This is PART THREE of my “I Want To Sell Handmade Products… But I Don’t Know What To Make!” series. If you haven’t read part one yet, click here to be taken there, and if you haven’t read part two yet, click here to be taken there.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
Let’s Get Making!
Welcome back and we’re on to part three! Are you excited? I am! Because it’s time to start MAKING your products.
Product creation is an art form in and of itself, and there are going to be issues to work through. Make one, two, three, or even four of your products. You need to figure out your process and know that you might need to make changes to your materials or even your design. For your first few prototypes, you can create your product with lower quality materials – dollar store yarn, for example, if you’re trying to work through a complicated pattern. But you’ll want to make at least one or two with your intended materials; working with more expensive materials can result in a totally different end product and you’ll want to know all the ins and outs of the materials you’ll be using for products you’ll list for sale.
Test Your Products Before You Sell Them!
I started making plush keychains recently. I used some adorable embroidery ITH (In the Hoop) files, and the instructions said to use ribbon for the loop that the keyring would go through. In theory, this worked perfectly. The ribbon had a lovely shiny finish, and the final product turned out gorgeously.
When I make a new product, my mother (who is my biggest fan, apparently) always gets the first one if she wants it. In this case, she did want the keychain, and she put it on her bag immediately. Everything was great, for a day or two. Until the ribbon started fraying inside the plush, and was barely hanging on when someone noticed. Embarrassing!
But if I had started selling them without actually testing them out, I would probably have some unhappy customers right now. Instead, my mom gave me the keychain back so I could take a look at it. After some trial and error, I switched from ribbon (which looks lovely) to bias tape. The bias tape doesn’t look as pretty, but it will hold up to regular use.
Keeping the Customer in Mind
While you’re making your products, you need to make sure that you’re thinking about your ideal customer. Are there any features you can add that would make this product more valuable to them? Anything you should try to do differently, to make it more useful to them? Can you switch out one material for a cheaper, but equally strong/durable/attractive material, so you can bring the product cost down? Or perhaps you don’t care about cost—you want to appeal to the luxury shopper. Is there a way you can make it feel more expensive and quality?
Packaging Your Product
There are two things to the packaging – the packaging of the actual product (like a backing card), and the packaging that you do when you get it ready to ship or deliver. Some new sellers go overboard on packaging because they feel it adds a handmade, personal touch. Your packaging should indeed be nice and reflect your overall brand, BUT you need to factor your packaging into your costs. If you spend too much on packaging, you inflate the cost of your product and customers don’t like that. Especially in the beginning when you have slim profit margins (I’ll talk more about pricing in a few paragraphs), try to keep packaging costs low.
Item Packaging
While I recommend keeping your packaging costs low, you do need some sort of packaging. It might be as simple as a hang tag that you design on Canva with your business name, the product name, and your website. You can print the tags at home or a print shop, and attach them with a tagging gun depending on the product. (You can get a simple tagging gun from Amazon here.)
Depending on your product’s size, you can do what I did with my MoodMill pins and magnets—my pins are attached to my business card. That way, customers get my business card, but I don’t have to buy both business cards and packaging cards. Work smarter, not harder!
Other ways you can package your items include plastic bags with sticky strips to keep them closed (I get inexpensive ones on AliExpress), boxes, tins, or wrapped in something. There’s an adorable plushie company called Hazel Village that wraps all its dolls in a handkerchief. I highly recommend checking out their packaging videos on TikTok—they’re incredibly enjoyable to watch.
Shipping/Delivery Packaging
Another area where people get a little too crazy is when planning their shipping packaging. It can be tempting to get the most colorful bubble mailers or go all out with beautiful folded and branded boxes with fillers and thank-you gifts.
Those things are great, but they’re also expensive. In the early days, you have such a small profit margin that such things can result in you taking a significant loss. The fact of the matter is that most small businesses don’t survive the first year. The best advice I can give is to keep your costs as low as possible. Those expensive shipping materials you so carefully picked out? In almost all cases, they’ll just be tossed in the trash. Unless your marketing strategy is sending products to influencers for unboxing videos, simple packaging will serve the purpose fine.
