Yesterday I bit the bullet and decided to open an online store. I am not sure what kind of traffic I might get or how it will all go, but I did it. Like I do all the time, I researched all the various places to host an online store for my handmade jewelry. Artfire wants a monthly fee. Etsy takes listing fees as well as a commission when you sell something and another fee if you choose to set up direct buy from their website rather than off site. Ebay also has fees. I could have set up shop on my Jewelry blog site at Weebly.com which would have just gone right through Paypal, but as I was getting zero traffic on that site I decided to shut it down and go a different route. That's where Storeny.com came in. There are ZERO fees. Signing up for an account, be it that you're a buyer only or buy and sell, is free. Setting up a store is free. There are no listing fees, no commission fees. Storenvy in it's most basic format takes no money from the sale of your items or to host your items in your store. There are features to which you can pay for. Storenvy connects you to your paypal account. Buyers pay through their paypal accounts therefore it's secure. Think of Storenvy sort-of like eBay if it listed only Buy-it-now items. It's not an auction. You pay the price listed plus shipping/taxes. The only fee than is if the item is paid for by credit card to which paypal has deemed it takes a small amount of the sale (possibly under $1 depending on amount of sale). If paying via bank account or paypal to paypal there are no fees, this is called an instant transfer.
So the store is open. I do not plan to list everything on there at once, at least not in the beginning as my Facebook page remains to be the main location for all things Expressions by Holly. I really didn't need another website to constantly have to keep up to date. I want to streamline and simplify my online life as much as possible. I have more things to eliminate. If you send a friend to my Facebook page and they LIKE me I will send you a promo code for 10% off in my store. If you have never been to my Facebook page yourself and arrive there via Write World Wrong Planet be sure to post that on my wall, like my page and I can give you the promo code.
Expressions by Holly on Facebook
Expressions by Holly Store
Congrats Holly! I'll be sure to check it out. I'm a seller on both eBay and Etsy and WePay currently, but I've tried several other sites. Even with all the fees, eBay gets the most buyer traffic and I make the most sales through my Facebook fan page and Etsy shops. The other sites, while free, didn't seem to attract my customer demographic. Hope you're able to do better, but if not, reconsider some of the larger sites.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips Julie. If I actually start making any sort of profit I would def move to a bigger site. I am thinking about eBay as I've sold there already various items, non jewelry related. I liked the Storenvy app inclusion on the Facebook page but yeah I am not sure how much traffic that site gets. I had 13 hits on one ring yesterday alone from pinning it on pinterest..now if only those people would actually BUY SOMETHING!! LOL I'm sure you know how tough it can be to get started. I still have no idea if my pricing bracket is right..if sales start happening maybe I'll know more. Had a guy saturday night interested in my rings I was wearing saying he knew people who could be interested in putting them in their store..something I never thought about really..we exchanged business cards..we shall see! I just really love making the stuff.
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