Selling crafts in Ireland

Sapsorrow

Hi guys, I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on or links to particularly good outlets for sellings crafts in Ireland, whether it be websites, reailers, fairs etc.. I'm starting a small cottage business this summer selling my bespoke jewellry, accessories and clothes. So far my plan is to start with an etsy shop, as well setting up a website which people can buy from, selling in my parents craft shops in Kerry and *hopefully* talking some boutiques into selling some stuff for me too. I'm interested in other outlets too though and was just hoping maybe some of you folks can give me some insider advice on the trade? Does any one here sell at markets or on street stalls? I would love some tips or advice on what is required to get started selling through the markets in terms of fees, waiting lists, licence's etc.. any insight or advice would be very welcome, thank you!

ZippyDee

I'd like to know as well:D I just opened an Etsy shop a few weeks ago, while I have no sales it seems to be easy to operate. I have a bigcartel shop which I haven't used yet but I heard it is easier to make sales there.

Hoof_Hearted

Not sure where you're based but if it's the south west I can tell you that Bantry (Friday) market is free, you just set up your stall. Skibb has a nominal charge for insurance I believe but it's only three or four euro. I think there might be a free one in Drimoleague or Dunmanway on a Thursday (always get those two places confused) but I think these West Cork ones are exceptional in regard to being free, usually you would pay the organiser a small fee (contact the local town council maybe?)
Best of luck.

ladhrann

As a consumer rather than a crafter myself one piece of advice I'd give you is to start up a blog explaining what you do and how and why you do it, what makes you unique. Include links from every part of your on-line persona, so from facebook, etsy, to your signature on boards.ie Consider listing a few things on ebay as well to raise your profile. If you do set up an online shop research your payments system, paypal are quite grasping so other services out there are worldpay etc.

Best of luck

Sapsorrow

Thanks for the great feedback guys, really appreciate it! I will definitely google those markets and try and get in touch with the organizers I do the blogging thing already, only way to go with an online shop in this day and age!

ladhrann

Sapsorrow wrote: »

I do the blogging thing already, only way to go with an online shop in this day and age!

Make sure to link your blog in your signature on boards.ie Don't forget grow your customer!

Sapsorrow

ladhrann wrote: »

Make sure to link your blog in your signature on boards.ie Don't forget grow your customer!

Is my link not coming up in my Sig no??

Tiriel

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Is my link not coming up in my Sig no??

It is for me

ladhrann

Cork_girl wrote: »

It is for me

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I can't see signatures for any posters on this thread.

Eddieb

ladhrann wrote: »

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I can't see signatures for any posters on this thread.

You need to go into your CP and edit options scroll down till you see show signatures and click the box.

Tayleur

Maybe another option

http://www.thedesignbasket.com/

fabrico

What are people's general impression of Etsy.

Has anyone on here actually had any luck selling on it.

I have'nt put anything on it but have heard it isnt great ??

thanks

Sapsorrow

fabrico wrote: »

What are people's general impression of Etsy.

Has anyone on here actually had any luck selling on it.

I have'nt put anything on it but have heard it isnt great ??

thanks

I'm in the process of setting up an Etsy shop myself, really looking forward to getting started. I have no idea how difficult it is to actually run a shop from day to day there but I've been buying stuff off it for years and I absolutely love the ethos of the site. You can see by looking through a shops profile that a lot of people are extremely successful and can't keep up with demand for what they're making.

Like anything if you have a product people want and a good head for business then you can succeed, but I would say Etsy requires a very specific marketing strategy for it to work, the best shops all use excellent photography (generally using very whimsical photos, lovely styling etc...), write great product descriptions (lots of pretty words and story telling) and an even prettier/cooler/more unique product. So in that sense you need to not only be able to make a great product, but you have to be able to market yourself just as well to a very specific target group (as far as I can tell, mainly alternative/indie/arty/creative girls and women in the 20-40 age bracket). Lifestlye blogs are one of the easiest ways to market yourself to this group. If your product doesn't suit that group then it's probably not going to be a great selling medium for you.

I think there's a lot of very stiff competition on the site, that's probably the biggest downside as a potential seller, for example, I'm struggling to get my photographs to the same standard as the better sellers, mainly an issue because we are having such bad weather (no good for outdoor photo shoots) and crummy dull light this summer, and I have a super camera!

Another downside is it's very expensive to ship out of Ireland so you need to keep your product as light as possible, because otherwise most people will just find something similar from a US or other closer seller.

I have a few friends selling on it, one makes a living selling prints and jewellery based on her illustrations and another sells her hand dyed wool and both are doing very well for years now. Neither are dependant on an income from any other source. Aside from them, you can easily see there are a lot of extremely successful shops on there, with 1000's in a couple of years.

Tayleur

Sapsorrow wrote: »

I'm in the process of setting up an Etsy shop myself, really looking forward to getting started. I have no idea how difficult it is to actually run a shop from day to day there but I've been buying stuff off it for years and I absolutely love the ethos of the site. You can see by looking through a shops profile that a lot of people are extremely successful and can't keep up with demand for what they're making.

