There's Etsy and Dawanda, Mintd and 1000 Markets, The Supermarket, Big Cartel and many more, oh my!
If you're looking to set up an online shop to sell your handmade goods or art these days, the options are endless. I've seen many designers who choose to sell their work in multiple self-maintained venues like these, not to mention on their own websites, and I wonder, is it really worth it?
I don't have the answer to that, but rather am throwing it out as a topic of discussion, as there's obvious pros and cons associated with it. For instance:
Pros for selling in multiple venues:
- additional exposure to a wider variety of customers
- additional exposure for your brand and company name
- more customers = more sales hopefully = more moola
- the more places people can find you, the better, right?
Well, I'm not so sure. The cons seem a little daunting to me:
- spreading inventory out in multiple places seems hard to keep track of
- being responsible for maintaining and updating more than one shop is hard work
- there's different rules and fees and payments schedules associated with each venue
- you'll have more places to check in with, leave feedback with, get orders from- could end up spending more time on the back end sorting through tedious stuff
- you might not have the chance to participate in any one site's main features or community because you're focused on many shops instead of just one
Is all that worth it for the additional customers and exposure? You tell me.
Is selling your work in multiple venues the recipe for success? Or a surefire headache?
If you currently sell your goods in multiple shops, do you think it's worth it? Which combination of selling venues has worked well for you? And what maybe hasn't worked so well?
