"Marketing Tip in The Beading Times, an online beading magazine

MARKETING ARCHIVES
Sales vs. Promotions, Pricing Your Goods , Customer Relations, Price Points, Selling on Online Auctions, Selling From Websites, Selling At Craft Fairs, Selling At Home Shows, Selling To Stores, Attitude, No Money Down Advertising, Independent Sales Reps, Customer Referrals, Gift Certificates, Be Customer Driven, Keepers, Mail Campaigns, Payment Types, Packaging, Bargain Selling, Basics of Selling, Working With Non Profits, Start Up Fees, Start Up Inventory, Competing With Imports, Calling New Businesses, Preparing for Sales Appointments, Sales Appointments, Teaching, Selling On Consignment, Selling Gifts, Doing Business Online, Hello, Networking Meetings Retaining Customers, Alliances, Names and Tag Lines, Logo and Image, Marketing to Kids, Custom Work, Design Considerations, Renting Space, Standing Out, Email, Newsletter, Photo albums (Portfolios), Dealing with the Press, Writing a Press Release, Turnaround, Manage Your Business, Quarter Auctions, Corporate Clients, Getting Over Your Fears, Lists, Smile, Gift Shopping Service, Praise your Customers, 15 Second Elevator Talks, Master Mind Groups, Your Customer, Adult Kits, Trends, Product Sheets, Compiling Mailing Lists, Growing From Mistakes, Post Cards, No, Lost Customers, Surviving Difficult Times, Slow Winter Months

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Online Craft Sales Sites

Sandy Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler

I'm sure many of you have thought about selling your jewelry online. You can always open your own bead website. But that can quickly become complicated with dealing with payment methods and advertising. Gaining website traffic requires a lot of time and effort.

Another option is to open an ebay store. The most basic store starts at 14.95 a month with additional listing fees and sales commissions. Of course, ebay generates a lot of traffic, but it is mainly bargain hunting traffic. Your jewelry will be competing with imports. While ebay is a good place to sell lampworked beads, I'm not sure it's the best place to sell jewelry.

Just as there are shopping malls in the brick and mortar world, there are also 'malls' online. Each mall has its unique character. They all do their own marketing and try to hit different markets. There are malls devoted to just about every specialty going. One of the oldest ones for jewelry and antiques is rubylane.com . However, it's prices are really high. It costs 35.00 a month for a storefront. Your site will be nestled among other jewelers, vintage jewelers, art and antique dealers. Jewelry can sell at a higher cost than on ebay.

Recent years have seen exciting online developments for online jewelers. At least 2 websites have opened which exclusively sell hand made work. These sites are for self representing artists only. Your jewelry shop will be alongside other jewelers, artists, potters, glass blowers, seamstresses, etc. People shop these malls to fine hand made unique items. They appreciate the labor that goes into making your craft and are willing to pay reasonable rates for your jewelry.

The most established of these artisan sites is etsy.com . If you have never been there, it is definitely worth a visit. There are beautiful art and craft items listed at various price points. Etsy is well established and gets a lot of traffic. There are no fixed prices for opening a store front on etsy. You pay .20 to list an item for 4 months. If an item sells, you pay a 3 1/2% commission. At .20 a listing, you could list quite a few items with minimal financial risk to you.

The last shop to be mentioned here is a new site, artfire.com. Like etsy, it confines it listings to hand made art and craft items. Unlike etsy, it does not charge listing fees or commissions. Indeed, you can list up to 10 items with no charges whatsoever. However, if you want to list more than 10 items and take advantage of other features, you can sign up for a monthly fee of 7.00 a month - guaranteed for life. But hurry for that 7.00 a month fee. It is an introductory offer only. After the first 5000 storefronts, new stores will pay 20.00 a month.

Regardless of whether you choose artfire or etsy, I think a craft mall is a good way to get started selling jewelry online. For a relatively small amount of money, you get mall advertising and easy step by step templates to set up your storefront and list your items. Of course, it would behoove you to do some marketing of your own storefront. At the very least, consider putting your storefront web address on your business cards to tuck into all sales packages. It's a great way to allow your show customers to buy from you all year long.

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