Ways to Sell Your Creative Product

There are a number of ways to sell your work, some will suit you as a maker and a person and some will not. Love chatting to people? A market may be a great place to start. Digital native? Perhaps selling online will suit you. Hate self promotion and selling your work? Think about teaming up with someone who understands your art and loves connecting with customers.

Maybe you’ll combine some of these methods, or sell directly for a bit and hire someone to do it for you! Experiment some of these options to find the best fit for you.

General Considerations

Not matter how you sell your work, you will need to think about:

• Sourcing quality images of your work—have a mix of straight product shots and images of your product in context
• Setting up an inventory tracking system—this can just be stickers on your product and a master spreadsheet. Your inventory system should tell you a product number, which image belongs to which product, the product's size, weight and name
• Sourcing appropriate packaging so your product doesn’t get squashed or broken. This is particularly important if you will be shipping your product. When packaging your work, think about how you want your customer to feel when they open their package. If you don’t shop online yourself, research “the unboxing experience” on YouTube for some ideas. Remember that your packaging is an extension of your brand. Make sure it is in line with your ethos and aesthetic. Thank you cards can add a personal touch and allow the customer to feel more connected to you and your brand.
• Writing care instructions to ensure that people use and look after your products properly
• The best options for shipping if you are selling your work online or via social media.

Social Media

Regardless of where or how you want to sell your work, it is a valuable use of your time to develop a social media presence. Investing in social media gives you a direct line of communication to your audience and customers. It is also where curators, potential stockists and event organisers will look for and at your practice.

A strong social media presence indicates a level of dedication to your craft, and enables you to communicate your overall aesthetic well. Social media can allow you to connect with audiences across the world and open up new opportunities.

It is important to have consistent and cohesive style and authentic voice. As a maker, taking quality photos is particularly essential – make sure your images are in focus, have enough light and show your work in interesting and beautiful ways.

Built up a strong social media presence? Don’t forget to remind people how they can buy your work! Include a link to an online shop in your bio, mention any markets you’ll be attending and think about having special deals just for your followers. You can now also sell work directly via platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

Markets

Markets can be great, allowing you to make strong sales and have personal conversations with fans of your work. Markets can also be terrible; standing behind your stall for hours without a single purchase. Therefore, finding the right market for you and your work is essential.

Make sure you visit lots of markets before you run your stall. Look at what people are selling, how much they are charging and what their stall set up is like. For example, if you sell $50 handmade cushions you probably don’t want to have a stall at a trash and treasure market where people are looking for a bargain.

Small local markets are lovely and are often a low stress place to start. They usually have a low participation fee and can be more flexible about what products you’re selling and what your stall set up is like. You may also be able to share a stall with a friend or colleague. These types of markets can be great for testing out your stall set up and trialling new products. However, they may also have lower attendance rates or attract people who are just browsing.

Larger and speciality art and design markets can attract a higher participation fees and stall set up cost. There is also often an application process with the expectation that you will have a professional, well thought out and cohesive set up. This increased investment can be worthwhile. Larger markets often attract larger audience numbers, with people there to purchase. They are great for increasing your audience and promoting your practice.

Large markets are usually in capital cities, so factor in travel time and accommodation costs in your consideration. You will also need to dedicate quite a lot of time to building up stock in the lead up to a large market, so you may need to say no to other projects.

If you do a market, make sure you make it easy for the organisers to promote you and your work. Have great images of your products and stall set ready for them to use. Also, remember to reach out to your own audiences. Give them a preview of what you’ll have at the market as people often make the decision to purchase even before they arrive.

Online

Selling your work online can be a great way to have control over how and where your work is sold. You can sell directly via social media or your own website. Either way, a strong social media following will help people find your online store and grow your customer base.

Bricks and Mortar Stores

Stocking your work in stores is a great option for ongoing cash flow and broadening your audience, as you are tapping into the audience of the store. Stores may reach out to you to be a stockist or you can approach them directly.

There are two common ways in which stores will stock your work—wholesale and consignment.

Wholesale

Wholesale is where your work is purchased upfront by a shop. Normally, the wholesale price is around half of the recommended retail price, so you will make less money on wholesale sales than when selling directly to customers. However, wholesale can be good as it requires less work to facilitate sales and it can provide more regular income.

Stores will be more likely to purchase work wholesale if they are confident there will be customers that want to buy it. A strong social media presence can help shops feel more certain that your work will sell.

Consignment

Consignment is when a shop takes your work to sell on your behalf but you are only paid when it is actually purchased by someone. This option is useful for learning how to sell your work, to practice invoicing and understanding what stores expect from makers.

When selling via consignment, you will need to keep track of your work and make sure you have been paid for everything the store has sold. It can be useful to keep a spreadsheet and check off items as they sell.

Unless a store has a long history and a good reputation caution is advised when considering having your work on consignment, especially if that store in another city or town. Stores can close and you may never see that work again or any payment.