How to Sell Handmade Products

Selling handmade products is one sure way to earn money online.

Producing scalable and saleable items, and adding your personal touch, is one good way to earn a lot of money. It’s through adding your personal vibe to your product that you position your business as an original brand.

Of course, every business comes with persistence and dedication. But with minimum capital and great profit potential, selling handmade products is certainly worth the try.

So, how do you start, create and sell your handmade products online?

First, is you need to understand your niche market. And make sure you sell on the right platforms where your target audience is. And obviously, please don’t sell crap!

So looking for some tips to help you get started? Follow this article to know more.

Contents

1. Know What Product You Want to Sell
2. Make Sure There’s a Demand for It
3. Know How to Do the Product
4. Use the Tools Necessary to Create the Product
5. Research the Market on How to Price Your Products
6. Know Your Competitors’ Marketing Strategies
7. Market Your Products Using the Best Platforms for Your Niche Market
8. Manage Your Business

 

1. Know What Product You Want to Sell

The first thing you need to do to start selling handmade products or items is to know what product you want to sell. You can’t just sell anything that you think you like or you think will sell a lot.

As we have learned from experience, doing a business is like a marathon and not a sprint. So you definitely need to plan and see this as a long-term venture. Meaning there will be lots of ups and downs along the way. But it’s through these things that we will grow, as well as our business.

Here are some options you can do for your own brand:

• Beads (seed beads, lampwork beads, glass crackle beads, etc.)
• Clothing (by your own design- painted or embroidered t-shirts and bags)
• Scented Candles
• Hats
• Soaps
• Stationaries and Journals
• Curtains
• Art and Prints (stickers, postcards, and greeting cards)
• Paintings
• and so much more!

If you can choose a product that you screened and truly love, you have a better chance to succeed in your business.
Because if you are doing what you love, more likely, you’ll have the passion and motivation to succeed and pursue your business!

 

2. Make Sure There’s a Demand for It

You can see many of those products mentioned above are in the streets, malls, etc. But that doesn’t mean that it’s selling enough for them to earn. Some of these stores are just doing break even.

So it’s very important to do your due diligence and research whether there’s a great demand for the product you have chosen to create to sell or not.

Here are some proven ways to do check if there’s a demand for your products:

• Google trends

Google Trends is a free tool by Google that you can use to have an insight into customers’ behavior.

It shows how often keywords or phrases are used by people in Google’s search engine across different countries over time.

For example, if you search the term “beads” on the Google trends website, set the country worldwide, and the timeline to the past 12 months, you can see the interest over time is around 75.

It only means that the popularity is very high. Meaning people are really searching for it.

If people are searching for it, you then know that you have the traffic for that niche market. It’s only a matter of how you will solve their pain points or inquiries regarding that product.

When the pain points are addressed, and the market demand is great, you’ll know for certain that your business has a high-income potential or possibility.

• Searching in Google

In a way, this works like what we did with Google Trends. This time, you will use only a Google browser to search for the product you want to sell and see how people search for it.

You will also see your competitors in the search results.

For the steps, first click each of the websites you see on the first page of google search results and analyze their reviews or feedback: the date of the reviews, anything you can learn from them, both the positive and negative.

From this method, you will have a glimpse of their marketing strategies, product failures, management issues, etc., which you can really use in the long run.

• Etsy, eBay, or Amazon

You can also see the demand for a product using these big eCommerce websites like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.

For example, go to amazon.com and search for your product. This time a candle. You can see upon entering the keyword that there are hundreds to thousands of reviews from customers. It only means that massive actions are going on, right?

But of course, you also need to consider other factors regarding the demand for this product. Things like how recent the reviews are prices going down over time (which might mean that the popularity of the product is also going down), etc.

 

3. Know How to Do the Product

We had a bead store before, and we used to sell ready-made items only.

But when we realized that having products created by ourselves is much better when it comes to profit margin, that’s when we’ve decided to make the products on our own, than buying them from the suppliers.

We have no idea how to do it at first, but we’re teachable and willing to learn. This is very good quality as an entrepreneur, especially if you are doing your own products. This will save you a lot of money, which you can use for other things for your business.

Furthermore, there are a lot of free training materials online that you can use to create your own products. Everything is already on YouTube and Google.

Note: One tip I can give you is to make Google your best friend. No matter what your question is, usually, you can find it easily on Google. You just need to learn to google it.

Also, it would be best to know how to distinguish the websites that are authoritative and credible, and reliable.

A lot of information out there is outdated and incomplete. Looking at these sources might give you a problem, instead of helping you.

 

4. Use the Tools Necessary to Create the Product

One of the basic attributes of an entrepreneur is having organizational skills. Well, it’s also true in every aspect of our lives, right?

