Although Etsy is the obvious choice for selling handmade merchandise, there are a wealth of other options. Using another site may allow you to target a greater audience, reduce fees, or find a layout you’re more comfortable with. The following marketplaces allow you to list just about anything handmade.
Handmade at Amazon – Launched just last year, you can now take advantage of all Amazon.com has to offer for your handmade merchandise, too. Handmade at Amazon was created to compete with Etsy — and with 225 million monthly users compared to Etsy’s 22 million, it has so far been quite successful. If you sign up before August 1, you can still receive a free professional plan to sell up to 40 items per month. After this date, the plan will cost $39.99 a month.
Big Cartel – Big Cartel is ideal if you want to create an eCommerce store of your own for handmade products but are struggling to gain visibility. Using your coding and HTML skills, you can customize your storefront to best reflect your online image. The downside of this marketplace is that it only supports up to 300 products, but it can still be an excellent choice for small sales. If you sell less than five items, you pay nothing. For up to 25 products you’ll pay $9.99 per month, for 100 items fees are $19.99, and for 300 items you’ll pay $29.99.
ShopHandmade – One of the best ways to maximize your profits, ShopHandMadehas no membership fees and the site takes no money from your sales. In addition to your handmade merchandise, you can also list vintage items and craft supplies on the marketplace.
Silkfair – Silkfair is a marketplace for all kinds of goods and features an entire category for handmade products. Signing up for an account costs nothing unless you want to customize your store — additional features cost a minimum of $7.99 per month. The marketplace takes a standard 3 percent of your final sale price.
MadeitMyself – Much like Silkfair, it costs nothing to open a store on MadeitMyself and again the marketplace keeps a 3 percent commission. If you generate a high amount of activity, you can be listed on the homepage under Most Active Shops, which can give you a great boost to sales.
ArtFire – One of the largest sites, with 10,000 active shops, you may like to try ArtFire if your needs are reasonably small, as fees become steep as your store grows. The most inexpensive option is the Shop plan, where you may have up to 24 products and the site keeps 9 percent of final sales. For $20 a month, you can increase to up to 1,000 items and will only pay 3 percent commission on sold items. Finally, for up to 5,000 listings, you can pay $60 a month and lose the same 3 percent commission.
