Selling Crafts Online: which sales platforms do you use?

I wonder how much you are selling. I have found pattern selling is best - for me - on eBay, but that isn't a business; just me trying to reduce "stash".

How to start a successful sewing business and make a profit in your first year has some excellent tips about increasing sales for little or no cost. It is based on sewing but much of it applies to all crafts, in fact all small, online businesses.

Daisy, like you I'm mainly selling to reduce the growing collection (mountain?) of things I've enjoyed making. I can't keep them all, and selling them allows me to buy more fabric and keep crafting! So far this year I've sold 12 items on Etsy which is 12 more than I sold last year on Folksy, so I'm quite happy with that.

Etsy reminded me last week that I haven't added any new stock to my shop for over a month, and if I didn't regularly replenish stock my shop would not be found in searches. Nevertheless I made a sale yesterday, and I won't be pressured into 'sewing to sell' just to please Etsy. So long as I sell something every now and then I'm happy.

My mum, aged 83, makes jewellery and sells at craft and local fairs. Nothing else works for her.

Suzanne Well done your Mum, it's great that she's found outlets that work for her. I live in a small village which used to do Christmas and Easter Fairs and school fairs, but of course those stopped during the pandemic and have not resumed. I don't think they will as many of the sellers who attended turned to online selling. I usually sold quite a lot there but prices had to be ridiculously low, I'd never be able to sell a quilt there! There are larger craft events in other towns (I've visited as a buyer), but stand fees are too high for me, and I can't travel easily now. If I'm perfectly honest I don't really like doing craft fairs, after 30 minutes I'm bored and get fed up being asked 'what's your best price' for something. The price is what's on the label!

When I made wedding stationery I did two big wedding fairs a year. They were horrendously expensive but I knew that 2 or 3 orders would cover the costs. Wedding stationery is a very different ball game, and I was younger and more active then.

Maybe I'll set up my own website, even though I dislike the amount of ongoing input necessary - promotion, maintenance etc. It was over 10 years ago so perhaps all of that is a bit easier now. I've built three websites in the past which did well in terms of sales etc. another route to explore perhaps.

Thanks for your reply and I wish your Mum every success with her crafting.

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