List each piece as itself
One product, stock of one, its own photographs. A one-off is not a variant of anything.
Handmade
Sell handmade work without selling the same piece twice.
Most handmade stock is a quantity of one. That is not a limitation to work around, it is the thing the system has to get right, on the store, in a message and at a market stall.
14-day free trial. No card required.
One of a kind$320
Payment received$420
How do I sell handmade crafts online?
List each piece as its own product with a stock count of one, because that is what most handmade stock actually is. Photograph it properly and say what it is made of and how large it is, since no two pieces are identical and a buyer cannot assume. Publish to your own branded store and sell the same catalog in chat, on social and at a market stall, with one count behind all of them, so a piece sold at a fair on Saturday is gone from the site before anybody can pay for it twice. Take payment at checkout or in the thread. For work made after it is ordered, publish the lead time and take a deposit.
How to start selling handmade crafts.
Getting started
Four steps, in order. Each one is a screen you can open on the first day, not a project.
Say what it is
Material, size, weight, how it was made. A handmade buyer is buying the specifics, so publish them instead of describing them per message.
Open the store and the counter
A branded store on your own domain, and the same catalog at the stall, both drawing down one count.
Take money without a conversation
Turn on card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer so a buyer who wants the piece at midnight does not have to wait for you to reply.
What is different about selling handmade crafts.
What is different here
Every kind of product has a detail that decides whether the software fits. These are the ones that decide it here.
Quantity of one, and it must hold everywhere
The whole category is unique pieces. Selling one twice is the failure mode, and one shared count across the store, chat and the stall is what prevents it.
The making time is part of the offer
A commission is scheduled work. Publishing the lead time and taking a deposit turns it into an order rather than an open conversation.
The stall and the site are one business
Craft sells at markets as much as online. If the counter and the store do not share a count, the site is wrong every weekend.
Your buyers are already in a thread.
Where you sell
Handmade work is found on a feed and asked after in a message. Very often the question is simply whether the piece in that photograph is still there.
In your market that usually means Your store, Instagram and In person.
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer.
Getting paid
Take card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer online and at the stall. Automatic payouts to your bank.
Money from card sales lands in your bank account on a rolling two-day schedule. Nothing to claim, nothing to withdraw.
- Card
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Bank transfer
How it reaches the buyer.
Delivery
One-off pieces are often fragile and rarely uniform, so pack per piece and set shipping by zone.
- Set your shipping rates by zone, by weight or as one flat rate, and the checkout works them out for the buyer instead of you quoting in a thread.
- Offer pickup beside delivery. A buyer who is nearby collects, and the order still goes through the same queue and the same stock count.
- Print the order, mark it packed, mark it sent. The buyer gets the update without you writing a message.
- Every order from every channel lands in one queue, so nothing is fulfilled twice and nothing is missed.
What it costs.
One subscription covers the store, the catalog, the order queue, the customer records and the counter. There is no separate charge for selling in chat, and no charge per kind of product.
Priced and paid in US dollars. Every plan opens with a free trial and no card.
What you would actually use.
The product
Named plainly, and each one has a page of its own if you want the detail.
Online store
Build an online store that looks like your brand rather than a template. One catalog, one...
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Orders and inventory
Orders from your store, from social, from chat and from your counter land in one place....
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Customers
Every customer and their full order history land on file automatically. Group them into...
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Selling handmade crafts, answered.
Can I sell pieces that exist only once?
Yes, and it is the case this is built for. A stock count of one holds across the store, chat, social and the counter at the same time.
Can I take commissions?
Yes. Publish the piece with its lead time, take the order, and take a deposit up front with the balance on completion.
Does the market stall use the same stock?
Yes. The counter draws down the same count as the store, so a piece sold at a fair disappears from the site immediately.
How do I show a piece properly?
Multiple photographs, the material and the dimensions on the page. For unique work those specifics are the description.
Can I group similar pieces?
Yes, by collection or category, while each piece stays its own product with its own single count.
Do I need my own website?
No. A branded store on your own domain comes with Crate, which is also where an about page and a making process page can live.
Selling something else?
Nearby
The same platform underneath, told in the language of the thing you make.