So if you’re serious about this side hustle or part-time business of yours, you have to be very organized so you can work efficiently and effectively.

All you have to do is observe your competitors or suppliers on the tools that they are using and where they put their inventories. You can also use your competitors’ strategies on how they package their products.

You also have the option to ask your best friend – Google.

One Business Example:

For example, at this point, you’ve decided to do a side hustle related to your beads business.

Here are some of the things that you need:

Tools: Round-nose pliers, flat-nose pliers, crimping pliers, wire cutters, thread snips, bead mat, bead stringing needles, beadboard, ruler or tape measure, etc.

Packaging: Drawstring jewelry pouches, gift bags, DIY accessories box packaging, etc.

Inventory: Variety of glass beads, beading cord or thread, memory wire, big-eye beading needle, assorted ear wires, assorted clasps, assorted headpins and eye pins, crimp beads, strong adhesive, etc.

Where to put the inventories: Plastic bead box organizer, cabinets, containers, etc.

For your practice, try to know the prices of those tools, inventories, etc.

 

5. Research the Market on How to Price Your Products

You can’t just price your products the way you like them. Unless you have a premium product that is in high demand, and people want to buy it by your asking price.

If there’s none, you would need to know how to price your products according to the price in the market.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of this. This might break or make your business.

Customers are very wise, so if they sense that your price is higher than usual and you don’t exactly offer additional benefits, they will buy from your competitors.

Lower your price first while getting traction

You have an unknown, untested brand in the market. You don’t even have reviews or feedback online yet.

The only arsenal you have right now is to lower your price a bit in the beginning to get those sales, which are necessary to give you honest reviews.

Eventually, this will increase the traffic to your website and social media accounts. Once you get the traction that you need, then you can start increasing your prices.

Increase your price at the right time

After getting traction or momentum, you can reasonably increase your price gradually as you gain your audience’s confidence.

This will help you avoid people who will think that the quality of your product is lesser than the others who have a premium price or are more expensive than yours.

 

6. Know Your Competitors

Here are the advantages of knowing your competitors:

a. You would know exactly how many are they
b. You’ll have a better idea of how competitive or saturated the market is
c. It gives you a better understanding of customer expectations
d. You will know what strategies you need to do to penetrate the market
e. You will learn from the strategy of your competitors
f. You will learn how to target the market that your competitors are not focusing on
g. You will learn from their success and failures
h. You’ll understand what your competitive advantages are

 

7. Market Your Products Using the Best Platforms for Your Niche Market

Nowadays, there are a lot of ways to market your business.

On top of that, they are mostly free. It’s only a matter of how you’ll utilize these platforms to increase your brand’s visibility and people’s awareness of your brand.

Here are some platforms that you can use to increase brand visibility and awareness:

• Social media networks: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
• eCommerce websites: Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, etc.
• Others: Text, WhatsApp, Viber, etc.

It is important to know where your target audience is usually are. Once you know where your ideal targets are, start planning and creating the content message they need in the “language” that they are using.

 

8. Manage the Business

Finances

You might think you’re only doing a side hustle or a part-time business.

It’s true. But even a small side hustle has its own expenses that should be in line with your family budget.

The bottom line is you need to know how much are you willing to take aside for this side hustle that will not negatively affect your personal budgeting.

Production

You need to streamline your production or the way you create your products.

Create a system where you will be organized and produce your products efficiently and effectively.

Marketing

Your revenue will always boil down to how hard and smart you will market your business.

A lot of business fails simply because of limited sales, and that’s because of marketing. How you position your business as a brand is very important in order to gain great profit.

Also, you would need to know the marketing strategies that fit your target audience. This includes everything in your business.

Everything from your packaging, social media branding, customer service, tagline/advocacy, pricing, the platforms you will use to market your products, and so much more are all part of your business marketing strategy.

So, learn how to market your side hustle or a part-time business properly. And before you know it, your business will get traction in due time, and you will get more sales.

Conclusion

Having an online business is not an easy thing to do. In fact, that’s the reason why only a few people choose to be an entrepreneur.

Nonetheless, through careful planning, passion, determination, and grit, having your own business can be the biggest adventure of a lifetime!

Imagine having no boss and having an unlimited income potential while you are doing the things you love. With hard work, faith, determination, and preparation, truly anything is possible!

I hope you learn a thing or two that helped sparkled your interest in doing an online business, most especially handmade items, as these are some things you can easily do at home, even in a pandemic.

With hard work and perseverance, I believe that you, too, can start your own business and gain traction over time.

Well, see you on the other side!

For more tips on how to start and sustain your online business, follow us to know more.