Selling online

Credit: 48HoursLogo.com

Once you have achieved a lot of visits to your website, you need to convert the visits to sales. 

The first thing you need to do is consider your products.  Craft products are more difficult to sell online than mass manufactured items that are completely standard and so have known quality.

Is your product suitable for online selling?

·        The general case is that lower priced gift items are easier to sell than expensive ones. 

·        Is delivery expensive relative to the cost of the item? 

·        Do the items have to be sized, e.g., rings?

·        Are the items easy to post safely without breakage?

·        How much packaging will be necessary?

If the answers are that what you sell is expensive to buy or deliver, must made to a size, or are difficult to post, you may have difficulties in generating sales.  If you have items that are likely to sell less well online, consider the other ways you can sell them – trade events, galleries, shops, wholesale.  Also think about making items that are easier to sell online, but still fall within your style.  This approach will help support your more difficult to deliver or more expensive items that won’t sell well online.

Then

Online selling techniques are not so different from in-person selling, except that you have to rely on text and images to do the selling.  This puts more emphasis on words and images and getting your personality into those two things.

The basics are:

Get the viewer’s attention

Stimulate their interest

Develop their desire for the object

Convert these elements into the purchase.

There are many things that can create these three pre-requisites for a purchase.  

Images

The quality of images is extremely important.  Photographs must be sharp, focused, and with lots of light.  They must be taken to show the quality of craftsmanship.  Multiple pictures of the item help to give a better feeling of the object.  They should be taken from various angles, including the unseen backs of items to show the craftsmanship and help promote the assurance of quality. Lifestyle images bring items to life, but have to be carefully arranged.  This is often done best by a professional photographer.

Get and maintain interest

What you do must be apparent immediately.  Do you have recognisable work or style? Is your business name memorable?  An explanation of what you do and why it is unique is important to maintain interest.  Links from these explanations to relevant individual items or product groups are appropriate to keeping people engaged.

It is important to maintain interest after the initial contact.  Make it easy to find other relevant items. Use links, buttons, suggestions, etc., liberally.

Keep the site alive with case studies. These can be the background to your workday, or events in your business life.   Inside views of the development of new lines shows how you progress from idea to finished work.  You have interesting ways of working, that many people are interested in knowing about. Show your working practices, tell them the story of making.

You need to keep in touch with potential and existing clients.  Direct posts to those you have contact details for, with information on developments keeps you and what you do in customers’ minds.  These must not be direct sales pitches.  You can ask questions of these people to keep them engaged. They may also tell others about you and your work.  General posts to targeted audiences can help spread the word too.  Some paid promotion on social media can help, if targeted to the right people.

Provide information

Explain the potential questions about each item that client may have.  Think about the kinds of questions you ask about non-glass craft products. Use those approaches in stating and answering these questions.

Make the explanations personal and consistent with your site and the glass products you are offering.  In many cases, it is desirable to establish a FAQ section, including terms and conditions.  This can help maintain confidence of the buyer in your ability to make and supply the work.

Purchase

What’s for sale

You need to overcome any difficulties that the client might face in coming to the buying decision.  The website should be immediately clear about what you do and for whom.  Price levels need to be clear, possibly by grouping or sorting. Images need to connect with client desires.  This is where lifestyle images are useful.  Do remember that first impressions are all important.

Develop trust

Development of, or appearance of trustworthiness is essential to buying.  People buy from those they know, like and trust.  Development of this is essential for consistent online sales, as well as anywhere else.  This can be promoted by your presence on a group of platforms that you link between. Good descriptions of products and about yourself are important to maintaining the trust of the client.  Testimonials, if you have them, are useful. 

The website must appear professional.  Knowledge of your location is important to developing confidence in your work. Knowing where else your work is available is also important in validating confidence in your business.  Knowledge of where else your work can be purchased gives creditability to your standing within the craft  buying community. This can include your attendance at craft and trade fairs, as well as any awards or press mentions.

Buying and delivery

Make it easy to purchase.  One-click links can help ease the customer into buying. Use of a known payment provider increases confidence that the purchased item will be delivered and that there is a mechanism to get money back if not.  Make sure you explain about postage and packaging, unless you have included it in the in price.  If P&P is included, make sure that you are clear in the text accompanying the image and description.  If you don’t do that, the price comparisons with those that don’t include P&P are skewed against you.  Include plain English terms and conditions, to engender trust if something were to go wrong.

