DIY: Profitable Crafts and Powerful Platforms for your DIY Store

If you’re planning to sell DIY crafts online, you’ve probably asked yourself two common questions: what are you going to sell? And where are you going to sell it?

Many people wonder, “What can you do with your hands to sell on the Internet?”. For example, you can make candles, farmhouse signs, and pillows. All of those can be sold on Etsy, ArtFire, or personal online stores.

It’s important to consider your options carefully, but Doing It Yourself doesn’t have to mean doing it without help. This guide can be your guide to choosing the ideal craft and finding the best home for your DIY store.

Choosing the Perfect Craft

Whether you’re a DIY expert or just getting started, there are countless crafts to choose from when building your store. Too many choices can be overwhelming, so it’s helpful to focus on a few key factors:

• The time it takes to make the craft
• The cost of any necessary materials, and
• How much profit you’ll make from each sale.

Certain crafts are in high demand and can be made using relatively inexpensive materials. If you’re looking for the most profitable crafts to sell online, consider the options below.

Candles

Chances are you either know someone who is obsessed with buying candles, or you’re that person who can’t resist snagging a new scent. DIY candles are a huge and profitable market, with prices ranging from $2 to $30 depending on their decoration and unique blend of smells.

Candles are always in demand for special occasions or as part of a self-care routine, so they make perfect sense as a DIY craft to sell online. Best of all, they can be made in large batches without breaking the bank on materials.

Farmhouse signs

Farmhouse signs can be made using canvas or pieces of reclaimed wood, which means they’re an inexpensive and endlessly customizable craft for your DIY store. Once you’ve found the material you want to make your sign from, all you need is paint and a brush to get started. Fill in your signs with inspirational quotes, lines from your favorite books, or with a customized message chosen by your customer, and they’ll be flying off of your virtual shelves in no time.

Pillows

Pillows are an in-demand and slightly more technical craft, meaning that they can elevate your store and allow you to reach more customers. There are excellent tutorials online for beginners to learn to sew pillows, so mastering this skill is just a few clicks away. Pillows are a great DIY craft to sell because they can be priced relatively high in comparison to the cost of their materials. Think $15 and up, with fabric costing just a few dollars per yard. You can even use recycled fabric like old t-shirts or thrifted curtains to make your pillows for an eco-friendly touch!

If you’re still not sure which craft is right for you, check out our guide to finding trending products to sell online.

Choosing the Perfect Platform

Once you’ve settled on the perfect craft, you also need the perfect ecommerce platform for your online store. You want your store experience to be easy and pleasant for both you and your customers, and there are a lot of great options out there. Choosing the best fit for you might come down to the price to set up a store, any fees taken off of sales, the checkout process, connectivity with other apps and websites, or the overall experience of managing your inventory.

Below, check out overviews of a few different ecommerce platforms, with breakdowns of their associated costs and features!

Etsy

Etsy is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms for DIY craft sellers and buyers. As their website says, “Millions of shoppers can’t wait to see what you have in store.” On Etsy’s marketplace, you can sell handmade creations, vintage goods, and both handmade and non-handmade crafting supplies.

Cost: Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee, with listings staying active for four months or until the item sells. Etsy also includes a 5% transaction fee and a 3% plus $0.25 payment processing fee when you sell an item.

App: Etsy offers the “Sell on Etsy App” where store owners can manage orders, edit listings, and respond to buyers instantly from their mobile devices.

Connectivity: Etsy pays to advertise sellers’ items across the web and charges a 15% offsite ad fee if you make a sale from one of their ads. You can share your products to other social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram through their services, which will also suggest captions and hashtags for your posts.

ArtFire

ArtFire is “a marketplace where millions of people around the world connect to make, buy, and sell unique goods.” ArtFire, with a smaller user base than Etsy, focuses on its community of sellers and customers. Their website highlights Community Trendsetters with hot products, features a Seller Spotlight section, and includes forums where sellers can learn new techniques and promote their products.

Cost: ArtFire offers a variety of plans, with shops priced at $9.99, $29.99, and $49.99. At the “Standard Shop” level, sellers can list up to 250 items with a listing fee of $0.23 and a 14.75% sales service fee. More expensive plans offer a greater number of listings, no listing fees, and a reduced sales service fee.

App: ArtFire does not offer a mobile app, but its site is marketed as mobile-friendly for shoppers.

Connectivity: According to the ArtFire website, “All items are automatically shared to the major search engines.” The site also allows sharing to social media.

Forums: One of ArtFire’s unique features is the forum section, where sellers can connect with each other and learn new crafts.

Ecwid

Ecwid is an ecommerce platform that makes selling online easier. Build your own store from scratch to instantly sync and sell across your own website, social media, marketplaces, and more. Grow your business with automated marketing tools. And manage it all from your Ecwid control panel.

Cost: Ecwid is “putting free trials on trial.” They offer free accounts that stay free for as long as you need them and have no transaction fees. For sellers who are interested in expanding their stores, Ecwid offers paid accounts with added features, such as the ability to manage other sales channels like Facebook Shop and Amazon through your Ecwid dashboard.

App: The Ecwid app enables users to create full websites, add products, manage orders and inventory, and more. Sellers who don’t have a computer can launch their online stores with nothing but a mobile device.

Connectivity: Ecwid allows you to easily sync and sell across a website, on social media, and on various marketplaces like Amazon and Facebook. Their free plan includes promotion through Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and Snapchat advertising.

Customer service: One added benefit of Ecwid is access to live customer support, whenever you need it.

Once you get your store up and running, we’d love to hear about it! Drop a comment below with your best-selling idea or favorite ecommerce platform.

Discover DIY craft ideas and learn how you can sell them online.

• How to Start a Handmade Brand and Sell Crafts
• DIY: Things You Can Make and Sell Online on Your Own
• 8 Hottest Craft Ideas to Make Money From the Internet
• Art Shows and Craft Fairs
• DIY Craft Ideas to Make and Sell