Selling Via Etsy, Big Cartel etc? and Cardboard box help

[winchman]

Winchwoman has been busy for several month Knitting Baby stuff, she was planning on a website to sell it but we wondered if anyone had any experience of using Etsy or Big Cartel etc?
She is also struggling for a supplier of nice presentation boxes to send them out in?

 

[daedalusminos]

OH uses Etsy as main outlet, it takes a while to get known but she now gets plenty of sales. Fees are quite high but then it is an established store front.

 

[winchman]

OH uses Etsy as main outlet, it takes a while to get known but she now gets plenty of sales. Fees are quite high but then it is an established store front.

Thanks thats a good start what sort of stuff does she sell?
Winchwoman is selling high end stuff

 

[daedalusminos]

Hand thrown ceramics £16 - £200

 

[Barking Mat]

Have you seen what utter rubbish people manage to sell?

If you've got a good product...

You're laughing

 

[m_c]

@daedalusminos has summed up the fees situation. You're not only paying for the transaction cost, you're paying for essentially advertising on an established store, so although the fees are expensive, you are getting a lot of advertising for your money.
Long term, you can look at establishing your own site/brand, but that takes effort, money, and time.

What you're looking for are Mailer/Postal Boxes.
Lots of generic boxes available, and quite a few suppliers who'll custom print and even custom make for you.
Price drops quite substantially as quantity increases, as you're mostly paying for setup costs for custom orders.
Have a google for custom mailer boxes

 

[Agroshield]

What you're looking for are Mailer/Postal Boxes.

Does he want the box the chocolates are eaten from or the box the box of chocolates is posted in?

To me, there is no advantage to a fancy mailing box per se as it will have labels stuck all over it and have every corner stoved in due to delivery van football.

 

[winchman]

Thanks its mostly newborn hand knitted baby blanket and clothes around £100 a set aimed for people to buy as a gift. She will also do some cheaper items too. Its to be more like a gift box

 

[James1979]

We sell metal bits for home and garden online. Some practical, some 'art', or whatever you'd call it.

All through Etsy. We ran Etsy and Folksy in parallel for 6 months to see what was best. Exposure via etsy was better, and the storefront is better for seller and buyer. They also have an app, whereas folksy doesn't. We turned over 10x more on Etsy in the same period, so just on Etsy now.

Although We use mailers rather than gift boxes, I suppose you could put one inside the other. The advantage of the mailers is that you buy them to suit the rate - Large Letter, Medium Parcel etc etc and if it fits, it ships. No need to worry about losing out because its 5mm too long the way you've wrapped it. It has saved us a lot using them. I just get them from Ebay, not always the cheapest but the better quality ones. They still work out at 45p for large letter by the hundred. We use them as a presentation box, as I get the ones which open like a pizza box, then tape everything down inside so it doesn't move in transit. When people open it, they look at the contents as you intended by virtue of the box only opens one way.

edit: Oh, the other thing to look at is 'Drop and Go' by the Post Office. You load up a prepay account, fill in a manifest and drop a bag of parcels at your local office ready to go. They process it and email you the track numbers. You just copy / paste it into Etsy when you do the sent notifications. Loads easier. You need to supervise at the post office the first few times to make sure they get it right. The girl at my local one is a bit thick and needed training but we have just about got there with her now. The people at the main PO in town are pretty good