one area of handmade selling that a lot
of handmade business owners don't hear
much about is private label products or
maybe you've heard of them but you think
of them as something that like big box
stores both from ginormous factories to
resell with a big box store name on it
like batteries for example but believe
it or not private label products can
also be a good opportunity for handmade
sellers and can be a very profitable and
successful business model so in this
week's video i'm going to talk about
everything private label what it is how
you can make and market private label
products and why you might even want to
sell them as part of your handmade
product lines ready let's dive in
bonjour my name is dev and i'm the
founder of tizzit deco a membership
community for makers and handmade shop
owners just like your fabulous self you
can learn more about our community visit
hq via the link below this video but for
now let's jump straight into today's
conversation private labels in the
handmade business world let's start by
defining what a private label product is
a private label product is a product
that a retailer purchases from a third
party then sells under its own brand
name so the retailer gets to specify
everything about the product like the
packaging what goes in it and what the
label will say so for example target
stores i've named their private label
brand for home goods called up and up so
you might go to the toilet paper section
and next to the normal brands of toilet
paper that you see in other grocery
stores they will be up and up brand
toilet paper so target as a contract
with a toilet paper manufacturer
somewhere to make this toilet paper
package it for them and then a label
gets put on it that says open up toilet
paper another big example of private
label outside of the handmade world is
on amazon a lot of stuff that's sold on
amazon is actually private label people
buy stuff that's manufactured overseas
in china for example with no branding
attached and then they resell it on
their own amazon store under their brand
name and make a profit on it i think
examples like these are what many
handmade sellers think of private label
and why you might not think of private
label as something that you could do in
your own handmade business but one
smaller version of private label that
you might be familiar with is in the
beauty niche there's a lot of spas
beauty salons nail salons and hair
salons that have started selling their
own beauty products they buy a product
that fits their niche like soap or
essential oils and then they put their
brand on it so that it feels like you're
buying the soap from the spa or from the
salon private label can happen on an
even smaller scale than that if i wanted
to start selling tizzit products for
example i could contract with an
essential oil candle maker by you know
energizing peppermint and calming
lavender candles and sell them under the
tissue brand name on my website now you
may be listening to this and be a bit
intrigued but you may be wondering how
you as a maker or handmade shop owner
could make money this way so let's talk
about that the money
there are two ways to make money using
private label products buying them to
resale or selling your product as
private label to other retailers the
first way is adding private label
products to your handmade shop let's
talk about the benefits of doing so
let's say you make personalized luxury
bath towels and you want to add some spa
stuff to your store like candles and
stuff because they go really well with
your towels and that whole luxury
bathroom experience or the at home spa
experience that your customers are
looking for but you don't have the
experience don't know how or the time to
learn how to make candles and soap so a
great option for you would be to bow
private label soap and candles from
another handmade seller and sell them in
your shop with your brand on it or maybe
you set a line of say lifestyle t-shirts
and you would like to fill out your
product line with jewelry that
complements your t-shirts well you might
then look for someone who makes private
label jewelry that has a style that you
like and sell it under your brand along
with your t-shirts so the beauty of the
private label option here is that you
can focus on things that you're actually
a master at but also increase your sales
by having more complete and
complementary product offerings in
addition to adding variety to your shop
it's also a great way to scale your
business we all know that in the hemi
industry in particular you're limited by
how long it takes you to make a product
and at some point your revenue is going
to be capped by how many hours in the
day you can actually afford to spend
making the products that you want to
sell so to scale you're eventually
either going to need to hire help with
your production or outsource it entirely
via something like private labeling so
private label gives you an option to
drive more revenue without investing in
hiring training production facilities
and the like you may feel a bit nervous
about the private label option because
you don't know how to go about finding
one but don't fret finding a private
label product to sell in your handmade
shop is actually as simple as a google
search let's keep going with our two
previous examples say i'm the shop owner
looking for private label candles and
soaps to sell with my luxury bath towels
i went to google and typed in private
label soap and this page from fair came
up next i googled private label candles
and found this cute website with
beautiful candles next let's move to our
example of the handmade seller that was
looking to sell jewelry i typed in
private label handmade jewelry
and surprise here's one example of what
i could find so each time i searched i
typed private label handmade plus the
product type like soap or kendall on
google and i found dozens and dozens of
sellers like the ones i just showed you
i taught all sorts of products laundry
products pet products shampoo bath bombs
candles you name it and i always found
handmade businesses with beautiful
products that you could sell under your
own business name so it really just
takes a little time and some google good
old google research once you've
identified some private label products
you're interested in selling there are a
few things to keep in mind when deciding
which products you're actually going to
pick and the best ones for you to sell
so the first thing is if the product is
a match with your brand this is not
about how they are packaged or if the
logo looks good because that's all going
to be yours once you put your brand on
it it's more about the details the
ingredients the place it's made what the
product itself looks like and seeing if
those details are a match for your brand
and business so for example if your
handmade shop is all american made or
australian made and that is a value
that's important to your brand then you
definitely want to find a handmade
supplier that's american or australian
or if your products are organic then you
want to to find products that are
organic as well you will also want to
think about the reliability of the
seller as well in general you need to
make sure that
the supplier you're considering has been
around for a little while and as good
customer reviews this is most important
if you'll be selling a large percentage
of private labels products in your shop
but even if you only plan to sell a
small amount of private label products
you still want to do a little bit of
background research on the business that
you're considering to make sure they
will be reliable and send good quality
products now i bet some of you may be
worrying and thinking
but then you know it's not is it really
handmade if i'm not the one that's
making the product but the reality is of
course it is think of it this way if you
expanded your business and hired an
employee to make the products for you
you wouldn't feel this way right and
this scenario is really no different you
are outsourcing and having someone hand
make certain products for you now let's
talk about selling your own products as
private label so for example let's say
you make soap and you sell it in your
handmade store one way to expand your
business would be to also sell your
soaps wholesale or private label so
we're all pretty familiar with the idea
of selling wholesale i think when you
sell as private label the key difference
is that you don't brand your products
and you enter a private label agreement
instead with your retailers so this is a
very real option to diversify your
revenue streams that you might want to
consider now i know that deciding what
products you want to sell and how you
want to go about selling them are very
important decisions so in addition to
this video i also have one about
planning your handmade product line that
will help you decide which products you
want to sell in your handmade shop i'm
going to put the link below for you to
watch next thanks for watching this one
make sure to check the links below and
until next time subscribe and au revoir