A lot of crafts people sell at craft malls like Etsy, ArtFire, Handmade Catalog and any number of others. There’s an obvious question if you’re looking into selling your crafts like this – who’s best?
I should point out here that my recommendation would always be to have your own blog or website and sell from that, but there’s no doubt craft malls provide a useful service for many, particularly those who just want to make a few dollars extra from their craft or who are just starting out selling crafts on the internet and are a bit put off by the prospect of dealing with new technology. For them, Etsy and their competitors provide an easy place to start at relatively low cost.
By the way, I’m not expressing a preference here, these three are just the names that came to me first!
So who’s best?
Sorry, I’m going to dissapoint you here – I have no idea!
For a start we can’t work out which would be cheapest because although each craft mall appears quite similar, each has a different way of charging you. Etsy’s service is not unlike Ebay, in that you list your item for sale for a fixed period. If it doesn’t sell, you must pay again. ArtFire have a free basic service (up to 12 items) and an unlimited option for a fixed monthly fee. Handmade Catalog charges a fee and takes a percentage of each sale. There are quite a few other craft malls and each will have variations in the way they do things. It depends how many pieces you have, how many you sell, etc.
More importantly perhaps is how many people are actually going to see your crafts. Could be the least expensive craft mall in the world but if nobody goes there you ain’t going to make much money!
I’m sure each of these companies has detail statistics of how many visitors they get, I’m equally sure they’re not going to share that information with us. Even if they did, without a break down of what those visitors were actually looking for, or how many of them actually buy, the data has no value anyway.
Bottom line, like so many other things in your crafts business, is that you need to test, monitor your results and then test somewhere else. Don’t just go to Etsy because they’re currently the big name, maybe another craft mall will do better for you and your particular craft. Likewise, don’t just go to ArtFire and if sales don’t go well, give up. Could just be that ArtFire’s visitors aren’t looking for that type of work but another site’s are crying out for your crafts.
Before I finish this article I want to mention one other craft mall that has been in touch with me recently, TigerandLilyBoutique.com
The site is attractive and they have an interesting twist which might bring in more visitors, and that’s that they offer craft projects as well as a place to buy and sell crafts. There’s a regular newsletter (every craft business should have one) and a blog.
They’re a young company and they seem to have a passion for crafts rather than just doing it for the money. They also seem to be putting a lot of work in to make it a success and are keen to attract new craft sellers. Their fees are extremely competitive with a one-time sign up of $10 and then just $5 a month for unlimited products.
It’s impossible for me to know how your crafts might do there so I can’t recommend them as such. I would say that for five bucks a month it’s certainly worth running your crafts there for a couple of months, as well as one of the bigger craft malls, to see how they do. Could be they’re just right for what you need.
If you do try them, please get back to me with your experiences and I’ll pass them on to other crafters. In fact if you have any comments about craft malls please fire away!
The second is selling them and it’s probably the area where most crafters are less comfortable and know least about.
