The Nuts and Bolts Of It
Selling products online requires a lot of behind the scenes hard work, especially if you sell on your own website like I do. I sell on three platforms because they each have different audiences. I have had a shop of my own (this one) since 2009, I’ve been on ETSY since 2011 and I’ve tried several others including Amazon Handmade, Go Imagine and now Handmade.com (which is still in the start-up phase). I have to list each item I make on all three platforms. The process after the item is made is taking photos and videos, writing copy and then listing them individually on all three platforms.
Over the course of the 16 years that I’ve had my own website, I’ve had to redesign my website 3 different times. I got an e-mail yesterday saying I have to redesign it again because the host platform (Squarespace) has made changes that will cause my website to malfunction. I can do most of the maintenance on my website but I don’t write code so I’ve had to hire a website design company again. This will be the fourth time.
Earlier this year I had a fellow crafter do some cosmetic enhancements to my website. Her day job is ecommerce but her passion is throwing pottery on a wheel in her home studio. Last year I had a professional photographer take pictures of my products in a home setting. My oldest daughter is an aspiring interior designer and she and my wife did the staging. My friend the potter took those photos and constructed the scrolling banners you see on sanderswoodworking.com. It was primarily a facelift.
I’m a small business with no employees. I work seven days a week because I want to, I love what I do. I work seven days a week because that’s what it takes to make, list, sell and ship one of a kind wooden bowls, platters, dishes, hollow forms, puzzles and cutting boards in a volume that pays for insurance, electricity, supplies, advertising and hiring professionals to do the things that I can’t or don’t want to do. I work seven days a week because I want to have a variety of products available to purchase and I want each one to be special and as nice as I can make it. I’m old school, I think good customer service is the only kind of service you should give (and receive).
I try to make new products every day and put them up on the websites several times a week. Over the last 16 years I’ve made and sold over 3500 items and counting. Many of my sales are to repeat customers. I have one customer in particular who has purchased over 100 items and all are on display. I’ve shipped to many countries around the world. I added Australia as a destination for two of my bowls to a food blogger, another bowl went to a castle in Ireland. I have sold to a famous fashion designer in Europe, to a Israeli family in a kibbutz, a US Congressman, doctors, lawyers, friends and neighbors, the list goes on and on. None of that would have been possible without eCommerce and all of it happens because of the nuts and bolts of selling on the internet.