But

Don’t rely exclusively on online sales. There is enormous competition online, even though it is a means to get your work known to a wide range of people Importantly, it is a way to get year-round sales rather than the summer and autumn craft circuit.  Other sources for consistent sales - without you being present all the time - are galleries, shops and wholesalers.

Think about combining online sales with craft fairs and other selling events.  These face to face events give you the opportunity of getting direct feedback on your work, which will help develop what you do.  Promote your attendance at events on the website and tell about your website at events.  Blog about the events before and after their occurrence on your website and social media.  Tell stories from the events on your social media and in the website, too.

Selling online requires getting attention, stimulating interest and promoting desire to buy.  Some of the things you can do are noted.  But do not put all your effort into online.  You can gain a lot of information by attending face to face selling events.

Preparing for a Craft Fair

“What should I take to the craft fair?” 

This is a frequently asked question.  The question gets a variety of answers from the materials to make the stand out of, the variety of supplies, to taking a variety of things to the show with different price points.

I’m sorry to say that the last piece of advice leads to set ups that look more like a jumble sale rather than a display of finely crafted works.  These stalls have a lot of closely arranged pieces to fill the space.  They have a lot of price points.  They have a wide choice of colours in each range.  What is the potential buyer to make of so much choice?

It is important to have an identity on display.  Are you a maker of votives, table ware, suncatchers, garden objects, panels, recycled and repurposed glass, etc.?  If they all are displayed, it is difficult for the viewer to determine what it is that you do.

This identity can be a unified colour range throughout the items you are selling.  It could be a range of bowls, platters and other table wear with a consistency of colour or design.  It could be your concentration on making objects from recycled glass. Essentially, you are telling the viewer what you are about.  It could be from “I make jewellery” to “I make glass objects in a range of blue green” (not that I think the latter is a real identity, but it is a possibility).  This “identity” can change from venue to venue, of course.

The usual way shops and stores distinguish their important items, is to give them display space.  This is vital for craft shows too. Space around items allows each item to have its own significance.  It is possible to give this space by concentrating on just a few lines of work.  You can always have spare stock under the table or out back to fill the gaps caused by purchases.

You may decide to go for the jumble sale approach. One of the reasons might be the people coming will be looking for lower priced objects. (Should you be selling your pieces at bargain prices?). You may be unsure of the nature of the visitors to the show and want to appeal to a wide range of people. You still need to give each piece its space.  You may have a range in multiple sizes and colour ways.  Display only one product in the full range of sizes and only a single item in each of the colour ways.  Your “under the counter” stock will fill in the sizes for the colour range.  In this kind of way, you can make space for each item even when you bring a multiplicity of objects.

So many times, I see little evidence of descriptions relating to the object or range of products.  You need to illustrate the thought you have put into the creations by the descriptions you give to the pieces.  Simply putting the pieces out in a nice arrangement is not enough.  You need to tell people what it is, the concept that led to its development, possible uses, how it might fit into a life style and its benefits – unique art piece, display of the owner’s ability to choose beautiful objects, etc.  And of course, you need to give the price.  You might also want to make it possible for a buyer to have it shipped, so you need information about delivery costs as well.  In giving this kind of description, you are showing you have put thought into the piece and into the buyer’s needs too.

It is very unusual to see anything about the maker.  Unless people are looking for bargain basement items, they want to know about the maker.  They are buying your story almost as much as the object. You have a story relating to your life and your approach to making.  Tell it. Display it prominently.

Where else can your products be found?  People want to be assured that they are buying things in demand. Telling where else your creations are sold helps assure them that their choice is validated by other people’s interest (even though they are buying a unique piece).  Put this information in a few sentences and put it up somewhere on your stand.

Telling people about where you can be found in the real world, on social media, your blog, and any online marketplaces is important.  Often people can turn into repeat buyers through maintaining contact. At the least it can promote continuing relationships, which may turn into commissions.

Research the market. You need to look at the profile of people that will be attending the event.  If it is a gardening event, you might take garden-based objects, or set your pieces in a garden-like atmosphere. If it is a school event, think about the background of the parents.  If it is a stand-alone event, then you need to think about the population of the area, or the people that the event will draw.  The organisers in all these cases should be able to give you information on the people who are likely to come. 

Take things that will appeal to the people who will be browsing and arrange them appropriately to the event as well as getting the display right.  This might involve different table coverings, or backgrounds to reflect the ethos of the event to which the craft fair is attached.  You need to make a connection with the potential buyers.  Show that you are tuned into their lifestyle.

