Crafters - some tips on selling your handmade items, please?

Question

If you have a successful home-based business selling the items you create - what are your best tips for selling your creations?? I am interested in making some extra money this way - and I make teddy bears, do decorative painting, knit afghans, crochet, sew. and do a variety of other crafts as well. Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

consignments shops work well but you have to wait for the item to sell to get the money. flea markets or booths at local trade shows work well, you get the money right then but you have to pay usually to rent the booth. In my town we have a free flea market that sets up once a month in a city park. talk to your parks board and see if you can start something like that. the red tape my take awhile but you may eventually have a free way to sell your stuff. good luck on selling the stuff. crafting is my passion to.

Answer 2

Have you checked out  http://etsy.com/  

Their fees are reasonable.

I recently have given this a lot of thought.   I made a bright colorful market bag and wore it to work.  I got 2 orders within minutes from two co-workers checking it out.  What a thrill that was.

Answer 3

ETSY ETSY ETSY!!!!!

3.5% fees

LOVE it, you'll be addicted in no time. Be sure you have Paypal acct setup.

go now! :)

quick & easy, no html needed

Answer 4

I've been looking for tips as well and came across this website with a lot of useful information. If your budget is really tight you can try setting up at a flea market. I've signed up for a booth at a festival that's next weekend for the first time in my life I'll be selling stuff that I made. Good luck to you!

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php...

Answer 5

Put advertisements up in stores, laundermats, etc.  Advertise in the local newpaper if you can afford it.  If you have the room in your house, consider having like an "open house"....let people come in to see your items and order from you.  Good Luck.

Answer 6

its summer now, take advantage of having a table at some craft shows, or other type of daily events as this.  Rent a table at a flea market. they are usually ten dollars for the whole day. or you can ask some small stores if they will display some of your items and you can offer a percentage of the sales to give the store owner incentive.  If you don't want ebay due to cost, can you invest any money? if not, then its going to be tough and i'd think hard about why your even considering this at this time.  You have to spend money to make money.

good luck

gayle

Answer 7

print out some pamphlets or leaflets and distribute them,make it exiting for people by telling them "sale,1 day left to start and then postpone it,give them offers like buy for 100

& get vouchers worth 50 ,print out some scratch coupons and distribute free gifts(free gifts=trash at ur home !)"

i hope this helped !!!

Answer 8

I've been self employed (and am a new member) since 1996.  I have found that PATIENCE is the key word.  I've been on ebay, etsy, have done home shows, done local craft show (at church), sold in beauty shops and I have a web site.  It's all about patience.  My advice is to put all your items up...here, there and everywhere.  Leave your business card in bathrooms at McDonald's, Starbucks...and such.  Talk to your friends.....I always give a way items (not junk, but handmades) from my web site.  That really draws them in!  But like I said, the key is patience and PERSEVERANCE!

Answer 9

When I first launched my website, I put EVERYTHING on there and in a year, it had distilled itself down to 2 things that I enjoyed making and sold well. There was a 3rd item that sold great, but turned out to be a pain to make in large quantities.

People gravitate towards items they would not be able to make themselves. They should not be able to identify the components, meaning no embellishments that they could buy in Jo-Anns or hobby lobby. Make your own wherever possible. No printed patterns! Save that for your own use.  It also helps if the item is useful.

Some things are fun to make but nobody would bother to own them if they hadn't made it themselves, or of someone special hadn't made it for them.

Custom is fun, but most of them really do want to pick an item from a list. That means have stock ready and lots of professional looking photos. Have a nice clean website layout. Spelling counts!

I used Ebay at first, to test new product lines and build up clientele, and to get rid of returned items. It's also a great way to learn the ins and outs of shipping. I would never have known that the Priority Mail boxes are free and that I could do the postage from home and leave the boxes for my carrier to pick up. I haven't stood in line at the post office in years! I charged enough to cover the Ebay fees. Now I just use my own website, but I still use Paypal to process the credit cards. 99% of my customers pay by credit card. I also pay $7.50 a month for my website plus $9.00 a year for my dot com name. So you will have those expenses no matter what. You just have to charge enough to cover it.

I tried Etsy but nobody shops there except the other crafters who list there. They don't advertise except to encourage their members to post spam all over the place, so customers don't trust the site even if they find it through search engines. Many of the shops are sloppy and unprofessional so it brings down the value for everyone.

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