thanks to guides like this one, it’s easier than ever to get started. So, start brainstorming which crafts you want to sell, find a good web host, and sell your crafts online!