Tag: Selling

I Opened up my Own Store!

Using Depop, I have created an account so that I can have a platform that I can sell my work from. If you want to know why I chose this platform you can click here to read my opinions on different selling sites.

As of yet, I have not made a sale through the app, but I have made a sale by working solely through PayPal and messaging the buyer. I was only confident enough to do this because I knew the person, but even then I felt I was being very awkward, as I’m not very business savvy and I am new to this world. But this may improve over time.

So working this way, I still charged the same amount for the product and p&p but in this case, Depop did not take their 10% cut of the payment, but I believe PayPal does still have a charge of 20p per transaction.

Anyways back to the exciting part, this buyer had wanted 2 of my zines, a multicoloured one and a black and white one, and when I had mentioned that I was also selling some riso prints, she had also wanted a wave print. From this buyer, I have made a total of £14.50 (p&p excluded) so I am so happy with this experience.

As I had stated in my previous post, one of the reasons I had chosen to use Depop was because I would be able to have control over the whole process, packaging the products myself and adding little personal touches where I could. So as shown below, are three photos, one of the contents of the order, then the other two are of the envelope. Although I would say the content is pretty standard as to what you would expect when purchasing prints etc, I wanted to personalise the envelope, adding in little drawings of flowers, which would relate back to the zine. I had also added a little ‘thank you’ on the back so that she would see it when opening. These are small personalisations, however, when I had received a personalised envelope from an artist, I felt that they had actually put love into their packaging, an indication that they actually cared about their clients and appreciation in a way.

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I have now sent off the order, hoping that she gets it soon, and hoping that she is happy with her purchase. I also hope that more people will purchase my work, although I was a bit anxious with this one sale, I hope that the more I get, the more my confidence will grow with the process.

This being said, if you would like to have a look at the products I have for sale, you can click here for my Depop account, or you could send me a message on Instagram @Melon.R if you have PayPal and don’t wish to work through Depop.

Online Stores

In this blog post, as I have recently been in the search for places online where I could potentially open my own shop and sell any product I make over the year, I thought others could potentially benefit from what I have learnt and my opinions on certain cites. I plan to keep these descriptions fairly brief, but knowing myself, I may babble, so we shall see!

If you are following along with this blog for your own research into online stores, I would recommend that you do your own research as well, as this information is just from what I have heard or found, and have formed my own opinions on, so they might not be exactly accurate as I have not worked with any forms of an online store before. For me, this will just be a learning process, hopefully learning, developing and expanding my business as I go. 

Redbubble

This is a site in which I know one of my friends has used in the past (I’m not exactly sure if he still uses it though), it is a company which allows you to create your own products through their facilities. I believe you submit your design, then choose the products that you would want it printed on, then through redbubble’s marketplace, they are able to sell your work. The company does everything for you, from printing the product to shipping it out to the customer.  For its services, I believe they do take a small cut from each of the purchases you make.

I believe I would have considered this as an option, however, I feel it does lose some of the personal factors by the company doing everything for you. One time, I had ordered a couple of Zines from an artist named Nil, or @Badwitches on Instagram, and I did love the pieces I had ordered, but I looooved the personal touches she had added within her packaging. The way she had written the address in pink, and had written ‘Thank you’ on the back, and inside there was a lot of loose heart confetti (which was a bit messy, but such a cute addition), I have even kept the envelope because of how cute I thought these additions were.

It is things like this that I feel I want to do when sending out my own work in my own packaging, adding in little details that could feel more personal for the buyer. I feel that by solely working through the company, it would feel cold in a sense, as I would not be connecting with my buyer in any way, other than them owning a piece of my work, but something that I have not personally put time into creating (yes I would have put time into creating the design, but I would not have spent the time working with the product itself.)

