Today’s business owners are extremely busy trying to figure out how to get their products into buyer’s hands so they can make a decent living from their small business. Makers are more and more leaning into online sales as a means to put food on the table.
I, personally, love running my businesses exclusively online, and it has opened so many more doors and opportunities to me than if I was just reliant on my local economy.
So, many entrepreneurs and makers want to know where they even start their online business adventure and what avenues of selling online will work best for them.
Just a heads up! This blog post may contain affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase through one of those links, at no additional cost to you, I may make a commission from your purchase, which helps me provide this content to you!
Best places to sell handmade products online
Marketplaces
When looking to start you first online store, marketplaces are a great place to get started. Long gone are the days of the grind of figuring out how to set up your own website as the only way to sell your own products online.
There are new online marketplaces popping up all the time.
Pros of selling on online marketplaces
One of the great things about marketplaces is that much of the heavy lifting of a website has already been done for you. You can simply upload your product images, product title and descriptions, a few keywords, a bit of shipping info and you are pretty much done.
There also isn’t a ton of technical knowledge needed to run a marketplace storefront. The website design and coding has already be set up. You are simply just working on a plug and play type model.
Another great thing about selling handmade products on marketplaces is that you can sell on more than one! Most marketplace platforms allow you to sell on as many other platforms as you would like. Be sure to double check the terms and conditions of each platform, then list away.
Don’t forget to join my FREE Etsy Seller Success Facebook Group!
This is a perfect way to diversify your income. Check out this article to learn more about diversifying your revenue streams.
You can also learn the best platforms to sell your handmade products on here.
Cons of selling on online marketplaces
One of the biggest downsides to selling on online marketplaces is that you have to abide by another company’s, the marketplace, rule and terms of service. This is a major difference when compared to selling on your own website.
Marketplaces can have many requirements such as what can be sold, what can’t be sold, shipping deadlines, refund policies, etc. If your products or store don’t follow these guidelines, your online store could be closed, resulting, in a loss of income for you.
Another thing to consider with selling on a marketplace is that you don’t have much control over branding and marketing to your customers. You may have further guidelines about how and when you can contact buyers, how you can or cannot market to them such as email lists, etc.
You can get started selling on a marketplace platform like Etsy in less than an hour.
I’ll even help you get started! Use my link to get 40 free Etsy listing credits!
See the 31 places you can sell your handmade products online here.
To learn more about what are my top online marketplaces to sell on for handmade products, check out this article next.
Next, let’s look at selling on your own website.
Your own website
Many handmade, online sellers will start with a marketplace, but quickly more freedoms and shift to expanding beyond their own website.
Setting up your own website can be a somewhat daunting task the first time around but there are so many great tools out there to help first-time website builders to get started.
Here’s a list of my top ecommerce website builders.
Pros of selling your handmade products on your own ecommerce website
The first pro is that you have much more control and freedom. You can chose everything from the colors for your branding to be cohesive across the entire site to the format of your checkout page. When you use a website builder, this is super fast and easy.
You also have complete control over your marketing. You can set up fully automated email and marketing sequences and drive customers back to your store for repeat sales. Having your own email list and using an email marketing strategy with your online store is one of the biggest plusses for having your own ecommerce website.
Cons of selling your handmade products on your own ecommerce website
With so much freedom comes… responsibility. You are the sole operator of you own website. Therefore, you have many more responsibilities to keep track of.
One con to website ownership is the extra work involved. You will have to design your website yourself. This can be time consuming to learn yourself, involves understanding the technical aspects of website maintenance and upkeep, etc.
You will also be responsible if anything breaks. Some times html code can get messed up, and you will need to know how to fix it or hire someone who can.
Another con of running your own ecommerce website is the marketing side. On a marketplace, you have all that organic traffic from the marketplace itself. With your own website, you have to do all the marketing yourself and drive your own traffic to the website.
You can do this through organic SEO, ads and even social media posts. But again, this will fall on your shoulders to get eyeballs on your products.
Next, up is selling on social media.
Social Media
Selling on social media can be fun, but it also has a few drawbacks as well. Many social media platforms have now built their own form of ecommerce right into their platforms.
You can see this on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and even YouTube.
Pros of selling your handmade products on social media.
You don’t necessarily need your own website to sell through social media. As I mentioned, platforms like TikTok now allow you to open your own TikTok store right in the app. If you have some basic social media knowledge, you could easily have a store up and running within a day.
Social platforms are trying to make it as easy as possible to keep users in the platforms. One of the ways to do this is to seamlessly combine social media and ecommerce. No need to leave the platform to checkout. All checked out in just a few click. Then keep on scrolling to the next post.
Social media also keeps things fun. These platforms are always looking to keep it lively by adding music, overlays, polls and surveys, dancing elf GIFs; you name it.
It’s also a great option for younger generations or those who are really proficient at social media.
I happen to be a Xennial, a cross between Gen X and a Millennial, so social media does come easier to me than say my 80+ year old grandmother. But, even I can’t keep up with everything that changes from on each platform constantly.
Cons of selling your handmade products on social media
As I said, social media is always changing. Sometimes it’s just a matter of a new app page layout, and you could spend 20 minutes dow the rabbit hole of, “Now, where did they put that button!?!” I know because I’ve done it myself.
If social media is a bit too fast paced for you, I understand. I’m to that age where I just ask my kids where to find it or how to do whatever it is when needed. My teenage son shows me new fun stuff all the time. I love learning, so I’m okay with some of the changes, but others can be rough. Lol.
One other con is that again, just like a marketplace, you are bound by the platform’s rules. You may have shipping deadlines, etc.
You may also have to wait longer than other selling platforms to receive your deposits for your sells. That can be a tough pill to swallow if you need those funds to create products to fill open orders or buy additional supplies, but your funds haven’t been released yet.
Get started down one of these many avenues to starting your own online business today and take back your life from your 9-5.
Want to sell products other than handmade? Check out these articles next.
POD – Where to sell print on demand products
Vintage – Places to sell vintage items online
Courses – Selling platforms for online courses
Printables – Where to sell printables online
SVGs – Places to sell SVGs online
Digital Art – Selling digital art online
