I am wanting to sell things I make (sew and embroidery) on the net, what is the best way to get started?

Question

I sew and embroider and I would love to be able to sell or take orders over the net. I love what I do and would love to do that for others. I do custom bags, boutique style clothes, purses, quilts, rag quilts, rag quilt bags, if I can get a picture I will figure out how to do it. If anyone has advice please email me or post it here I hope to get some pics up soon.

Answer 1

Sorry for the long answer, but there is a lot to do!

When I started selling online, I put every single thing on there and in a year, I could tell what was going to sell and what I enjoyed making. I had one item that sold well, but it was a pain to make in large quantities. So it went from 6 things down to 2 and now that's what I do.

Your stuff is fine, but I'm sure you know the pictures will have to be different when you are trying to get someone to buy those things. Look at websites of top retailers and try to make your pictures like theirs. Be critical.

Don't have a business name with "mommie" in it. As a professional, everything on your website MUST be about the customer. If you say anything about yourself, it has to relate back to your customer. That means no family stuff, no biographical material unless it is about something that affects that customer and their experience with you. Always pretend that you are a team of people. Do everything as "we", not "I". People don't care if you are a sweet person with a sweet family. They want to know the item will be professionally made  and professionally shipped.

Use materials they could not get in their local craft or fabric store. Do original designs, nothing they will see in a pattern book. The exception is if something is hot, hot hot and you want to offer a knock-off.

Don't bother with Ebay, except to learn how to use paypal, gather a few testimonials, try out new product lines or dump your samples and returns. You need to control your customer's experience, and they charge too many fees anyway.

Etsy is just for selling your surplus materials. Nobody shops there except the other crafters who list there.

Good luck and have fun! Yes, you will have to become a web designer, but since you are a creative person, that will not be a problem.

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Answer 2

If you're going to do custom orders, then you should probably create a website with some contact information (including an email address that isn't personal, since you don't want to mix an advertised work email and your personal email address, which you should protect) and advertise locally. You can work with local orders to design what they want. As you expand, maybe provide a process for people who are too far away to meet to submit designs and approve what you come up with. You could even sell your services on eBay as long as you're clear that the item hasn't been produced, but you'll work with the buyer to produce what they want.

If you move into doing standard items instead of custom-only, start selling a few on eBay and / or Amazon. If you do well, start an eBay and Amazon store. At that point, you're probably doing pretty well. And if you do really well and are able to produce lots of items to sell, you could start your own store.

Answer 3

I strongly advise starting small with a website like www.etsy.com  It is a website for ONLY handmade items.   You signup and get a website that is your username.etsy.com.  Mine is www.TailoredTots.etsy.com.  Then you can list items at 40 cent each for 4 months at whatever price and shipping charge you specify.  You can have up to 5 pictures per listing and you can list multiples of the same Item at 10 cents additional.  Then there is a small (I mean pennies) transaction fee whenever you sell something.  I think this site is great because I could personalize it (a little) but I didn't have to know any web design and they have a shopping cart already set up and they will let you use paypal.  Look into it, it's a great site and gaining popularity daily.

Answer 4

www.etsy.com is a site for homemade crafts.  You can create a store for free.