are you toying with the idea of selling
your handmade products online
perhaps you're already selling at craft
markets but you want to move to selling
online as well or maybe you are studying
a handmade business from scratch and you
want to start selling online straight
away or you might actually already be
selling your handmade products online
and you're just looking for even more
online selling options regardless you're
wondering what options you can choose
from and which might be the best fit for
your handmade business today's video is
about just that we're going to look at
all sorts of online options for your
handmade business and talk about the
differences between them as well ready
let's dive in
bonjour my name is dev and i'm the
founder of desert 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 before
now let's jump straight into today's
conversation where to sell your handmade
products online when you are looking to
sell your handmade products
online there are different categories so
to speak of online selling options none
is really better than the other but each
one has a different specialty that may
or may not fit the best with your
handmade business you need to think
about what your goal is and also what
you have time to maintain thinking this
rule before you choose an online
marketplace will save you a ton of edx
down the road now let's move on and talk
about your options what i want to do
today is give you some examples of each
type and explain how they are different
from each other i won't dive into the
tiny details about each one or this
video will turn into like a very very
long video but what i want to do is give
you the information you need about each
kind of marketplace so that you can
determine which is the best fit for your
business let's start with retail
handmade marketplaces which are
marketplaces where you sell directly to
customers the two major handmade
marketplaces are etsy and amazon they
obviously have a huge audience so lots
of potential sales here but they also
have a large amount of sellers so you
have a lot more competition too this is
neither good or bad just something you
need to keep in mind and if you are as
familiar with using amazon for handmade
businesses i have a video you can watch
after this one called should you be
selling your products on amazon handmade
i will put the link down below for you
and if you're new to etsy i also have a
video for that that talks about the pros
and cons of having an etsy shop now if
etsy and amazon seem to be all everyone
is talking about there are also smaller
marketplaces that you can sell your
handmade products on a few examples of
smaller handmade marketplaces are indie
cart and out fire both websites
lawmakers from anywhere on the globe to
sell a wide variety of handmade items
some online marketplaces are more
specific to a country what this means is
that they either only allow handmade
artists and artisans from that country
to sell their products there or they are
much more popular in a specific country
than in others here are a few examples
if you live in america one of the top
handmade marketplaces is aftra an online
marketplace where users can buy and sell
handmade american products its mission
is to support local artisans and artists
who live in america
a popular canadian handmade marketplace
is icraft aircraft is based in canada
and quite popular there although it's
quite popular in canada it does accept
handcrafted goods from sellers around
the world if you live in the uk take a
look at folksy folksy calls itself the
uk biggest online craft fair and it's a
marketplace for british artists and
handmade craftspeople in australia we
have made it the made it marketplace is
exclusively for handmade businesses
located in australia and only allows
handmade handmade work so no mass
produce items there new zealand also has
a handmade marketplace called felt which
is
for artists and craft businesses there
and it also only allows handmade
products
on on that marketplace now these are
great if you sell products that are
mostly targeted at customers in a
specific country or if you only want to
sell locally or nationally but if you
don't want to use a country specific
marketplace another option is to use an
online marketplace that is specific to
the type of goods that you sell uncommon
goods for example is a marketplace that
only carries items that are unique
either in their look or their purpose so
artists have to submit the items that
they would like to sell and then
uncommon goods reviews the submissions
and if yours is deemed a good fit for
the website then you're allowed to sell
on it
i personally love this website so even
just to shop around or take a look at
what's there go and check it out it's
really really cool society6 is a
marketplace for artists and designers
artists upload their design which then
can be purchased in a variety of formats
such as you know prints phone cases mugs
clothing all those stuff if you're a
graphic designer you'll want to check
out creative market to sell your
illustrations patterns graphic design
templates invitation phones or anything
in between if you design patterns
ravelry and craftsy are good options
ravelry is focused on fiber arts
crocheters knitters or craftsy is for
patterns of any kind and also offers
how-to classes the little market is a
handmade marketplace for home goods that
focuses on non-profit and fair trade
goods and empowering women artisans
ethica focuses on organic and natural
beauty products emphasizing responsible
