Are you a creative person looking to sell your creations online?
There are many solutions available to you.
In this article, you’ll discover two of the best options available to you.
To sell your creations on the Internet, you can choose between using platforms or having your own e-commerce site.
Sell your creations online with Prestashop
If you want to make selling your creations a business in its own right, there’s nothing better than having your own e-commerce site.
For this, Prestashop is the e-commerce CMS I recommend, for its simplicity and performance.
Here are the advantages of having your own e-commerce site with Prestashop :
Having your own domain name
Having a specific store name and corresponding domain name is a very quick way for your customers to remember you.
By typing in your store name or brand, they’ll find you very easily on the Internet.
What’s more, having your own domain name is a sign of seriousness for your potential customers.
It shows that you’re already at a professional stage of your business, which inspires confidence.
Advanced control over your store
The big difference when you own your own e-commerce site is that you’re completely free to decide what you want to do with your store, both in terms of design and structure.
You can present your products in any way you see fit, and the same goes for everything else on your site.
You won’t find the same freedom on marketplaces.
Building customer loyalty
With your Prestashop e-commerce site, you can set up loyalty systems for your buyers.
For example, you can set up a NewsLetter, which you send to subscribers whenever a new product is released or a promotion launched.
Collecting your prospects’ e-mail addresses is not always authorized on platforms.
Avoid losing potential customers
When a potential buyer comes to your website, he’s more likely to stay and buy from you.
On platforms, when a potential buyer comes to your page, he’s faced with other suggestions for similar products.
The temptation is such that he’ll be led to compare with all the sellers present on the platform.
There’s a big risk that the customer won’t stay with you.
Etsy or Amazon Handmade to sell your creations online
There are other online platforms where you can sell your creations.
These are platforms specialized in the handmade sector, perfectly suited to designers.
Etsy as a sales platform
Etsy is the benchmark platform for selling handmade and artisanal creations.
With over 30 million buyers on the platform, you’ll already have a potential customer base that you won’t have to search for.
That’s Etsy’s biggest advantage.
You sell creations on a platform where visitors are there to buy handmade creations, not anything else.
Etsy also has the advantage of a very active forum, and the platform regularly trains its sellers to better sell and promote their creations.
Sell on Amazon Handmade
Amazon Handmade is a branch of e-commerce giant Amazon.
But the latter specializes in all things handmade and designer.
Like Etsy, Amazon Handmade attracts a substantial traffic of almost 2 million visitors a day in France alone.
In addition to the visibility it offers, and the reputation Amazon enjoys, Amazon Handmade has a team on hand at all times to help designers with their sales.
You can be sure of always finding help.
Selling your creations online, the verdict
To sell your creations online, you absolutely have to start somewhere.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of using your own e-commerce site or specialized platforms.
Disadvantages
With your own e-commerce site:
- You’ll have to do all the prospecting yourself, which can be time-consuming.
With specialized platforms like Etsy or Amazon Handmade:
- You’re limited when it comes to customizing your store.
- You don’t have your own domain name.
This is an important criterion in e-commerce. - Despite all the traffic generated by the platform, you need to succeed in attracting some of this traffic to your products, but you also have to face up to a great deal of competition.
So it’s vital that you have a comparative advantage that sets you apart, and that you implement a promotional strategy to boost your traffic. - Last but not least, the platforms charge a significant commission on your sales, reducing your margin.
The benefits
Platforms have one main advantage:
- They generate a lot of traffic that you don’t have to search for.
This puts a large potential clientele within reach, provided you know how to exploit all that traffic.
There are many advantages to having your own e-commerce site:
- First and foremost, it’s the assurance of being able to customize your site exactly the way you want it, and the way you think it will convert.
- You can also carry out AB testing and modify certain elements of your site according to the results.
- Last but not least, you won’t have to pay sales commissions imposed by the platforms.
To conclude about selling your creations online
If you’re just starting out, Etsy and Amazon Handmade can help you get to grips with e-commerce and take some of the work out of prospecting.
However, you should only consider this as a temporary solution.
The limitations are such that you’re unlikely to break through this way.
I’d be quick to recommend starting your own e-commerce site with Prestashop.
When you’re selling your own products, there’s nothing like having your hands on everything.
Even if you don’t master everything, you’ll know that it’s possible to make modifications and use Prestashop modules to customize your site.
You’ll be completely independent with your own site, and in total control of your store.
For the needs of your own Prestashop e-commerce site, don’t hesitate to call on me.
A Prestashop expert since 2018, I’d be delighted to help you with your new e-commerce adventure.
