Where to sell handmade goods? Hint: go with easy & effective!

• First, it is a major gigantic huge hassle to get started. Not sure why it needs to be so hard, but it is. Maybe Amazon just wants to weed people out. I don’t know but there are a ton of hoops to jump through just to start selling.
• Adding new products is also a hassle. Amazon’s photography requirements are almost impossible to meet without a pro photo shoot. And their user interface is cumbersome, especially on mobile.
• Oddly I have not had great sales on Amazon. To be fair I did not spend a ton of time trying to figure out their search engine. And since adding products is difficult I don’t have many nor do I maintain them well. But relative to my success on Etsy, Amazon has been dismal.
• Reviewers can be harsh. They seem to think they are talking to a giant corporation rather than a person who made the thing.
• Theoretically they charge a monthly fee, though they’ve waived it 3 years in a row.
• People don’t really think abut looking Amazon for lovely handmade things. They have more of a mass-produced reputation.

Rating: Neither easy nor effective! All in all, in case you can’t tell, Amazon Handmade is my least favorite option.

• Signing up and setting up your shop is super simple. You can literally do it in an hour or so.
• Adding new products and managing inventory is easy, even from your phone.
• They have a massive following of people looking for handmade things.
• Reviewers realize that you are a real person and thus you occasionally make a mistake. Most know that if they contact you, you will fix it.
• It’s almost no risk since listings only cost 20 cents to post
• Its easy to share to social media and there is a big support community
• Rating: Two thumbs up, Etsy is both easy and effective!

• If you have good technical skills you can build your own website. But expect it to take a lot of time to get it right, even if you use templates.
• If you have to pay someone to build, and likely maintain your website, it can be very pricey. Think about if, and when, this is right for you based on your business.
• You will need to pay for the domain and the hosting as well as a fee per sale to accept credit cards. Still its probably much lower cost than other platforms if you build it yourself.
• Creating the website is actually the easy part. Unless you are an expert in SEO you will get no traffic to your site. Don’t know what SEO is? Well if you have to ask…
• You still have to drive traffic to your site. Etsy gets millions of visitors for you. No one but you is going to do that for your own website. Think social media marketing, influencers, advertising, and yes more SEO. If that’s not your thing maybe your own website is not for you.
• On the plus side, you can express your branding better own your own website than a sales platform, and you have a lot more flexibility in what you sell. Plus it’s just plan fun.
• Rating: Not easy to make it effective but it is super fun!

• You have to make tons of inventory in advance. If you usually make things to order this will be a time and money suck.
• You may need to spend time and money designing and setting up your booth plus signage. Note I went overboard on this!
• Many crafters do these shows more for fun and/or to make connections than to make money. The ones I spoke to were happy if their sales covered the booth fee. What??
• If you enjoy people-time this may be much more suitable for you than online sales
• It is a pretty big time commitment. From prep to setup to long days at the show. Think about how much you can expect to make per hour, net of booth fees.
• Rating: Neither easy nor effective, compared to online sales, but some people might like it anyway.