Business startup - website

[NotAGolf]

My wife is looking at starting up a little part time business selling craft items. We're at the very early stages at looking to see if it's a viable idea, so we need to look at costs.

One of the areas we need to look at is a website. I'd be reasonably confident setting up a website where we can showcase some of the designs and have some company info. I don't think I'd be confident enough to turn this into an actual e-commerce site though (I'm not confident enough in web development so would be worried about the security side of things) so if we were to go down that route I think we'd pay for someone to create a full e-commerce site.

I'd be interested in the experiences of anyone who's been in this position before and whether they got the majority of traffic through their own site or advertised on other sites (eBay, Etsy, Facebook, Gumtree, Folksy etc).

Currently I'm thinking of going with the option of creating a simple wordpress site ourselves and adding links to the external sites to deal with the payment side of things. Then if we find there is a reasonable demand for the products we could perhaps look at focusing on our own e-commerce site and ditch the other sites (and all the commissions/costs that goes with them).

 

[Mark M]

This will probably be better in the HTML section but I would set up a word press site and purchase a WooCommerce theme which is designed for your very needs. Can link into paypal or other paid for payment gateways.

 

[Steeps]

Those commissions/costs is the cost of advertising and should be factored in to any margins you are hoping to make on the products. Just building a website and hoping the custom will come to you doesn't work unless you have a plan to grow a social media following and can differentiate yourself from the other thousands who spam local Facebook pages with craft products including framed scrabble tiles, hand sewn bunting or quotes on badly cut painted MDF shapes.

Paypal is probably the easiest and most secure to integrate to any website either through buttons or wordpress, but an active Facebook page with good quality photos is essential for your target market, maybe consider doing some craft fairs/summer shows if you see sales pick up and you have enough crafts to fill a table/hanging space. Selling locally is probably more cost effective otherwise you'd have to factor in postage and packaging, which on personalised craft items can be expensive if the item gets lost or damaged.

 

[Caged]

Honestly I think the amount of marketing that you get by being on something like Etsy will have value that you can't quantify yet. There's nothing preventing you starting out on Etsy and then moving to your own site once you're established and can do the sums.

Your business isn't in web design, it's in making craft items, don't tie yourself up having to spend time on a thing that isn't what makes you unique.

 

[kindai]

I have this conversation with 2-3 customers a week.

Go for an off the shelf solution like Etsy, Folksy or MISI. Advertise locally on the book of faces in local groups. Find interest groups (eg, if you make wooden carved dragons) then provide a link to the "we love dragons" group on facebook.

If you dive right into your own online store, you'll sell nothing, and have to deal with all the aggro and cost of setting it up and maintaining it.

 

[AHarvey]

If you want to make money from it, make a website that sell's other people's products from your local area.

Time and materials alone will price you out of the market compared to the cheap Chinese imports people sell, which is one of the issues some sellers have on Etsy.

 

[touch]

Go for an off the shelf solution like Etsy, Folksy or MISI. Advertise locally on the book of faces in local groups. Find interest groups (eg, if you make wooden carved dragons) then provide a link to the "we love dragons" group on facebook.

If you dive right into your own online store, you'll sell nothing, and have to deal with all the aggro and cost of setting it up and maintaining it.

These are not mutually-exclusive choices. Do both.
It's easy enough to set up a wordpress website, get an ecommerce plugin and use paypal as the payment gateway. You dont have to worry about any security checks, PCI, etc as payments are done via 3rd party and your customers will feel secure using paypal.

 

[Hades]

Start on Etsy and plough any profits into paying someone to setup a wordpress site (and continue on Etsy in parallel).

 

[jakspyder]

another shout for etsy or squarespace. Personally i think wordpress is awful and pretty darn slow too. Id aim for stripe backed payments rather than paypal as paypal want a subscription fee as well as the usual transaction fee, which stripe don't take. That said you can also offer both no worries. The fees are not large.

I'd echo everyone elses statements on social media and the like.

 

[Steeps]

The subscription fee is only if you want to use Paypal payments pro. My site directs straight to Paypal and I use the card reader, no monthly fee.

 

[Kingdom34]

Just searched "Side business" and came across this thread.
I have a question. I currently sell on ebay and I hate the way you get screwed by the sellers at every corner and ebay too. My question, is Etsy better? What audience do Etsy attract compared to ebay?

I'm thinking I need another avenue as like above, its hard via a website alone.