So, you’ve made things by yourself and wish to sell them online. Well done! You’ve realized that your handicrafts skills can be more than just a hobby, the entrepreneur in you is born!
In this world of artificiality, online consumers love buying handicrafts because of its uniqueness and originality. Hence, now’s the best time to sell your handmade products online in India. But there are many things to plan and research before you can find your first customer.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the steps on how to sell handmade products online in India and build a successful eCommerce business.
Contents
- 1 How to sell handmade products online in India: the complete guide
- 2 1. Find a niche: Make and sell one thing
- 3 2. Pricing your handmade products
- 4 3. Preparing your handmade products for sale: photographs, titles, and descriptions
- 5 4. Where to sell handmade products online
- 6 5. Packaging and Shipping
- 7 6. Market your handmade products online
- 8 To conclude
How to sell handmade products online in India: the complete guide
Turning your hobby into a business can seem difficult. But, we have done all the research for you on how to start your online handicrafts business and make it profitable. In this blog, you will find everything you need to know on how to sell handmade products online in India:
- Find a niche: Make and sell one thing
- Pricing your handmade products
- Preparing your handmade products for sale: photographs, titles, and descriptions
- Where to sell handmade products online
- Packaging and Shipping
- Market your handmade products online
1. Find a niche: Make and sell one thing
What is a niche and how do you find yours as an artist? As a business owner, niche is the category of products you sell. Also, it depends on the audience you target.
For example, consider an artist who sells oil paintings. She paints landscapes, portraits, and abstracts. When she narrows it down to just one category — portrait, what will happen? Will the number of customers she gets decrease? Absolutely not! Since she specialises in one particular category, her audience will see her as an expert. Her niche is portrait oil painting. If she again niches down into painting only wedding portraits, her business has higher chances to scale!
The more niche your handicrafts products are, the easier it is to sell them online.
Related read: Reaching your eCommerce target audience
Here is why it’s important to niche down as an artist or crafter:
- You will be regarded as an expert and your business will be a go-to for that niche
- Reduce competition
- You can increase your rates
- Get quality clients
Remember: You are not limiting yourself by focusing on just one niche; you are trying to specialise in one thing and be an expert.
Ae Ri Sakhi, an online business on Instamojo platform, sells very niche handcrafted jewellery – sustainable traditional ear rings made by up-cycling scrap fabrics. Check out their online store here.
Here’s a quick checklist to help you find your niche.
- Make a list of all the items you know how to make – your skillset
- Find out the market demand of these products – market trend
- Investment in business
- Check the competition for these niches
- Think about how much you want to earn in the market
- What kind of people do you want as customers?
Do you want to start your own eCommerce website to sell your products? Get started for free on Instamojo.
List of most in-demand things to make and sell online
- Jewelry and accessories- bracelets, resin jewelry, necklaces, scrunchies
- Apparel – hats, sweaters, tote bags, enamel pins
- Home decor – murals, dream catchers, candles, paintings, rugs, coasters
- Food – pickles, jams, sweets, spices
- Personalised gifts – photo box, gift basket, invitation cards
- Embroidery – pillow cases, curtains, clothes
- Paper crafts – cards, paper flowers, scrap books
- Beauty products – soaps, bath bombs, shampoo, lip balm, perfume
- Stationery – bookmarks, notebooks, journals, stickers
- Eco friendly products
- Pet products – pet food, clothes, dog collars, pet toys
- Traditional handicrafts
- Pottery
- Phone accessories
- Digital products – printable art, stock photos, plugins, templates
Related Read: Selling Craft Supplies- Happycubes Journey as an Online Business
2. Pricing your handmade products
Have you felt overwhelmed and confused when it comes to setting a price for the things you made?
You’re not alone! Pricing a handmade product and making sure you’re charging enough is a task in itself for artists and crafters like you. So, we’ve put together a five-step method for aspiring handicrafts business owners to determine prices:
Step 1 – Calculate your labour costs:
Begin by fixing the amount you need to earn per month to cover basic living expenses by selling your handmade products online. Then, note down how many hours each month that you spend working on your business.
Now, divide the first value by the second — this is your hourly rate. Subsequently, to find your labour costs, multiple the number of hours it takes to make a single product and your hourly rate. That’s your labour cost.
For example, if your living cost is 20,000 per month by working 120 hours (4 hours per day), and it takes you 3 hours to make a product, then the labour cost of your product will be 500 [ (20,000/12)*3 = 500]
Step 2 – Calculate making costs:
Add the prices of all the raw materials you used to make your product. You can also include values like electricity, internet charges, and rent. Also, other expenses if you sell online may include website hosting charges, shipping charges, and marketing expenses.
Step 3 – Calculate your wholesale and retail price:
Making costs plus labour costs is the minimum price at which you can sell your products without making a loss. To get a profit, you have to sell the product at at least double the costs. Of course, you have the right to sell it at more than double.
Step 4 – Compare other similar products:
Check the prices of what other craftspeople sell products similar to yours. See if you are pricing according to industry standards.
Step 5 – Consider your customers:
Will customers be willing to pay for your product at such a price? To find out if your prices are competitive, show your product to friends or family and ask them what they would pay for it.
