If your small biz includes your handmade creations, check into Etsy, an online market for handmade items.
You can sell anything that is handmade or, a bit more loosely put, hand-assembled or hand-altered. … If human hands put some love into the object, odds are you can sell it on Etsy.
It is a marketplace only; Etsy does not handle any part of the buy/sell transaction. You can set up a free “shop” with your own username. Sellers can be located anywhere globally. It includes a simple feedback system.
The fee structure is also pretty simple:
It costs $0.10 per quantity to list an item on Etsy, regardless of the selling price.
When you sell an item, there is a flat 3.5% commission fee assessed by Etsy.
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The ability to search by color, place, time and material has got to be unique! That seems to suit a marketplace for unique and handmade items. I think this will contribute to better browsing and, hopefully, more purchases.
Etsy could be another way for crafty rural biz people to reach a world-wide market.
small biz rural entrepreneurship Etsy crafts handmade marketing
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
It’s $.20 per quantity to list an item on Etsy.
Thanks for the update! Not surprising that it has changed in the two years since I first wrote about Etsy. I’d love to hear feedback from anyone who uses the service, too.