Where is the Best Place to Sell Art Online?
Whether you’re an artist or a crafter, selling your work online can feel extremely intimidating!
Not only are you figuring out what crafts to make and sell online, how to price them, and where to sell them, you also have to learn a lot of new tech which probably won’t come naturally to you.
As you start navigating the massive web of information about starting an online craft business, one of the biggest questions you might have at the beginning is “where is the best place to sell art online?”
I recently received an email from an aspiring craft artist with this exact question that made me decide to do a deep dive into this topic.
Here’s what she wrote:
“Where do I sell [my crafts] online? Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, any of the other many craft sites? All of them? Start with one? Which one?
I'm scared….I have family support, but I don't know where to focus...
HELP!!
First off, if you’re wondering if there is a magical place out there that is going to make you more online sales, get you discovered more easily online, and also be super simple to manage (for free), you might be in for some disappointing news…
The reality is, any site that allows you to easily upload your products and make online sales is going to ‘ding’ you back in some way, shape, or form.
And by ‘ding’ I mean screw you over (to put it eloquently :))
Knowing this, it’s up to you to decide at the beginning of your business whether:
1) you’re ok with that and are willing to deal with the consequences
2) or you’d rather spend the extra energy and do the hard work up front to ensure that you have full control of your business moving forward
Unfortunately, most new crafters just don’t understand this. They get excited and jump full force into these sites which works for a while until they hit a wall.
How Online Craft Platforms Can Hold You Back
You might be wondering what I mean when I say that marketplace sites aren’t exactly the greatest places to sell your art.
There are a few reasons for that, but here are the big ones:
1) They have control of the visibility of your products (at least within their site)
These online platforms are generally hosting TONS of artwork by other artists all over the globe. Sure, they will direct traffic to their main site, but there’s no guarantee that traffic (or your ideal customer) will actually be able to find your products among a sea of other crafts.
It is especially difficult to get found when you’re selling a trendy or popular product. You’ll have to make your version stand out in a crowded market.
One way to do this on a marketplace site is to figure out what the algorithm of the site is looking for. If you play their game and set up your listings a certain way, you may be more likely to be discovered.
One huge caveat though - they can change the rules at any time (and they do!), so you could be getting a waterfall of traffic one week that suddenly turns into a tiny trickle the next…and there’s nothing you can do about it.
2) They have control of your income (to a certain degree)
Because of these above points, they therefore also have control of the income you earn through their site.
If they can essentially start and stop traffic to your products whenever they feel like it, that will obviously directly impact your sales. You won’t be able to predict your income, improve your site sustainably, or scale your business.
In my opinion, I just don’t see the point of selling online if you can’t control this.
Places To Sell Your Art Online
A few examples of these selling platforms include:
Etsy
Skillshare
Folksy
Society6
Ravelry
Uncommon Goods
ArtFire
Amazon Handmade
….the list goes on and on.
Each of these sites has its own slightly different setup where they will take some cut of your profits, and/or limit your reach.
Some sites charge a monthly fee in addition to a fee for every sale you make.
Some sites don’t charge anything but a sales fee, but the traffic they send you will be random and not good quality, which means you have a slim chance of getting sales.
Can you make money off these sites? Sure.
Are they a sustainable way to build a business that can eventually fully support you? Not at all.
Choose wisely.
The best place TO SELL CRAFTS ONLINE FOR FREE
You can feel free to experiment selling your art through free sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, but again, these sites are so broad in what consumers can buy, you’ll rarely get the targeted traffic you’ll need to make consistent sales.
People are buying and selling anything from appliances, to couches, to boats, to camping gear, and more. When people want to buy handmade, these are not the sites they think to go search through…would you??
Another thing that artists seem to gravitate towards is selling your art on Instagram. I have a lot of opinions on that (hit that link to hear them!), but long story short, it’s not the ideal place for selling your crafts online.
If you’re ok with dealing with the B.S. that comes with these free (at a price) sites and are not looking to make this a part-time or full-time creative career that can help replace your day job, then selling through craft marketplaces might be a great path for you!
In this case, you should save yourself some time and hit that back button to go find a different article that will list out a random smorgasbord of various marketplaces that you can sell on for little to no cost.
The rest of this post is not going to tell you where to sell your crafts online in terms of a marketplace, but you WILL learn the best place to sell your art online if you want:
full control of your creative business
no cap on the amount of money you can make
no limit to the types of products you can sell
and the future possibility of running a profitable and sustainable online craft business
Ready? Let’s get right to it -
The best place to sell art online (if you’re in it for the long haul) is:
Your own website.
Etsy? Forget it. Folksy? Waste of time.
If you’re in it to win it, you need to think bigger. You can’t only think in the short term. You need to think about the future of your business and how you want to eventually scale it…what you want your days to look like, and how you’ll spend your time.
Not to mention, how to create a business you love so you stick with it! (No one talks about this).
I know this could sound a little scary (especially if you’re just barely getting started), but trust me, you’ll be saving yourself sooo much trouble later down the road if you set yourself up to scale from the very beginning.
Plus, I’m here to help!