Etsy

From multiple artists I follow on social media, who had sold their work on Etsy, they have ended up moving and using other platforms to sell their work, in places such as Big Cartel, or with their own personalised online stores. I believe this was due to the percentage cut in which Etsy was taking from them. Although yes, I do understand that the company want to be paid a certain percentage, as they are allowing you to sell your through their site, however, I feel for smaller businesses, this cut would have a bigger dint to them as opposed to a company that is getting a lot of regular business.

As I myself will be starting up a small business, with quite a small following, I don’t think this is necessarily the best option for myself.

Big Cartel

This site can potentially cost, but it offers a tier like system, offering more for more money or less for none. If you did not want to spend money on this site, you would only be able to sell 5 products, with one image per item. However I believe through this site, you would still be able to have full control of production, posting and packing etc, making the item as personal as you desired for your buyer.

If I were making more consistent money from my art, enough to pay a monthly fee, I would find that this would be a potential option. However, as I am just starting, and do not know how my work will sell on an online platform, this is not something I would want to spend too much money on right now until I have more information/knowledge of running a business.

Depop

This is typically an app which people sell clothing and accessories through, however over the years, I have seen that someone who I had known from my previous course had started selling her own artwork on it. After a little look, I had found that it almost works like Instagram, as you are able to add tags to the items that you are selling, making it easier for people with similar interests to find your work. You are also able to like items, which allows a person to come back to the post later on, possibly if they weren’t so sure, or if they didn’t have money at the time, etc. But the likes from an item may also boost your post so that it is higher in the search results, I do not know this for sure, but this is the way that Instagram has recently been working.

I do believe that the company takes a cut from your payment when someone purchases your item, but I believe it is small, so I could potentially counteract the cut by pushing up the price a little more. I feel my products are already a lower price within the market, so I believe by pushing it up by 30p or something, it would not make too much of a difference to the buyer.

Another reason why I like this option, again, is that I feel I can connect more with my audience/buyers. I can make the packaging more personal, adding little touches here and there, but the customers are also able to give their feedback as well, reviewing the products or delivery time etc.  Although I do think this common on all of the platforms I have mentioned, I feel people may check the reviews of sellers on depop more, as I feel the customer wants to know that they can trust the person they are buying from, so from the reviews, they can see what they can potentially expect from them, whether the quality was good or not, or whether the delivery had taken a long time or short. I believe as with other websites, the more good reviews you get, the more people will trust and want to buy from you too (only if they want too though, obviously).

Own Online Website

I have not done a lot of research into this field as of yet, as I feel there would be a lot of ways you could potentially go about doing it. You could essentially form your own site, which I assume you would have to pay a monthly fee for, then you would have to have a place that could take transactions, allowing your customer to pay and for you to get that money smoothly, but I’m not sure of the ways in which you could do this? I have recently seen advertisements for a site called Shopify, but I believe you have to pay a monthly fee for that too. I would definitely need to do much more research if I were to chose this option.

However, by selling your work through your own site, it would mean that you have full control over your business, the production, packaging, shipping, etc. It could potentially help in all of your business efficiently being in one place, for instance, as well as a shop, the site could have your portfolio of work, a creative cv, links to any of your other social platforms, and information about you.

 

Final thoughts.

Currently, I have chosen to create a shop through Depop, as it does seem the best option for me at this point in my career, as I am just a small business starting up. But hopefully, as I grow and expand my knowledge of business, one day, if I do gain a bigger following and do have a good regular income from my business, I do hope to run my own website, selling my products on my own, as opposed to working on a third parties platform, potentially paying them some of my profit. I believe by having my own website, my whole business will be accessible within one place, as it will contain my store for potential customers, my links to other social platforms, such as Instagram, or even my blog, both of which I am quite active on, and for any potential clients, I will include my portfolio of work, possibly categorised for easier access, a creative cv, general information about myself, and an enquiry page in which they can email me directly from the site.

 

Please, if you have any thoughts or your own experiences with these websites or apps, feel free to comment them. As I am only starting up myself and have not had a lot of experience selling my own work before, (no experience at all with any of the sites mentioned so far), I would love to hear from others who have and I will happily accept any advice I can get, thank you!