Ebay shop

[swirlyarts]

Does anyone have one and are they worth it? It's not for me but for a friend who is going to start selling her work to a wider audience - there's some of her work on my blog if you want to take a sneaky peek - she made Anya's presents.
Anyway, what is the market like for handmade crafts on ebay. I have suggested Etsy as another place to try but she's not sure.
Any advice would be gratefully received. I'm going to direct her to the forum so she can ask you all herself!

[woodtattoos]

Ebay seems a pricey way to sell crafts items in my opinion. At least with Etsy, it's a cheaper price and the items list for around 4 months, so you can use it as a website to show off your work as well.

And the items that I have sold on Etsy have tended to be the bigger items (such as commissioned house signs) which is a bonus, as they are the ones that decorate your table at craft fairs, usually attracting people to look but not selling themselves.

Fingers crossed for the craft fairs, that's what I say... especially as I've now made over 300 Christmas tree decorations and still counting...

Si.

[Bowed Over]

Katieanne sells her Mosaics on ebay she would probably be the best to tell you.

Cheers.

Lisa

[glasskanvas]

To be honest although ebay has gone down hill a bit lately in terms of exposure to overseas buyers ebay is still by far the best way to sell in the internet as far as i'm concerned. It is more expensive than other sites but in terms of searches etc you can get far more attention from buyers.

If nothing else it's worth the shop for the wholesale leads you can get as a result and also provides a great way of sending out emails, flyers etc. If you make 4 items a week then maybe i'd stick with etsy..20 or more i'd say invest in ebay.

[swirlyarts]

Thanks guys - I'll direct her to this thread!

[ellie]

i have an ebay shop, and yes the fees are high but personally i make the majority of my sales via ebay. Didn't really list many things during the summer as i was concentrating on craft fairs, but having now been put of craft fairs for life (or atleast the rest of the year!) i've been putting some more time in to my ebay shop, and i have to say its proved worth it... can't remember the last time i had a quiet night with nothing to do! (I also look at it this way, if someone was selling my soaps on comission basis they'd be taking alot higher fee then ebay!)

Also if you google blackforest gateaux soap then i'm the second link via my ebay shop.... yet i don't even dare to look where my website is! (lol.. probably the fact that i haven't bothered finishing my website doesn't really help though!)

[colourart]

I would absolutely recommend it. I do most of my business through my ebay shop, the down sides are:

1. you have to keep prices as low as you dare.
2. you can get carried away with fees.


But for me there are lots of benefits.
This how I go about it.
I list one or two items in the auctions a BIN or as an auction put the rest into my shop which is cheaper. Then I wait until they have a 10p listing day or a half price listing day and list alot more.

I get sales from regular paintings which I have stocked but the best bit for me is the commissions which come from it. I have one large commission a the moment which came from listing a small painting. You can have a trial of an ebay shop for a month I think it is, and now is good time for the Christmas market. Last point to make is if you're clever with your title it will come up in google searches.

[slackstitches]

Ebay

Some do well on ebay , I don't. I think it depends on what you do craft wise. I just never get a price that reflects my time.
Your friend could try Dawanda ( I'd give you thie link but haven't got 25 posts yet). It is free to set up shop and list at the moment. It is European and you can list in English, French, German or all three if you are multilingual.
Might be worth a go, no cost except their time.

[Katianne]

Yes, yes, YES!!!

Without Ebay I wouldn't sell anything at the moment! I don't tend to sell at craft fairs and decided to give an Ebay Shop a go in the summer. It really took off and for a few months I didn't stop. I had to calm it down a bit a reduced my listings as I couldn't manage all the orders plus my full time job, but now I'm building my listings up on there again.

I think the comment about it working for some and not for others is very tru. My friend tried selling jewellery on there but there was just too much competition. I have very little competition on there which goes in my favour.

Its worth a try - the first month is free anyway (apart from the listing fees) so maybe see how it goes?

Good luck!

[swirlyarts]

Thanks guys - I've pointed her in the direction of this thread so she'll see the advice.

[Sommerwood]

I used to have an E-Bay shop when I first started up and it did really well, but does become very costly, and they reduced the exposure for shops and increased the fees which put my back up so closed it and opened my website. Now I always keep a couple of things listed on E-Bay and have a hidden link to my website from the listings. You cannot blatantly put 'Visit my website www.sommerwood.co.uk' on the listings but you can link to a non-selling page for more information, so I always put, for example on my childrens name plaques, 'For further examples please click here' with a hidden link to my website where they can see more photo's.

[renniwano]

I have an ebay shop and I can agree with some people where upon the fees can be slightly high, especially for those with small businesses.. and you can get carried away..

BUT, saying that.. it is an outlet with high traffic..

I also have a website.. but am looking at re-doing it..

I now have google adwords too and has been proven to send traffic to my site..

Being a fairly new business.. it's getting your name out there.. and that can only be done best by word of mouth.. imo..

Nikki x

[paulinespassions]

I just thought I'd let you know I have an ebay shop but I really haven't had too many sales on it I started thinking I would get lots of sales but it hasn@t worked out that way . I found another auction site though that is very similar but it is free to list your items to sell there I havent been there long so I havent sold anything yet its called e.bid I found it on google when I was looking for some where to sell my cards. Then again I have my cards on lots of sites and I don't seem to sell them maybe I'm doing something wrong I don't know.anyway just thought I would share that with you.
pauline

[Teddy(wantumwabbit)]

ebid is a site I have listed on and sold well at first but nothing in a year so I have pulled all my listings. Shame but don't expects miracles from there as they seem not to advertise. But have bought from there and never had a problem!
Try it see how it goes, but I gave up after a 18 months.
Good luck.
Teddy