Small Business Hints & Tips - Platforms

Hi possums,

Hope you are keeping well!

Today it’s the second of my Small Business Hints and Tips blogs. A lot of my blogs focus on my lampshades and other handmade products, but I fancied branching out a bit. It was fun to reminisce in the first post about when I first started out - a reminder of how long ago it was and how much things have changed!

There is no “how to guide” on how to start your own business, and I learn every. Single. Day. Sometimes you think you have things all figured out and then your sales drop off a cliff for no apparent reason! I’m by no means an expert(!) and hopefully that makes it more realistic…

In this blog, I’ll talk you through selling platforms that I use. I think it’s very difficult to know where to sell your products and there will be a lot of “noise” around whether you should have your own e-commerce website where you can sell your products or not….

Etsy

If, like me, you are a creator of all things crafty and handmade, Etsy is the perfect place to start. All those visiting Etsy are looking for handmade products and are excited to support small businesses. It’s also a great place to do competitor research and benchmark your products against similar. Etsy have reasonable rates; you pay a small amount per listing and then they take a percentage once you sell. Plus they offer other marketing options such as sending thank you coupons, off-site marketing and running sales. It’s also good to start building up reviews which show off your amazing products and customer service for you ;) Simply, it’s my recommendation for your first sales platform.

Amazon Handmade

I know it’s hard to imagine a global conglomerate having a Handmade option, but Amazon do! I would say that the platform itself is more clunky, and not as user friendly. The fees are higher than Etsy, so I have to increase my overall product costs to compensate for that. However, as the largest e-commerce platform, I think it’s worthwhile being there, too.

E-commerce website

My advice would be, hold off. It’s very expensive to have your own website with the functionality to purchase your products from. It’s not just that the e-commerce plan is more expensive than just a standard website plan, it’s that you will likely have to invest substantially in advertising to drive traffic to your website. The positive of the established platforms is that they get the traffic on their site, and you just need to convert it. It’s quite cheap to have your own website, and when I started out I created my own website and then linked products through to my Etsy site. This felt like a nice compromise.

Nu Monday

I’ve done a bit of research on Nu Monday, and my instinct is that it’s not the best platform. It might be too early stages to judge, but it was quite an upfront investment without any assurances of having the traffic that the above platforms have.

Juggling multiple platforms, I believe, is a good way of expanding your reach and increasing your sales. HOWEVER it takes a LOT of management, particularly when it comes to managing your supplies. If, like me, you don’t have a huge amount of space and therefore run a lean supply of materials, be warned that you might get caught short. If you have the same listing on 3 platforms and you don’t keep on top of it, and they all sell, you might be in trouble - so keep your wits about you!

That’s all for now, folks :)