Today, the national hand-made is confidently reaching the masses. And any handmaker who decides to turn his hobby into at least a little profitable business will inevitably face the question of where and how to sell handmade products on the Internet.
Offline methods of selling are still relevant, but the Internet has huge undeniable advantages - with a smartphone in your hand you are in touch 24 hours a day + the world wide web provides great opportunities for business development.
Sales, including online sales, are delicate and often unpredictable (what can we hide, even expensive marketers of venerable companies like Apple and Samsung cannot always correctly draw up a marketing strategy). But in any case, there are certain "steps" and "chips" that can help with attracting new customers.
Choosing a sales channel
You can sell products on the Internet on bulletin boards, online auctions and thematic forums, on social networks, on a personal website or specialized platforms. Consider the most popular of them.
1. own website
Having your own website/online store is great! But its creation, support and promotion cost a lot of money (or time costs if you create it on your own).
2. social networks
Great popular choice.
Vkontakte, Facebook, Instagram offer ample opportunities to attract the right audience. In VK and FB you can create, fill and promote your group / page, add a store. There is a mobile application, a convenient chat + you can accumulate reviews from real customers.
Instagram is focused on photography. But you can post beautiful photos of your work, gain subscribers and indicate the conditions for purchase in the comments. There are many tools for working with photos. How to use Instagram, about image processing and increasing popularity, is well written on the site http://instagrama.ru/ .
3. marketplaces for handmakers
It is more convenient and profitable to work on such handmade sites. Firstly, ready-made functionality in the form of categories, galleries, reviews, online chats. Secondly, they invest well in advertising and work to attract interested customers. Of course, they either work for a commission on sales, or sell subscriptions for a month, two, or a year.
This is not a question of money. It's a matter of efficiency. No business can be built without investment.
Russian platforms:
The most popular is http://www.livemaster.ru/. 3 works can be placed for free. Next, you need to buy a club card. The minimum Standard costs 90 rubles per month.
https://skafos.ru/ - all goods are placed free of charge. Payment and delivery is under the control of the site. The buyer is given 3 days to check the quality of the goods. After this period, you will receive full payment. The site takes a commission of 8%.
https://lmbd.ru/. You can add 3 products to the store for free. There is no sales commission. A 3-month subscription for 14 products costs 500 rubles, for 500 products - 2,800 rubles.
Consider not only Russian sites for the sale of handicrafts, you can successfully sell on the sites of all post-Soviet countries.
Ukraine: http://zolotiruky.in.ua/, https://bitok.ua/, http://skrynya.ua/, http://handmadeua.com.ua/, http://cudesa.net/ , http://crafta.ua/, http://uamade.com.ua/
Belarus: http://handwork.by/, https://ceh32.by/, http://www.evna.by, https://skrmaster.by/
Let's not forget about the huge hand-made audience in Europe and the USA.
It is she who hangs out on the world's largest handmade site https://www.etsy.com/.
The site interface has been translated into Russian! Placing one item costs $0.20. Commission on each sale 3.5%.
http://www.shophandmade.com/. Adding products to the store is free, the commission for each transaction is 5.5%.
https://en.dawanda.com/ Placement is free, sales commission is 3.5%.
When choosing a site, pay attention to its attendance, attractiveness and ease of use from the point of view of the buyer, as well as the availability of the proposed tools for promotion.
Learning to present a product
Learn to put yourself in the client's shoes. Earrings called “Winter Joy” sound very beautiful and mysterious, but users will not use such phrases when searching for the right jewelry. In the minimum version, it will be “buy handmade earrings”, the maximum will be “buy handmade earrings made of polymer clay with roses”. Therefore, we do not focus on the beauty of the syllable, but take into account user requests as much as possible. There are special statistics services: Google Keywords and Yandex Wordstat. If you don't know each other, it's time to get to know each other better.
Each product must be accompanied by a capacious description: materials, dimensions, manufacturing time, advantages, possibly, product care features, its history, if any.
High-quality photos are the best "assistants" of the seller
The most significant drawback of online shopping is the inability to touch and see the goods live. Therefore, responsibly approach the creation of a gallery. Your diary / leather belt / phone case / bracelet or wish book can be as beautiful and original as you like, but visitors to the site are unlikely to choose it if the product is poorly photographed.
Here are some tips on how to take high-quality and attractive photos.
- shoot products during the day, the color rendition will be as real as possible;
- choose a neutral background, otherwise you will shift the focus from the product being sold to foreign objects;
- take a series of pictures so that you can view the product from all sides, the so-called 360 angle;
- use your small logo or business card to confirm the authorship of the picture.
Pay attention to how other masters arrange their work. If you're selling jewelry, buy a piece of pretty fabric, a clay pot, or a ceramic cup to serve as a stand for your artwork.
Below are some ideas for presenting handmade earrings.
We set the right price
It must, of course, cover your costs for materials and labor, but also be acceptable to buyers. Google or search handmade platforms for a similar product. What price is your competitor asking? Then look at your products "critically" through the eyes of buyers. Is the item worth the asking price?
Don't forget about packaging
Stylish and beautiful packaging increases interest in the product by 30%!
And business news portal Business Insider claims that more than 50% of online shoppers are ready to re-apply to the company whose goods arrived in high-quality packaging.
Be sure to show in one of the photos how the product will look in the package. This is especially important if the item is being bought as a gift!
Payment + delivery
Consider options for accepting payment for goods and methods of delivery. In the product description, indicate the exact amount of delivery or give a link to the carrier's tariffs.
A splash photo can be provided with indications of a special promotional price, free shipping, or other catchy information.
A couple more tips to help you succeed and make money on handmade:
# Quick response to requests
Each client expects a prompt detailed response and the fastest order processing. The longer the customer waits for your response, the greater the chance that he will have time to find the product elsewhere.
# Collect reviews
Encourage customers to leave feedback on the purchase! Offer them a discount on their next item, free shipping, or another review bonus. Get yourself at least 10-20 positive reviews. Your new customers will definitely read them!
# Do more!
Send a small surprise to the customer along with the order. This will not be expensive for you (or add a small amount to the cost of the finished product in advance). The client will be pleasantly surprised. For example, when ordering a men's belt, they clarified whether it was a gift. And they sent the order in a gift box with a cleaning handmade postcard.
Give your customers more than they expect and they'll come back!
Polina Morozova, especially for shop-ultra.ru
