I’m not sure if you have ever sold anything online before, I certainly had tried a couple of sales on EBay, but nothing too crazy, however I have been testing the water with online handmade/craft sites and think I’m finally ready to jump in.
When I started to make a range of handmade reclaimed picture frames, I wasn’t really sure how the promote and market them, and focused initially on my first idea, of storing them in a box (!) and then using them to sell at craft fairs. All well and good, and attending and selling at fairs is great fun, but I now have many boxes in my home, and the craft fairs tend to be periodic in nature.
So I started thinking: What can I do with my frames to showcase and sell in between fairs?
Well, I had a little snoop around the internet and was amazed at the possible outlets for my handmade products. There are so many craft sites and online selling sites dedicated to promotion and sales of handmade lovely stuff. After carefully review of many sites, I set up two shops last year to test to water with my frames, one on http://etsy.com/ and the other on http://www.myehive.com/.
Who and why? Firstly Etsy.com, which is a massive worldwide, established website, stuffed full of stunning craftsmanship, ranging from handmade glass, furniture, jewellery, clothes and many beautiful designs to woo you into parting with your money. All the products are handmade and showcased and sold by the makers and designers. Etsy is an American site and sells in Dollars, but it has a nice contemporary feel and is easy to use. However it is heavy subscribed and I wasn’t sure that my little frames would be found and loved in such a vast marketplace.
So that leads me onto MyEhive.com. This site is relatively new and it is run here in England. As it was new when I found it, I now have become one of the more established sellers on the site. Again it’s very easy to use and provides me with a great, cost effective way to sell my reclaimed frames to everybody. I am able to list up each frame, providing a description, how is made, and what it’s made from. To back this up, I tend to provide two or three images of each frame so the viewer can see the product clearly and hopefully fall in love with it :)
This site covers Europe only, which can appeal if you want to keep postage costs down or if your items are fragile.
I am also able to work on commissions and then list them for payment through these sites, which is very useful. The sites also have forums and blogs, so you can become part of an online selling community, which is a good resource, and MyEhive even have meet-ups once a month if you want to have a coffee and meet other sellers.
All the frames I make are individual and unique, so to be able to list each one separately is fabulous. I have found online selling very enjoyable and beneficial and this year I will be listing and selling even more reclaimed frames on my online shops :)
Please check out my two online shops http://emeraldreclaimedframes.myehive.com/ and http://www.etsy.com/shop/emeraldframes and let me know what you think :)