Like anything if you have a product people want and a good head for business then you can succeed, but I would say Etsy requires a very specific marketing strategy for it to work, the best shops all use excellent photography (generally using very whimsical photos, lovely styling etc...), write great product descriptions (lots of pretty words and story telling) and an even prettier/cooler/more unique product. So in that sense you need to not only be able to make a great product, but you have to be able to market yourself just as well to a very specific target group (as far as I can tell, mainly alternative/indie/arty/creative girls and women in the 20-40 age bracket). Lifestlye blogs are one of the easiest ways to market yourself to this group. If your product doesn't suit that group then it's probably not going to be a great selling medium for you.

I think there's a lot of very stiff competition on the site, that's probably the biggest downside as a potential seller, for example, I'm struggling to get my photographs to the same standard as the better sellers, mainly an issue because we are having such bad weather (no good for outdoor photo shoots) and crummy dull light this summer, and I have a super camera!

Another downside is it's very expensive to ship out of Ireland so you need to keep your product as light as possible, because otherwise most people will just find something similar from a US or other closer seller.

I have a few friends selling on it, one makes a living selling prints and jewellery based on her illustrations and another sells her hand dyed wool and both are doing very well for years now. Neither are dependant on an income from any other source. Aside from them, you can easily see there are a lot of extremely successful shops on there, with 1000's in a couple of years.

Cheers for the info. Keep us posted on how you are getting on with your Etsy shop. I for one would be interested in how it is working for you.
All the best with it anyway

Sapsorrow

Tayleur wrote: »

Cheers for the info. Keep us posted on how you are getting on with your Etsy shop. I for one would be interested in how it is working for you.
All the best with it anyway

Hey Tayleur,
just spotted this there as someone actually pm'd me asking how I was getting on so I thought I'd share and update and some encouragement with the forum.

So I set up my shop in September, but didn't properly start listing until the start of November. I was working 3-4 days a week until the start of December so didn't have much time to focus into it at first, but happily between Etsy and working at local craft markets I was able to leave my day job in December and go 100% self-employed.

I find Etsy an absolutely brilliant platform to sell from. It's easy to use as a seller, there's a huge consumer base to target and the commission is reasonable considering Etsy pay for Google ad space with a portion of it.

I only feel like I'm getting the hang of it now, as I found out I had been doing my tagging wrong and had no idea about SEO or relevency and have been redoing all my listings since January. Since I've started improving my listings, I've been getting on average 500 views a day (up from 50-80), and am being featured in 3-5 treasuries a day. I've made nearly 100 sales, and about 20 or 30 on Facebook, which seems to be a great start as most people make 4-5 sales in their first year, but I was lucky enough to be able to focus all my time and energy on it which I doubt they were.

Promotion wise, it's fantastic, if you've got good photos then you get a lot without even trying. I made the front page of Etsy a while back which meant I got 3,000 views in a few hours and made a ton of sales, and have been scouted by bricks and mortar shop owners who want me to do wholesale around the country. One of my lockets is being featured in Cloth magazine this month (which I'm very excited about) and my jewelry was also featured on two big blogs (RachelKhoo.com and lostateminor) which has generated a lot of sales and huge amounts traffic without any effort on my part. They all just found me randomly on Etsy.

The biggest challenges for me, at least initially were the photography, I did a photography course for 10 weeks and this really really helped.Otherwise SEO and relevency are very tricky at first (but you just have to be a nerd about it and download lots of manuals and be methodical about studying them). Also learning all about social networking has been a challenge.

Now I've got the hang of it I write a blog, I have a very enthusiastic following on Facebook and I promote on around 8 different social networking sites like twitter, Deviant art, Stumbleupon, Wanelo, Craftori etc. and that brings me in a lot of trafffic. It's also the most time consuming part of the job. I also get asked to do a lot of giveaways on blogs, which I always do as it's a great way to get exposure.

It is a HUGE amount of work to get it all off the ground, I've worked myself to the bone since November, but it's getting easier and easier by the day. Etsy's kind of funny, it seems the more sales you make, the more you'll make in the future, it snowballs. I'm feeling confident that I can make a proper living from this in the future. Most people say it takes 3 years to fully develop a successful Etsy shop, but I think if you can devote yourself full-time you could do it in half that. Hence why I left my day job.

I get most of sales from the USA, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands, but kind of surprisingly Irish people have been incredibly supportive considering we're in the middle of such economic hardship. I usually make my Irish sales through my Facebook page, and send an invoice directly through Paypal without using Etsy though, so I can save paying them the commission and so I can charge my customer a bit less at the same time.

All in all I've been having a great time on it, the customers are so amazing and I'm making new friends and contacts all over the world. It's such a brilliant community to be part of, and I've gotten a considerable amount of exposure from it. For anyone considering it I would say go for it! There's nothing to lose, and living in Ireland doesn't seem to be a big hindrance. You do need a good post office with nice staff though

I hope that helps! If anyone wants any help I have links to lots of amazing articles, e-manuals and that sort of thing I'd be happy to send on, or answer any questions if I can.

