Business ideas for selling crafts
OK, you run a home business of making crafts. You have a good marketplace to sell your crafts (eBay.com), probably you have a site of your own to promote your products. But now and then you think of new business ideas, you wonder: how to expand your crafts business? Are there any new opportunities to market your business our there?
I would draw your attention to Etsy.com service – Your place to buy and sell all things handmade. Site started back in 2005, but it has gained a considerable visibility and reputation within this short period of time.
I like their ‘About Etsy’ section – it is short, but informative:
What: Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. Etsy lets you shop by color, place, time and material.
Where: Rob is in Brooklyn, Jared is in Albuquerque, Haim is in Jersey City and Chris is in Philadelphia.
When: After several months of planning and building, Etsy was launched on June 18, 2005.
Why: There are lots of new ideas and technologies opening up new ways to shop online. The big corporate sites like eBay and Amazon seem to be content with a text-only advanced search. We’re here to show the range of possibilities, and just what’s possible.
Well, I am primarily interested in the process of selling at Etsy.com, so I will explore how it works for sellers. In fact, the entire system works much like eBay.com, so those who know the mechanism of eBay will grasp Etsy basics within a few minutes. Just a few facts that are of interest to potential sellers:
Selling an Item & Shipping
Etsy is a venue for you to list your items and for buyers to find them. We do not handle any part of the transaction between you and a buyer. We do, however, facilitate arranging for payment, letting you choose what payment methods you accept, and even handing the transaction off to PayPal® for you. In this sense, we handle this process much like eBay® does.
Once you sell an item, it is the buyer’s responsibility to pay you, and your responsibility to ship the item as described. Etsy does not offer any fulfillment services for shipping.
We recommend that you determine an item’s shipping cost before listing it. This way the final sale price may be paid promptly after purchase. Sites like www.ups.com, www.fedex.com and www.usps.com all offer handy online shipping calculators.
Feedback
We have a simple feedback system for buyers and sellers to rate each other’s quality of service (positive, neutral and negative, and textual feedback). After you sell an item, we’d appreciate it if you took the time to review your buyers.
Fees and Billing
It costs $0.10 per quantity to list an item on Etsy, regardless of the selling price. When you sell an item, there is a flat 3.5% commission fee assessed by Etsy.
And a few more questions that are important to sellers:
I’m in Canada, or the UK, or anywhere else in the world besides the US, can I sell on Etsy?
Yep, as long as you’ve got a valid credit card you can sign up. We’ve got a bunch of non-US sellers in places like Singapore, Australia, the UK and Canada. We’re working on making Etsy an even better international marketplace.
What items can I sell on Etsy?
You can sell anything that is handmade or, a bit more loosely put, hand-assembled or hand-altered. For example, screen-printed shirts are OK. A custom-built computer is OK, as long as you’re making the case and not buying prefab. Furniture is OK as long as it’s nothing mass-produced (yes, you can use power tools to build it). If human hands put some love into the object, odds are you can sell it on Etsy. Please note: we do allow some non-handmade items in the Supplies & Vintage categories.
What items can’t I sell on Etsy?
Anything that is mass-produced or a knock-off. Yes, some of that stuff may be made by hand, but it’s not made in the right spirit. Such items will be unlisted by Etsy admins and listed fees refunded.
You can sign up for free here
Welcome to the international niche focused marketplace to sell your crafts!
[tags]home business, work from home, sell crafts, craft business, etsy, paypal, ebay[/tags]
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