With a worldwide community of over 15 million buyers and sellers, it’s easy to see why Etsy is such a popular place for us crafters to sell our wares. A site like Etsy is the perfect solution for those of us who lack the resources to set up a physical or virtual shop of our own, or provides an additional income stream for those of you who already have a nice little business established.
So, what’s the problem? Why would you need to know about other sites like Etsy to sell your creations? The main reason is visibility.
Etsy is such a huge community that it’s really, really difficult for new sellers to get noticed; and if you don’t get noticed then you aren’t going to make any sales. The good news is that there are plenty of great Etsy alternatives out there.
Is It Worthwhile To Sell Crafts Online?
Artisan and handmade products is a booming area at the moment–yep, your skills are in demand–and luckily there are some fab selling sites that can help you get your piece of this beautifully crafted pie.
Although all of these sites are worldwide, I’ve included a good mix of both US and European outlets, just because I know that’s where the majority of my crafty readers are from. The only thing to bear in mind when pricing up your products for an outlet that is based overseas is to factor in postage costs.
ICraft
This is a stunning website, which is great if you are serious about making an income from your crafting–not recommended for just casual use if you want a bit of extra cash.
iCraft works a little differently to other sites in that you pay a one time registration fee of $25 and then you pay a monthly fee for your Creator Displays. There are three different packages, starting from $5 a month for listing up to 50 items. However, if you have 20 identical items to sell, that just counts as one listing so this is pretty reasonable.
It’s a really appealing interface, and offers a nice experience for the buyer so I think iCraft is a good place to sell if you are serious about making money from your talents.
Vendgenie
With Vendgenie you set up your own store, with no setup fee and no term contract. You list the item for a fee. Just pay $0.10 for each item and it will be valid forever until the item is sold. They have great offers, so it’s definitely worth giving this one a go to see how it works out for you. The stores are customizable and of course you can pay extra according to what your needs are. Store templates make setting up your store really easy. This is a really easy site to get started with.
You also get your own Vendgenie domain for your customized store or you can use a domain you have already–great for your branding and getting your store discovered.
Transaction fees are a reasonable 3 percent.
UncommonGoods
With this site, you need to have a very specific product or range that you then need to send pictures of to the buying team. There’s a short form to fill in, then you just have to wait to be contacted. The good thing about this is that you don’t have to deal with any of the admin–if they are interested, they buy your stuff to sell on their site and that’s it. They usually get back to you within 1-2 weeks. So yes, you are putting yourself up for rejection here a bit, but then you aren’t wasting money on listings that might never get noticed.
It seems like such a great way forward for us crafty types. Here’s a video for more information.
Supermarket
Despite its rather uninspiring name, Supermarket is a great looking site that has lots going for it. Nothing complicated to do to get started, just send off an email with some photos of your products, links, and information and go from there.
As well as the really professional look, you can also benefit from only getting charged on a monthly basis once you’ve sold your products. Supermarket work out their commission and take it from your credit card–it’s that easy and a really fair way to operate.
When a customer buys something from you, you get paid the full amount straight into your paypal account.
Folksy
Perhaps the best-known Etsy alternative for UK sellers, Folksy have 15,000 sellers and get good traffic numbers, so your chances of getting your quality good noticed on this site are good.
There are two different ways you can choose to sell on Folksy. With the basic package, you pay a small fee for listing (£0.15 per item) plus 6% commission on sales. Or you can pay a yearly fee of £45 for a Folksy Plus package that means you just pay the 6% commission on sales. All fees are subject to VAT.
So if you just want to dip your toe into the water and try a few basic listings first to see how it goes, or you just want to sell some of your excess stock then the basic package is definitely the way to go. However, the Folksy Plus package is great value if you want to make a nice income from your skills.
The emphasis here is on really well made items that have individual and modern designs.
Bonanza
Bonanza is a free-to-list site, meaning you pay a commission when you sell–currently around 3 percent.
You can even import items that you are currently trying to sell on Etsy or Ebay, so you can cut down on the admin and get on with the important business of making your goods. They call this ‘selling with one click’.
It’s the next most popular site for crafters to sell from–after Etsy–so you still stand a really good chance of being able to make a reasonable income.
Artfire
Another great site for those of you who want to make a serious income from your crafty talents, Artfire charge a flat fee of $12.95 a month for your store and that’s that. It doesn’t matter how much you sell or you don’t sell, there are no more fees.
It gets good traffic numbers (466,000 unique visitors a month and rising), which puts it behind only Etsy and Bonanza in terms of volume. BUT, in its favor against Etsy though, you stand a better chance at getting your products noticed here and it’s a great-looking site too.
The monthly fee means that you need to sell a good volume of products per month, which is why it’s only good if you want to make a real go of your business, but the price is very reasonable.
Not On The High Street
Especially for British businesses, Not on the High Street is a big name in the unique crafts arena. There is an application process to make sure your products are what they are looking for, and to make sure that a particular area of the market doesn’t become saturated.
A huge advantage with this website is that it’s easier to get your products noticed than on sites like Etsy. Not on the High Street invest in pay-per-click campaigns on your behalf to get your stuff noticed and showing up in search results on Google. They also target customers with targeted emails, so if you have a good product there’s a good chance it will get noticed and not buried.
You can also benefit from the advice of the production team on getting your pages looking perfect as well as account managers and a helpdesk. So you don’t have to be all that business savvy, you just need to have really amazing products.
TIP: Make sure your photos are top notch as this is a very professional site–not intended for casual crafters.
NOTHS also has an affiliate program. So if you have your own crafting, home decor, or lifestyle website, you can become an affiliate and link to products you like, or just put up a banner on your website and then get paid up to 5 percent in commission.
Made It Myself
In complete contrast to the site above, we have Made it Myself, which has the kind of vibe you would expect from a site with that name. It’s a very friendly, low-key site that embraces pretty traditional crafts–if you have something hugely unique then this might not be the best place for you to sell.
Baby items, jewelry, quilts, and very folksy-type crafts are what this site does best. The key to getting noticed on this site, is using fabulous pictures–many of them are average, so you’re almost guaranteed to stand out if you put some good images up.
Listing fees are currently being waived, and selling fees are 3 percent.
DaWanda
Listing is currently free, with a 5 percent selling fee–this is higher than most sites out there, but you may feel that it is worth it, as they have pretty good traffic numbers.
DaWanda is European-based with different sites available depending on which country you are in, so this is an especially good alternative to Etsy if you are outside of the US.
There are, of course, many more sites like Etsy that I could list, and once I’ve checked them out then I’ll consider adding them to this list. I haven’t included all of the sites out there because, frankly, I only want to provide you with the best opportunities. However, if there’s one I’ve missed out that you think is definitely worth a mention, then please drop me a line.