For anyone who's interested here's my shop:http://www.etsy.com/shop/RubyRobinBoutique

That's not meant to be a plug, I just thought people might like to see how I've done it.

PurpleVintage

Your store is amazing and funnily enough, being an avid etsy browser i've actually ran into it quite a few times I believe some of your stuff is on my favorites.

I've been trying to make my own shop for the past year and a half. Literally just researching and then giving up on the idea, as it's so hard to find companies that sell chains and the necessary equipments and accessories needed to make jewelery and other things, without almost leaving you with no profit to make. Is there any advice you can give related to what I said above? I know a lot of stuff I can get on etsy, but some prices are a bit pushing it considering I don't plan on overcharging.

But the reason why I posted was the shipping. I noticed your shipping is ridiculously cheap!! That's the main thing stopping me from starting a shop, ridiculous shipping prices. How did you get it to be that cheap? Any advice on what best companies to go with, what to look for etc?

Tayleur

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Hey Tayleur,
just spotted this there as someone actually pm'd me asking how I was getting on so I thought I'd share and update and some encouragement with the forum.

So I set up my shop in September, but didn't properly start listing until the start of November. I was working 3-4 days a week until the start of December so didn't have much time to focus into it at first, but happily between Etsy and working at local craft markets I was able to leave my day job in December and go 100% self-employed.

I find Etsy an absolutely brilliant platform to sell from. It's easy to use as a seller, there's a huge consumer base to target and the commission is reasonable considering Etsy pay for Google ad space with a portion of it.

I only feel like I'm getting the hang of it now, as I found out I had been doing my tagging wrong and had no idea about SEO or relevency and have been redoing all my listings since January. Since I've started improving my listings, I've been getting on average 500 views a day (up from 50-80), and am being featured in 3-5 treasuries a day. I've made nearly 100 sales, and about 20 or 30 on Facebook, which seems to be a great start as most people make 4-5 sales in their first year, but I was lucky enough to be able to focus all my time and energy on it which I doubt they were.

Promotion wise, it's fantastic, if you've got good photos then you get a lot without even trying. I made the front page of Etsy a while back which meant I got 3,000 views in a few hours and made a ton of sales, and have been scouted by bricks and mortar shop owners who want me to do wholesale around the country. One of my lockets is being featured in Cloth magazine this month (which I'm very excited about) and my jewelry was also featured on two big blogs (RachelKhoo.com and lostateminor) which has generated a lot of sales and huge amounts traffic without any effort on my part. They all just found me randomly on Etsy.

The biggest challenges for me, at least initially were the photography, I did a photography course for 10 weeks and this really really helped.Otherwise SEO and relevency are very tricky at first (but you just have to be a nerd about it and download lots of manuals and be methodical about studying them). Also learning all about social networking has been a challenge.

Now I've got the hang of it I write a blog, I have a very enthusiastic following on Facebook and I promote on around 8 different social networking sites like twitter, Deviant art, Stumbleupon, Wanelo, Craftori etc. and that brings me in a lot of trafffic. It's also the most time consuming part of the job. I also get asked to do a lot of giveaways on blogs, which I always do as it's a great way to get exposure.

It is a HUGE amount of work to get it all off the ground, I've worked myself to the bone since November, but it's getting easier and easier by the day. Etsy's kind of funny, it seems the more sales you make, the more you'll make in the future, it snowballs. I'm feeling confident that I can make a proper living from this in the future. Most people say it takes 3 years to fully develop a successful Etsy shop, but I think if you can devote yourself full-time you could do it in half that. Hence why I left my day job.

I get most of sales from the USA, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands, but kind of surprisingly Irish people have been incredibly supportive considering we're in the middle of such economic hardship. I usually make my Irish sales through my Facebook page, and send an invoice directly through Paypal without using Etsy though, so I can save paying them the commission and so I can charge my customer a bit less at the same time.

All in all I've been having a great time on it, the customers are so amazing and I'm making new friends and contacts all over the world. It's such a brilliant community to be part of, and I've gotten a considerable amount of exposure from it. For anyone considering it I would say go for it! There's nothing to lose, and living in Ireland doesn't seem to be a big hindrance. You do need a good post office with nice staff though

I hope that helps! If anyone wants any help I have links to lots of amazing articles, e-manuals and that sort of thing I'd be happy to send on, or answer any questions if I can.

For anyone who's interested here's my shop:http://www.etsy.com/shop/RubyRobinBoutique

That's not meant to be a plug, I just thought people might like to see how I've done it.

Cheers for the update. Nice to know that it is possible to make a living from a craft if you do it right. Im still at the hobby/part time stage but one day I hope to make a go of it full time. All the best in the future and sure maybe ill have my own success story from etsy someday too.