The 5 Best Places for Selling Crafts Online This Year

I feel like saying that I’m not an expert on selling crafts online… but maybe I am.

I have sold on all five of these online selling sites for YEARS! But even at that, I don’t know EVERYTHING. And sometimes, just when I figure something out, sites like Etsy make huge changes.

Because of that, I’m not going to tell you HOW to sell on these online selling platforms but I will provide links for each of them. And I’ll also give you links to my shops so you can go see what I’ve been doing.

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Best Sites for Selling Crafts Online

I also can’t tell you exactly which platform is best for your item but here are the best online selling sites and my experience with each of them. I’ll start with my least favorite and work my way up.

FIVE: eBay

eBay is where I started selling online way back on April 5, 1999! The date on my eBay user page will back me up on that fact.

I started off selling collectible children’s books. At the time, I was homeschooling my kids in a small community without a library. So we would travel around to different libraries and book sales looking for high-quality children’s books. We built our home library up to over 3,000 books!

After a while, I began to find copies of books that I already had but I knew other homeschool moms were looking for. So, after a conversation with my husband, we starting buying to resell.

I sold books for about 8 years, making my way up to a top-rated seller and even attended the eBay convention in San Jose, California.

But after we moved to California our house was MUCH smaller and since books take up so much room I sold off all my inventory and our 3,000 volume library.

Occasionally through the years, I would sell something random on eBay — something from our home that we didn’t need anymore but I knew was still worth something.

In the last three months, our sales have been just over $1200 from just selling things from around the house. We drastically downsized our home library again and I sold craft supplies I wouldn’t be using anymore.

But through all those years, I’ve never sold my handmade items on eBay. I still reserve eBay for one-of-a-kind vintage items that I can get more for online than locally or newer collectible items that can’t be sold on Easy.

eBay Positives:

a HUGE community — around 167 MILLION users! and 25 million sellers
easy to list
can list anything (or just about anything!)
global marketplace

eBay Negatives:

buyers are expecting a bargain and don’t want to pay full price
high fees — usually 10% + listing, payment, and shop fees
unreliable buyers — I have more non-payment buyers on eBay than any of the other online selling platforms.
eBay will always side with the buyers — I haven’t had many things returned but I’ve heard from other sellers that they are required to take returns for any reason… even if they have marked their item “no returns”.

UPDATE: In 2020 we opened an eBay store again so sell some of the vintage items that weren’t moving very fast out of our two local shops. If you buy and sell on eBay we’d love to have you follow us! Here’s our new eBay store, DTDVintage. BTW, I just listed a handmade item in our eBay shop. I’ll keep you updated on how it does.

FOUR: Facebook

There are several places to sell your handmade crafts on Facebook:

Facebook Marketplace
on a Facebook business page
in a Facebook group

Important: It is against the FB TOS (terms of service) to use your personal profile for business. I know a lot of people do but if they ever get caught they could be removed from the platform. You must start a business page to do business on FB. It’s not a big deal, it’s easy to set up and run. Plus you can ask your friends to follow your business page and not bother the friends that don’t want to see sales, etc.

I don’t have much experience with Facebook Marketplace. I’ve bought something there and sold a few large pieces when we were moving. But I’ve never sold my handmade items on Marketplace.

We’ve had a Facebook business page for years and had a lot of lucky selling there. Currently my best selling day every month is when we do our Facebook Live sale. Just start the video and start selling! You can send invoices to buyers or direct them to your online shop.

Facebook groups can be linked to your business page. I know a lot of people have great luck. I’ve had better luck on my page than with my groups. (see reasons below)

Facebook Positives:

everyone is on Facebook — around 2.5 BILLION users! (2019)
advertising — If you have some cash to advertise, it’s possible to target the exact people you want to advertise to.
Facebook Live sales

Facebook Negatives:

You must stay active… posting daily.
Facebook’s algorithm rewards groups and pages with lots of interaction.
Marketplace: buyers are looking for bargains here, too.

If you want to see what we do on Facebook, you can find us here:

THREE: Amazon Handmade

Amazon has literally changed our business. I started selling on Amazon Handmade three years ago.

Amazon Handmade is the only platform that has a screening process before you can sell. It’s not difficult but you do have to answer a page of questions about your items, who helps you make them, and send photos.

You can list and sell on Amazon Handmade just like you would on other platforms but we have had our best success with their FBA program. FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon. We make hundreds of ornaments at one time and ship them to the Amazon warehouse.

The Amazon FBA program is the only way we were able to scale our business so fast. But be ready to pay some high fees. I look at it like selling wholesale and I’m willing to make less per item but sell a lot more.

To start selling on Amazon Handmade, go to my shop, click on the words “Sell on Handmade” at the upper right side.

Amazon Handmade Positives:

Another HUGE community — around 310 MILLION buyers! and 2.5 million sellers (2019)
Amazon ads available (although this can also be a negative, see below)

Amazon Handmade Negatives:

must go through an in-depth screening process
high fees, especially if you use FBA
ads are very confusing

Check out our Amazon Handmade shop.

TWO: Etsy

The top two online selling sites could easily be flip-flopped for me… depending on the day! I started with Etsy after I had sold on eBay for about 7 years. I found it very refreshing at the time. The buyers were much more reliable and friendly.

Etsy Positives:

easiest place to get started in my opinion
community is growing — 39 million buyers and 2 million sellers (2018)
they market and promote your items, and bring traffic to you

Etsy Negatives:

hard to be found because there are so many similar items
they will advertise other shops in your listings
fees
product restrictions — only handmade or over 20 years old
can’t change the layout of your shop

Check out our Etsy shop HERE.

ONE: Shopify

I started my Shopify shop in 2019 after using WooCommerce for a few years and trying Big Cartel before that. I much prefer Shopify.

Shopify Positives:

flexibility
you can control the look of your shop
you can sell whatever you want — handmade, new, vintage, etc.
lower fees
can easily scale up as your business grows
variety of tools to add on
the ability to sell digital products
connects to third party printers

Shopify Negatives:

you have to drive your own traffic
some add ons cost

Check out our Shopify shop HERE.

My Recommendation for Selling Crafts Online

I think the best bet for anyone just starting out selling crafts online would be a combination of platforms.

Start with Etsy to get the hang of product photography, writing descriptions, printing labels, and shipping.

And at the same time, start a Facebook business page. Even if all you do is share photos and questions to get followers engaged. Throw in a picture every now and then of what you’re making… NO LINKS. At first you just want to get your products out in front of people.

After you begin getting regular sales, think about opening a Shopify shop.

I’m currently working on emails for my Business Tips email list. I send one out every couple of weeks with tips on selling online and what is working for me right now.