When you finally made up your mind to sell that very cross-stitch masterpiece you had been storing in your wardrobe for several years, you were surprised by how quickly a buyer was found. Having sold it, you had a revelation: why not selling handicrafts to bring home the bacon?
Actually, it is not as crazy and hopeless an idea as it may seem to be. If your creations are of high quality, they can cost quite a lot, and there are lots of examples that show you can earn for a living this way.
However, offering your projects to your neighbors is unlikely to be enough. Selling your handmade crafts online is the best strategy, and there are special websites which can help you do it fast and easy. Still, your business can also benefit from having its own page, and starting your website is definitely a thing to consider.
Here are some tips that can help you make it a successful project.
#1. Your website design should embody the spirit of your creations
As a form of art, handicraft deserves a stylish website. It’s not plumbing tools that you are selling, and your product image should be embedded in your theme and serve as its basic element. The spirit of your craft should permeate every nook and corner of it. It can be done in a number of ways, from using a jewelry-themed background pattern to making all website modules form an image of a wooden owl.
This is where creativity should extend into the digital world and go beyond the designs commonly used by ordinary e-stores. However, designing a handicraft website can–or is doomed to be–challenging, as your aim is to make it look creative without stuffing your main page with all kinds of decorations and ornaments you can imagine. Creativity should not compromise its user-friendliness: remember that more users visit websites using mobile devices, and it is not a thing to neglect.
This point boils down to the following:
Make your web design creative and stylish yet simple.
Make sure it is user- and mobile-friendly.
There should be something special about your website that would link its design to what you are going to sell.
Should you have no skills to design a website yourself, you can delegate the task to professionals or purchase a template. While the very notion of templates implies it is not unique, you can use it as a band-aid solution and invest in something better when your business begins to thrive. Consider buying a template from a reliable seller, like FavThemes, for instance. They have themes for handicraft websites, so you can avoid the brain-racking process of customizing it.
Think about what modules may come in handy – it can be a form to be filled in by your customers or some other features that can make it more convenient for website visitors to navigate and use it. Consider using various Joomla extensions, such as galleries, designed to present your products in the best way possible.
#2. Provide only accurate information
This one applies to all kinds of business, regardless of what products you provide. For every item, you should provide a description and more details, such as dimensions, materials, purpose, etc.
Even if your creations are not head and shoulders above those of your competitors’, their presentation should be aimed at highlighting that you strived to make them high-quality: tricking your website visitors into buying your products is by no means a good strategy, and if there are some flaws, they should be mentioned on the product page.
Is your wooden bearable to withstand harsh weather and can be placed outdoors? If not, there is no reason to draw a veil over it: the more details you state (including negative ones), the better, as users value your openness and willingness to provide as much information as possible.
While this advice may sound as if it runs counter to what marketing guides say, being honest is profitable in the long run: your customers’ loyalty is shaped by what you do, not what you claim to do.
#3. Tell them more about yourself
You creations speak for themselves, but your visitors are likely to appreciate getting to know you. It’s not just another store that offers various products sold by a number of companies: it’s custom handicraft, and your name, whether you want it or not, becomes your brand. That is why posting your bio wouldn’t hurt.
Don’t make it too academic: your visitors, who also happen to be your prospective customers, are not interested in what companies you have worked for. What led you to start creating the things you sell? What do you personally find special about this field? What messages are they designed to convey? Is there something you would like to share with your visitors? Give it some thought.
#4. Do not neglect the technical aspect of it
Running a website is not only about creating content and reaching out to your audience. Setting up your own website is a complex venture, and none of its aspects are of little importance. Besides the web design aspect mentioned above, there are other things to consider before introducing your pages to the world.
First, you should make up your mind which kind of hosting fits your website’s purposes best. Is it shared hosting? Or a dedicated server would be a much better solution? It’s a tricky thing, as your expanding business may require you to overhaul all of your digital representation means, including the web design, extensions, etc., and hosting is more prone to such changes. As your traffic grows and the need for more advanced extensions emerges, you may find yourself being unable to handle everything using shared hosting services. Do not neglect this issue, as this stage is important.
After you have made up your mind, you can start googling up a hosting provider worth investing in. There are small companies with a bunch of satisfied clients and major market players who are ready to offer cheap solutions, and this diversity of options can make you dizzy. Do some research and find out which companies are best in terms of providing the services you need (see the previous paragraph). To facilitate the process, use ranking websites that provide information on server performance, reviews, etc., like this one, for instance.
Make sure the provider you have chosen is able to ensure data security and great server performance, and is not notorious for downtimes.
As seen from the list above, selling your handmade crafts online using your own website has its peculiarities, and knowing what pitfalls there may be can help you sail through the process of establishing it.
Bio
Uma Warden is a keen DIY lover who is eager to travel the world and learn what other ways to create there are. In her spare time, she flexes her writing muscles while focusing on web design, hosting, and content writing issues. Combining the real and the digital is what fascinates her, and that’s what led her to research what it takes to run your own website.