If you’re not understanding what the big deal is about having your own website vs selling your art on other companies’ websites, I’m about to break it down for you right now.
8 BEnefits of having your own craft business Website
1 Full control of your audience
Half of the success of your business will be dependent on the AUDIENCE you build, and your relationship with them.
Sales come from trust, and trust comes from consistent communication over time. This is why having an email list is so important.
Building an email list that is yours, and only yours is critical. It is a list full of people that are EXCITED about your business, have already bought from you (or are thinking about it), that you can contact at any time whenever you have a new product, a new sale, or need some feedback on something.
Having this resource is invaluable, and when you are selling your art on someone else’s site, you’re not able to build this.
You’re not able to (legally) collect your customer’s email addresses (or any visitors who might buy later for that matter), so you’re easily missing out on major sales by ignoring this side of your marketing.
2 Full control of your income
If you have your own website, when you make a sale, you just get your money. You don’t have to worry about anyone else taking their cut (I’ve had companies take up to 20%!!!)
Of course, there are the mandatory smaller fees like taxes and credit card processing fees, but those are always there no matter what.
3 You can sell a variety of products with no limit
On Etsy, you’re only allowed to sell handmade, vintage, or supplies. On many art sites, you’re only allowed to sell prints but no craft products.
When you’re selling from your own website you can sell whatever you want!
If you’re just starting your business, your focus right now might just be selling crafts, but it’s only a matter of time before you start getting contacted about other projects, services, workshops, custom work, etc.
People will ask crazy things of you, and some requests might be exciting and get your wheels turning to create new related products.
For example, I was selling my block printed home goods online when I started getting requests for workshops and large-scale projects that I wasn’t sure I could even do.
As these requests kept coming in, I realized that I needed to shift my offerings because there was a demand for these services that were actually much more profitable than the crafts I was selling individually.
I then made adjustments to my website so that people could see that I offered custom workshops and services and that made it easy for them to contact me and get a quote.
As a result, I received a lot more inquiries and grew my income more easily.
4 Full control over your brand aesthetic
Think about Etsy and what a standard shop page looks like.
They all kind of look the same, right?
Of course, you can upload an image at the top and everyone’s products are different, but that’s where the differences end.
Now think about a website that you’ve recently visited that curated an amazing experience. As soon as you arrived on the site you were drawn in by the colors and the design.
The product listings felt like they were written just for you and you had to stop yourself from buying everything you saw!
This is what you can create when you have your own website. You’re creating a unique experience that draws in your visitors and lets them know what you’re all about.
It’s what makes for a viral, word of mouth, cult following…with product drops that sell out in minutes. This should be all craft business owners goal!
5 Full control of your customer journey
More important than the visual side of your website, is the journey your customer will take through your site - from the initial encounter, to your check out page.
Whether you’re aware of it or not, your visitors arrive at your online shop at different stages in the buying process. Those who are ready to buy, will buy. Those who are still a little unsure about you, won’t….at least yet.
When you have your own website you can track how traffic flows through your site, and you can direct and better prepare those people to buy before they even see your products.
This is a much more sophisticated system than just slapping a listing up in a marketplace platform and hoping the right people see it.
6 Full control of the buying experience
Although similar to the customer journey, the buying experience is also really important to get right.
This is your opportunity to increase your average order amount using upsells, bump offers, etc to hit your monthly income goals.
Again, things you can’t do on a marketplace site.
7 Scaling will be easier
As you grow your craft business, things will change often. Having an online platform that can grow WITH you is absolutely essential.
You might run your business off Etsy or another platform for 2 years and then realize you’re losing a TON of money on tiny fees that are adding up quickly.
This leaves you to have to immediately interrupt your busy work week to figure out how to switch over to your own website.
You’ll have to learn completely new software, re-list ALL your products (hundreds? thousands??!), all while still trying to keep up with your normal weekly duties.
Not to mention, you’ll have to start from scratch building your online presence (nightmare) so you can eventually get found and make sales passively.
Sounds pretty horrendous to me. I’d rather have started with my own site out the gate and already have an established following and credibility!
8 You can update your site for promotions
If you have a big sale coming up and you want everyone to know about it, what better way to do that than to turn your entire homepage into a sale banner?
It will be the first thing everyone will see when they arrive and you can be sure that they’ll have heard about it.
There are a million other ways to set up your site for a sale, but it’s just one more reason why the best place to sell your art online is your own unique website.
Conclusion
No matter which way you look at it, I’ve found that if you are serious about replacing your income either part-time or full-time in a consistent, scalable way, the absolute best place to sell your art online is through your own website.
Nothing else even comes close to the amount of freedom you’ll have with creating your own unique online shop, building a raving online audience, and creating a presence that people won’t forget.
…not to mention the amount of financial and location freedom you’ll be able to look forward to when it takes off!
Want to work when you feel like it? - you can do that!
Want to work from anywhere? Spend your days making art and playing with your kids? - you can absolutely do that!
If this is something you really want, it’s not worth your time to play small with these marketplaces. If you want a serious business, you need to get serious and start with your own website.
Love this topic? Make sure and check out my free workshop below where I get into even more details about why your website is the best place to sell your crafts online!
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