Enterprise Nation

I’ve wanted to write this feature for weeks but just never found the time. Well time stand still. It’s a Saturday afternoon. It’s cold outside, warm in the home office and I’m taking a look at the top sites for anyone wanting to turn a passion for arts and crafts into a lucrative income stream.

Top 5 sites

Here at Enterprise Nation we’re noticing a significant increase in the number of people turning a talent for handicraft into a business. Whether your special skill is in jewellery, felt puppets or fancy bags, check out these sites as they could be a  powerful sales tool and your window to a worlwide audience of customers. 

Etsy.com

With its tag line ‘Your place to buy and sell all things handmade’ this is still the mother of all craft sites. Since the company launched in June 2005, more than 100,000 sellers from around the world have opened up Etsy shops. The company is run by 28 year old founder, Rob Kalin, who was influenced by his grand-dad and flickr.com when starting out. Watch him telling the tale here.  

So what does Etsy offer to buyers and sellers?

If you’re looking to buy, you can search by categories that include ‘Furniture’, ‘Needlecraft’ and ‘Geekery’ but still my favourite feature of this site is the colour chart where you choose the colour you like and it shows the products that contain that hue. How clever.

For sellers, Etsy is an impressive platform, to say the least. To start selling you just have to register for an Etsy account (requires a credit card for verification purposes) and then it costs 20 cents to list an item for four months. When your item sells, you pay a 3.5% transaction fee. This is taken from the list price and is not charged on postage.

• Sign up to sell on Etsy
   

The site is beautifully designed and jam packed with delightful goods. The only downside is that it’s still very US based which is why an opportunity has opened up for some entrepreneurial European folk to step in.

Myehive.com
 

This UK start-up launched in September ’08 and was profiled here on Enterprise Nation in November. As San said when he voted myehive.com website of the day:

“MyEhive.com has been set up to promote handmade goods, provide instant shop creation and a haven for handmade devotees on the Internet. "Make a living, doing what you love," is all the buzz on its website, which - remarkably - allows you to set-up a shop, totally for free and with no commission.

The free package comes with a five product limit, so you can get started quickly, easily and with no costs. There are paid packages too, priced at £4.99 and £9.99 per month, which allow you to grow your shop, add more products and images and use your own domain name.”

• Sign up to sell on myehive.com 

Folksy.com

This UK based business works out of Sheffield and London. We were alerted to their site by this comment left by one of our visitors:

"Ebay was a fantastic tool that allowed many people to test the water with an online business, but many small sellers (particularly craftspeople) feel that they have been pushed out by punishing fee structures and a gradual reduction of protection against rogue buyers. A new generation of websites that allows craftspeople to compete on a level playing field are emerging, with US site Etsy (www.Etsy.com) and new British site Folksy (www.Folksy.com) leading the way. It would be great to see an article on these.”

Well, comment-maker, we’ve listened and here is the article!

The pricing on Folksy.com is this: it costs 20p to list an item and there’s a 5% commission on all sales (this is taken from the list price and is not charged on postage to). If you don't sell an item you are only charged for the listing fee.

The site is easy to navigate and has quite a few sellers already promoting their wares. Want to join them? 

• Sign up to sell on Folksy.com  

Allthingsoriginal.com

Another beautifully designed site that features independent British designers and looks as if it takes on far few sellers than the others. So few in fact that the site does not invite sellers to set up shop so we advise maybe contacting the company which you can do at info@allthingsoriginal.com

We came across this site when we profiled Rebecca Shreeve, the 23 year old boss of Quirkles. She told us she sold her Quirkles through Etsy.com and Allthingsoriginal.com  - we should have asked her from which site she generates most sales!

Dawanda.com

Last but by no means least is the store place that’s spreading fast across Europe. With sites in the UK, France and Germany, this platform also offers competitive pricing, explaining:

“Creating your shop is free. When you sell a product we take 5% commission from the sales value. We do not charge commission on shipping fees. Listing your items is currently free as well but we are planning to introduce a small listing fee per item in the future. We have not decided upon the date yet - we are planning to introduce such fees once DaWanda has reached a certain size and number of buyers.”

• Sign up to sell on Dawanda.com 

In conclusion

We hope there will be space for all these companies to flourish. There is not too much difference in the charges they make and I’m sure you’ll agree that for anyone who can make or create, these sites offer the perfect launch pad and route to becoming your own boss.
Get crafty! – Emma Jones