💡Tip: Never undersell yourself! Remember, the product that you made adds value to people’s lives. So, don’t be hesitant to charge what you’re worth. You deserved to be paid well for your creative skills.
To know more about setting the right price for your product, read this blog.
3. Preparing your handmade products for sale: photographs, titles, and descriptions
You’ve created products for your future customers and set a reasonable price. Now, there’s one more step to take before selling them online. Firstly, you need to prepare your handmade products for the online market.
In the virtual world, your products need to attract online shoppers. And, your handmade items need three things to do so: beautiful photographs, relevant titles, and clear descriptions.
Get good product photographs
Did you know? 75% of online shoppers rely on product images when making a purchase decision.
Being a handicrafts business, you don’t need a professional photographer for this. Your smartphone is more than enough! Here are a few things you need to take quality product photographs for your online business:
- Smartphone with good quality camera
- Tripod
- Good background
- Editing apps – Lightroom, Snapseed, Photoshop Express
Tips for at-home handmade product photography:
- Use a high quality smartphone camera
- Use natural lighting
- Remove background with a tool – remove.bg
- Optimise your image size
- Use multiple images from different angles
Fix a title and product description
You made a beautiful unique handmade product for sale. But, what do you name it? While you are free to name your product whatever you like, you need to consider its visibility. This means, your product should be found by customers.
What you call your products need not necessarily be how your target audience customers calls them. So, you need to know what people are searching for. For this, you can use Google Trends or any other SEO tools for this.
Want to get a free online store to sell your handmade products? Get started here!
Related Read: How to Use the Power of SEO to Increase Traffic to Your Website
When it comes to selling your products online, product descriptions act as a sales person for your product. Therefore, never take this job too lightly!
Many businesses make the mistake of cop-pasting product descriptions. Here are some quick tips to get your product to speak and persuade them to buy from you:
- Include keywords related to your product that shoppers search on Google.
- Write about every small detail of your product – size, dimension, materials
- Use sensual words – You are selling a beautiful handmade product. So let your product description speak about how gorgeous it is by including sensual words rather than keeping it generic.
To know more, read this blog on how to write product descriptions that sells.
4. Where to sell handmade products online
You have two main options to sell handmade products online in India — sell on marketplaces or your own eCommerce website.
There are online marketplaces that are exclusively for craft products, where thousands of people shop. Here’s a list of marketplaces where you can sell handmade goods online in India:
Create an online store: Start selling your handmade products online
Your handicrafts are all set to sell online. Selling on your own online store is the best way to start selling handmade products online in 2021 and beyond. And, it only takes a few minutes to sign up for a free version of online store (no credit card details required).
Wondering how to sell handmade products online in India with your own eCommerce store? So just visit Instamojo online store platform to start creating your free online store now!
With your own online store, you can list products easily, collect orders and payments securely, and ship them seamlessly. You don’t need the help of any technical people. You can create your own eCommerce website by yourself just like your handmade products!
For more details on setting up your eCommerce website, read this.
On your Instamojo premium store, you can select a theme that suits your brand. This will make your business memorable. Some popular themes for handicrafts businesses are Fluorescent and Ikkat.
As a handicrafts business, your online store will act as your advocate — build trust and get more customers. Sell your handmade items legally with Instamojo’s free online store. Then, upgrade to premium version to get more features!
How Terracotta by Sachii sells pottery online
Bringing indigenous clay craft to discerning craft lovers across the country, Terraccotta by Sachii is reviving a dying art — all with the help of Instamojo premium online store. They support traditional craftsmen from rural areas and sell skilfully crafted pottery online.
Want to start your own store online like this? Get started here for free!
5. Packaging and Shipping
For a handmade business, people expect the packaging to be gorgeous and special. Customers love great packaging and your brand becomes memorable if you pack products in anything other than just a boring brown box.
Also, you could consider adding personalised messages inside the box to give that heart-warming experience people want from handmade product brands.
View this post on Instagram
Related Read: The Importance of Packaging and 5 Ideas to Delight Your Customers
Finding a suitable shipping partner for your online business can be tricky. So, you need to consider factors like delivery charges, availability of CoD, efficiency, and if it can be integrated to your eCommerce website. Here’s a guide on 5 most affordable shipping services in India.
6. Market your handmade products online
Now that you know know how to set up your online store, you need to think about marketing. To get the attention of customers online, you need to do a bit of marketing.
There are many ways to it from social media to SEO. Here are a few tips to market your handicrafts business online and get your first sale:
Social Media
Instagram and Facebook are great places to start marketing your handmade products. You can start out by posting good quality pictures and engaging captions. Don’t forget to use story highlights to get leads. You could also do some influencer marketing.
Related Read: How to Use Social Media to launch Your Business
Gain more traffic with SEO
You can use the power of SEO to get more visitors to the website. Online shoppers need to find your store when they search for it. So, optimising your website for search engines will help them find you. To know more about SEO for your online store, read this.
To conclude
Finally, it’s time to take the first step in bringing your handmade products business online. Sign up for the free version of Instamojo online store and start selling online. Do you want to sell handmade products across India? Start now to get ahead of the game and become a successful handicrafts business.
