Less than 6 months ago, I opened up an e-store selling my craft (handmade soap) and have since then made over a hundred sales and sold at two different events. :)
TODAY I'm going to put a few packages in the mail, and finish packaging up the rest of this week's orders (so I can toss them in the mail tomororw.) Later this week I'm going to work on going full KonMarie on my space so I can free up more room to store my soap-- space for equipment and inventory has been one of my biggest challenges!
How did you get your initial customers via your site? I sell handmade candles and I've only sold through friends, family, coworkers...
To be totally honest, it sounds like a weird humblebrag when I write it all out, but the three things I had going for me when I launched my soap store were: a love for writing copy, a pretty good grasp of my target audience, aaand NEPOTISM. I made nerd/geek themed soaps, and have close friends with large followings in the nerd artist community. They were willing to promote my store on social media, so that was definitely a big help to me initially (and by promote I mean tweet my stuff once, maybe twice, not spam their followers with my info.) This is also on twitter, so having good pictures and encouraging re-tweets also allowed me to put my stuff out there. I'm also part of that same nerd/geek community, so interacting with my fellow fans and making friends with shared nerdy interests meant that I had some insight into what sells, and friends and community members who are happy to also promote my shop.
I also gave away a lot of soap in the beginning, both to friends and via giveaways promoting people to repost/comment/engage with my social media posts.
For my shop itself, I spent a LOT of time writing compelling copy targeted toward my (niche, nerd) audience and making soap/products targeted toward that audience as well. Artisan soap and candles are a really oversaturated market right now, so if you want to be able to reach a wider audience you really need to work on branding (blech, I feel like a corporate drone just typing that out) and identifying that makes YOUR stuff stand out from the rest of the pack.
Off the top of my head, here are some ideas and stuff that I do/have seen other people do:
- If you haven't already, THEME YOUR STUFF. Go for a specific "look and feel"to your products and your packaging, hopefully one that matches your own interests and attitude. Are you going for geometric lines and artful minimalism? Witchy black magic vibes? Natural, organic products with a forest/greenery theme? Ocean surf and beachy relaxation? If you're using a service like say, etsy, what keywords should people be typing in to find your candles?
- Go where your people go. I have a friend who's really into the pentagram/goth/ETERNAL DARKNESS aesthetic, and she shops at online/b&m stores and goes to events catering to that crowd. Whatever or whoever your target audience is, where do they go, how do they shop? How can you engage and promote and reach out to them?
- Arts & crafts fairs. Straight talk-- getting in, paying for space, accomodations, food and drink, can make these very expensive. However. they can also be pretty lucrative, and are a great way of getting your products out into the public view, attracting first-time customers that become long-time customers, etc.etc.