sourcing sustainable production and fair
labor standards and finally ten thousand
villages focuses specifically on fair
trade jewelry and kitchenwares
i'm sure there are many many many more
but this gives you an idea of the
variety of smaller handmade marketplaces
out there to choose from now if you're
interested in selling your products
directly to retailers you could consider
using a wholesale handmade marketplace
and what that mean is that you won't be
selling and shipping to the end consumer
but instead you will sell to retailers
who will then sell your products on
their website or in their store to their
customers tried out the io is a
wholesaler in australia for australian
bows and sellers and its mission is to
help australian retailers find unique
handmade products to sell in their
stores fair is a global i say fair but
am i mean to pronounce the e i don't
know is it fairy
that doesn't sound right i'm just going
to go with fair but i might totally be
mispronouncing this because well i'm
french
so i do that often
fair
is a global online wholesale marketplace
where small business owners and handmade
sellers can buy and sell wholesale
online users can search by country to
only see companies that ship from that
specific country or geographical region
and so that's it's really handy and
really nice to navigate and there's a
lot on there so i really recommend you
do check out fair finally global craft
is another wholesaler of handmade
products you might want to go and check
out another great option for selling
your handmade products is of course to
create your own
website now first i want to talk about
specialty store website builders these
websites help makers and artists like
yourself build their own website a
popular one is indie made which enables
handmade artists to create an artist
website with a store blog galleries and
all that stuff and another option is
pattern now pattern though and that's an
important point is linked to etsy so you
have to have an etsy shop to be able to
use pattern as a website builder so when
you use pattern you will sell your
products both on the etsy marketplace
and also have your own website via the
pattern builder similarly store nv is
both a marketplace and a website builder
they have a marketplace but they also
allow you to build your own website
separately so these website builders are
handmade maker centric which means that
they are good at designing websites that
work well for handmade businesses that
want to sell their products and are
generally speaking
easy to use even if you don't have
experience building websites at all
another option for creating your own
website is using non-handmade specific
website builders to create your website
this option gives you a lot more control
and is what i usually recommend if
you're going to have your own website
because if you're going to have your own
website there are some big advantages to
having complete control over it the most
popular website builders here are
shopify and wordpress if this is an
option you're considering i have a super
helpful video that will tell you how to
get your site set up where i discuss the
seven things you need to do to set up
your craft website so check it out to
see what it entails there is a learning
curve but i promise it's totally doable
even if you're not super tech savvy and
having a shopify or wordpress site has a
lot of advantages and of the the most
control really if you're going to build
your own website the final marketplace
option is social media and i'm going to
be honest this is not something i would
really recommend you do or at least not
as your only avenue or as a long-term
strategy it's not as specialized or as
reliable as the other options we've
talked about today i will say though
that it can be a great way to dip your
toe in the water and see if there's
interest in the products that you want
to sell the most common options on
social media include facebook pages
facebook groups facebook marketplace and
of course instagram what you need to
remember about these options is that
they are for selling anything and
everything so you don't have an audience
of people who specifically want to buy
handmade products on there now using
these mediums to direct people to your
shop is a whole different ball game and
can be a great marketing strategy but in
this case we're talking about choosing
social media to be your one and only
shop which is a lot of limitations so
selling on social media yes but as an
add-on to a marketplace or a separate
website not as the only place people can
shop your items now after hearing all of
these options you might be thinking deb
i can't believe you did not mention this
one so if you had one you'd love to
recommend or bumped up forgot to mention
a sorry i could not possibly fit them
all and b please let others know in the
comment below it's always great to
support each other by sharing this type
of information also if you'd like me to
do a deep dive on a specific platform
let me know also in the comments below
so that i can do it in the future and if
you're still debating whether you want
to sell your products on a major
platform or a smaller one and this video
has left you curious and wanting to
learn more about etsy be sure to check
out my pros and cons of etsy video next
should be displaying on the screen
and it will help you decide whether it's
a good fit for your business or not i'll
put the link below as well thanks for
watching check out the links below and
until next time