Preparing for a craft selling event is much more than what structure to hang or display your work on.  It is about reflecting the environment of the event. Will the people be browsers that need to be converted to buyers, or are they going to be coming to buy? Those two groups have different display requirements. What your identity will be in relation to these buyers will determine the range of material you bring to the show. 

Summary

A craft fair is very similar to a shop display or your offering on an online craft marketplace. 

• Your display needs to immediately say what you do. This is assisted by the walls, coverings, etc. of the stand, but is most importantly shown by the selection of objects to show.  This is what tells people what you do.  It is your identity for the time being. 
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• You need to lovingly describe each object on display. This gives the buyer a feeling for the concept behind the item, an idea of the benefits and value of it to their life.
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• You need to tell your story. They are buying an idea of the maker as well as the object.  It is a good idea to tell people where else your work can be found too – even if it is at other craft fairs just now – but especially if you are on any online marketplaces such as Etsy.  Engaging them with your social media is also a good idea to help maintain the currency of your story.
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• You need to find out about who will be attending the event.  The social and economic characteristics, the age profile, the status of the event and many other things will be important to what you bring and how you dress it.

Finally, all these elements of an approach to selling your work apply to anything you are thinking of selling on an online craft marketplace.  Getting it right at craft fairs prepares you for successful online selling too.

Advice for Surviving a Selling Event, 3

Publicity and literature

• Research press contacts for magazines, papers etc. Target smaller newspapers as they like writing about local people.
• Make sure you have sufficient supplies of publicity handouts, trade information, press pack and artist's statement. Make handouts easy to understand, easy to carry and easy to store. Magazine editors cruise around so have a press pack available. Find a good photographer to work with for good publicity shots.
• Make sure your website is up-to-date, as people who go away with information will then look at the site.
• Don't have any financial barrier between you and the public - have a range of prices. Your price lists should include information about postage and packing. Give the landed price - the price a piece costs, then add postage and packaging. Find out about and include notes on the costs for national and international delivery.

Objectives for the event

Aim high, they have a lot more money than we have.

Takings should be 10 times the cost of your stand. Almost half the takings may be commissions.

Exhibition offers

Never commit to exhibitions with galleries until you can check them and find out as much as you can about the gallery. Never be intimidated into feeling inferior by a gallery. Is exhibiting with that show worthwhile? Sometimes it is very good for the career.



Expect the best and be prepared for the worst.

More information is available from the Business Fact Sheet for Scottish Crafts at craftscotland

Advice for Surviving a Selling Event,.2

Customers

Don't judge people by their appearances.

Keep smiling and never lose your cool even with difficult customers. Listen to them. They may actually have a point. They know what they like and don't like and they're not afraid to tell you.

Never undertake something that you don't really, really want to do. Steer them round to what you make. Be firm if a customer is making unreasonable demands. Is the job actually worthwhile?

Commissions

Once they decide they want something give the customer your time. Find out what they like about it, what they don't like, what space it's going in, is it on the wall? The time spent will pay dividends as the most important thing is your time and they'll remember it afterwards.

Write everything down in one place - name, address and add something which you can easily remember them by. Agree a price and usually include delivery and insurance as extras.

Never give discounts.

Timescale - you'll have lots of work after the event - so start commissions several weeks or months afterwards. Be good and let them know if there's a delay or a problem.

For a commission people do expect to pay a deposit. Ask for a round figure. Give them a receipt.

More information is available from the Business Fact Sheet for Scottish Crafts at craftscotland

Advice for Surviving a Selling Event, 1

You have to be really comfortable.

• Bring a high level stool so you can perch and still have eye contact with the customer
• Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
• Wear something bright to help them remember you. It helps if they can point you out in a crowd.

Food, drink and consequences

Eat well, have a good breakfast and have loads of water to stop dehydrating

Bring your lunch

Make friends with the people beside you. This is very important, especially when you've drunk a lot of water!

Plan ahead

Plan the stand display in advance, where everything is going, display cases and what is going in them. Make a plan of the space. Then try it out to make sure it works.

Consider who is beside and opposite you - you need to be aware of what is around you to plan your space best, so it might be worth getting in touch with them before you arrive.

The stand should be clean and tidy. Having no clutter means the customer can see what they are looking at. Have a storage unit for paperwork, pens, water, packaging etc. Have a space where you can write orders and pack purchases.

More information is available from the Business Fact Sheet for Scottish Crafts at craftscotland