Now, I’m not saying throw your product in an old pizza box and hope for the best. I’m just saying you should be cautious of your funds and your time.
My Book’d products are wrapped in the order receipt and put in a bubble mailer. I get my 6×9” bubble mailers at the dollar store—a package of 3 for $1.25. Likewise, my MoodMill pins are generally shipped in bubble mailers. Bubble mailers get my products safely to their destination, and that is what matters.
The Little Extras
I have tried putting stickers on the mailers, wrapping my products in tissue paper, and adding thank-you gifts and cards. None of these things, however, have increased sales or even resulted in more reviews. If you want to add a personal touch, I’d recommend just writing a thank you note on the order receipt.
Of course, you need to do what feels right to you, and if investing in custom packaging feels right and authentic to your product and your brand—particularly if you’re selling higher-end products—then go for it.
Shipping and Delivery of Your Product
Before you set up shop, you need to know what shipping is going to cost. To do this, you’re going to need to know the weight of your product(s) unpackaged and packaged, as well as the dimensions of a product after you’ve packaged it for shipping.
Don’t get caught up in the “free shipping” craze. Shipping costs money. If you want to offer free shipping, make sure to build it into the price of your product.
Also, don’t be afraid to look at shipping alternatives! Shipping costs in Canada are significantly higher than shipping costs in the United States, for example. Many Canadian sellers use a service called Chit Chats; if you’re in a location where they operate, it might be worth looking into to get your shipping costs down. You can also consider shipping companies like UPS, FedEx, and Purolator. If you’re a small business, many of them have programs that allow you to order your shipping online and save a significant amount off the counter price. Look into those options, not just your local mail carrier.
Pricing Your Product
Pricing your product is another place where new sellers often get stuck. Now that you’ve made your product, and have figured out your packaging, you should have a good idea of your actual expenses. Make a list. What do your product’s materials cost? What do your packaging and shipping materials cost? Don’t forget to account for your time. How long did it take you to make it? What is your hourly rate?
Considering the Costs
If, for example, the materials for your product cost $15, your packaging materials cost another $5, and it takes you two hours to make, you should be charging no less than $20 plus your time. If you want to pay yourself $15 per hour, your product should cost at least $50. This doesn’t account for shipping, and it also doesn’t take into account processing fees. Each platform on which you sell will have its own fees, Etsy being nearly 10% when all is said and done (Etsy fees, plus payment processor fees). You might have other expenses that you want to take into account.
To Sell Wholesale or Not to Sell Wholesale?
You also need to think about whether you want to sell wholesale (to get your products into larger stores), or just retail. Typically, wholesale is about 50% of the retail price. If you intend to sell your product wholesale and retail, you’d need your wholesale price to be at least $50, and then your retail price would be $100. However, if you never intend to do wholesale, you don’t have to worry about this.
Justifying the Price
If this pricing doesn’t work—it’s way higher, for example than comparable products on the market—take a look at why. Can you get your costs down, or make it in less time? Or, if you don’t want to get your costs down/charge less, think about your unique hook. How can you use the uniqueness of your product to “justify” the cost to shoppers? Figure out how to explain why they should spend more on your product than on similar products they can find elsewhere.
Going Live
This post won’t get into the specifics of creating an online store, selling at a market, or selling on social media because that’ll be the topic of other posts/eBooks/series. In the meantime, my favorite person for information about selling on Etsy is “The Fast Track Girl” on TikTok. Check out her videos here.
The number one thing, regardless of which platform you choose to use, is that you do go live. Make your products available for sale as quickly as you can before self-doubt sets in. (Believe me, I have an abundance of self-doubt. It can be crippling.) Be open to feedback on quality, construction, and pricing. Make changes as you go. (I adjusted my pricing several times, and my products too!) As you get comfortable selling one product, branch out and start to offer others. If possible, try to stick to one target audience/niche. If you want to sell something entirely different, I’d recommend starting a second shop for it. (That’s why I have five different Etsy shops – check them out here!)
That’s it for now! Is there anything you think I should have covered but didn’t? If so, let me know in the comments! Have you read through the series and decided to start a shop? I’d love to hear about it!
