BUSINESS: How to sell your products, a maker's tale.

Andy Driscoll is the owner, designer and maker of Andycrafts, a small company specialising in handmade gifts. Here he shares his experiences in selling through dropshipping arrangements with retailers.

If you are a designer/maker and you are wondering how you can use your creative skills to successfully set up a small business, then maybe the following will be of interest to you.

There are undoubtedly lots of ways to start a small business and 3 years ago when I started out and had hopes of designing, making and eventually selling the items that I made, then I was in the same position as most – what do you do and how on earth do you go about doing it?

I, like most people just starting out as a designer/maker, attended the usual rounds of craft fairs and shows with mixed success. Sometimes the takings only just covered the costs. People were often complimentary and admired my work but only occasionally purchased. On the plus side it was very interesting to see the skills of others and the passion they had for their particular creations. I also often walked into craft/retail shops with my products under my arm hoping someone would either buy them for re-sale or take them on a ‘sale or return’ basis. I had some successes but not many. It was frustrating to say the least!

3 years on I have developed a collection of products and sell my collection through 14 online home ware and gift retailers. I believe it is something that any designer/maker can achieve with patience and perseverance.

The reason that it is proving successful is that there are an increasing amount of online retailers who are keen to promote and sell good quality, unique handmade items crafted in the UK. This is good news for all the designer/makers out there who have a basic knowledge of how the internet works and can use e-mail as a way of doing business.

So how did I go about it?

There is always the option to create your own website and sell your items direct to the public, but I soon found out that there is a real skill to attracting potential customers to your website and there are plenty of obstacles and pitfalls. One of my first decisions was to try and utilise the skills of existing websites/owners to promote and sell my products for me on a ‘drop shipping’ arrangement.

Drop shipping is becoming increasingly popular amongst online retailers for 3 main reasons: -

* Retailers do not have to purchase expensive stock upfront and store it ready for re-sale * It is cash positive, Retailers receive payment from their customer before paying the supplier * Shipping/posting the item only once keeps the transaction cost down and means increased profit and/or customer affordability

In effect you become a supplier. You need to develop a product range to attract potential retail partners. Whether this is one, five, or maybe ten items it is up to you, but it is essential that they are items that you can reproduce consistently in terms of quality and look exactly like the images you use to represent your items. There also needs to be a level of reasonable profit for both you as the designer and also the retailer.

I currently have a collection of 16 items which are all ‘fixed’ in terms of design. They all have an original pattern and set dimensions to ensure that I can reproduce each of them consistently. This takes longer to achieve than it may appear, but once you have a range of items you are happy with you are ready to go!

10 steps to selling online.

1. Obtain professional quality images of your collection. It is essential to showcase your designs in the best possible light (in every sense of the word!) Get them sized for both general website use and also for high quality use such as magazine features.

2. Provide detailed descriptions of each of the products which will inform prospective customers of everything they need to know about your product.

3. Create a product price list which states the trade price that you will sell your item to the retailer for, and also suggest a recommended retail price for resale.

4. Understand your own costs. It is essential that you know how much your material costs are for each item and what your postage and packaging costs will be. Do your research and source purpose made boxes. Weigh your items and calculate the postage costs.

5. Create an introductory e-mail which showcases your product collection and includes your price list. Give information about postage costs, delivery times from receipt of order and payment terms.

6. Spend time looking at potential retail partners online. Choose those who you think would be interested in your collection and would showcase your products well. Read their ‘About Us’ section and find out what makes them tick. Send your introductory e-mail those people who you feel you might like to work with and wait and see if you get a reply. Politeness and perseverance is the key here. Be patient. To some your e-mail will be a cold call which will be ignored. To others your e-mail may be just what they are looking for and will be very positive in their response. Be philosophical about it and resilient to the knocks.

7. Potential retail partners who show an interest will no doubt have further questions for you. Respond honestly and swiftly, making sure any potential agreement is right for both parties.

8. A retailer may ask for a sample item to be sent. Remember that in a drop ship arrangement the retailer may seldom see your items as they are sent direct to the customer, so they have to trust you and the quality of your work. You will also need to be familiar with the retailers’ terms and conditions for returns/damaged faulty items etc. to make sure they are fair and reasonable.

9. If both parties decide to proceed you will need to provide the retailer with all the information they need to include your products on their website.

10. Whilst waiting for your first orders to come in make sure you are efficient, organised, keep your promises and keep good records of everything you do and spend. Review and improve your working practices on a regular basis. Increase your product range to keep your collection fresh and interesting.

The above is a brief outline of how to work towards getting a collection of your products on sale to a wide range of potential customers using the skills and expertise of existing online retailers. It is hard work (as most small businesses are) but it relatively low cost and there is minimal risk if you are happy to persevere and let your business grow organically. Best of luck if you take up the challenge!

http://andycraftsgifts.co.uk