selling jewelry

[tabbycat31]

ok one of my hobbies is making beaded jewelry, and I do wear it most of the time.

However I have a box of stuff, and I'd love to turn this hobby into income. I hope to make the craft fair circuit, but I need more inventory for it. In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions (besides ebay-- they're a dime a dozen on ebay) for selling them online?

[Broken Arrow]

Hmm. Well, my sister is a musician and she asked me something similar not too long ago, about selling her own CDs online.

Basically, I told her that I believe the biggest challenge is to make sure that you are accessible to your target customers. And unfortunately, that's not something that I can simply create out of thin air for her. Argueably the easiest way is to simply post it up on eBay, Amazon, or Yahoo. With them, you have ties to a high profile name, your products are on their search engine, and you don't even have to know any programming or web design.

The downside is that it will also cost you money to post with them. On the other hand, to create a e-commerce website from scratch (PHP + SSL) will typically cost a regular fee as well. That and you lack the exposure and accessibility of large portals. And basic programming skills would help, if only to download and install scripts. From there, you can submit your URL to the major search engines out there and hope for the best. That could be the cheaper alternative though.

In any case, I believe the biggest obstacle isn't what you sell, but how you sell it.

My $0.02

[Jacklad]

An alternative to consider is consignment selling - if there's a gift shop or craft store near you, see if you can have them sell for you for a cut of the profits.

Jackie

[tabbycat31]

THanks for your suggestions everyone. I'm going to try for the craft fair circuit next summer.

Broken Arrow, I would suggest for your sister that she signs up on MySpace. That site originally started out as a music community, and bands can target their fan base there.

[abowers]

There's a website called Etsy that is all handmade items. I don't know how well items sell from the site.

I've tried Ebay - my experience is that the bags don't always sell for as much as they are worth.

Try consignment at shops -- that is what I have done with some of the bags I've made. It often ends up being something like 40% goes to the store/60% goes to you - but it's still something, and it's getting your name out there.

Also, local arts/crafts shows. This can be hit or miss, depends on where you are selling. My mom tried selling some at the craft show in the town where my parents live -- and got many compliments, but no one bought (a lot of families). When the bags have been more in the downtown Rochester area, they sell better -- (single people, people with more money to spend on that kind of thing, drew people from several suburbs as well as city).

I've also had success with home "parties." My aunt had a "bag open house" at her house -- where she invited all her friends, told them to bring friends. It was at the end of November so good timing for Christmas gifts. My mom had one this spring at her house -- with a friend of hers that makes jewelry, and also with my bags. Same thing -- invited lots of people, served appetizers/snacks/drinks. I managed to sell about $700 of bags at my aunt's and I think about $500 at my mom's.

I also made a website, and some business cards at Vistaprint -- for people that may have been interested in them after the "open houses." I've sold a few through the website.

Good luck!