How to select the best online creative marketplace for you

Are you looking to sell your creative products online? Are you wondering what the best online marketplaces are for you and your handcrafted products? Or what the best online portfolio site is to present your illustration, UX, or product design skills?

Do you need help with how to select the best online creative marketplace for you and your work?

There are so many different options for selling your creative products and services! We focus on the top 5 online selling options in this blog post.

Before you can decide which online marketplace or portfolio site is right for you and your creative business, you need to do your research, and ask some pertinent questions – of yourself and the website owners. There are three areas that you need to focus your research on in particular:

1. Is this online market place right for my creative work?

Firstly, check if your own creative products or services are a good match with what you see on the site. Is the positioning right with what you want your business to be known for? You can learn so much from this quick and practical market research:

• Who is showing and selling on this website already?
• Are they offering similar products to your own? Is the price level similar to your own? Is this a good niche site or a very popular site attracting a broad group of visitors?
• Are your peers or role models showing or selling here?
• Does the marketplace attract the kind of clients (trade and or consumers) that you are looking for? How popular is the site?
• How easy is it to find your competitor’s work? Is the site professional looking and easy to use?

In addition to this desk research you can do some further market research:

• Check Google or social media for any negative comments or reviews of the site from buyers and sellers.
• Ask your peers how they find using a certain online retailer and get their feedback and recommendations.

If the match isn’t right then don’t be tempted to sell with them. Selling on the wrong online marketplace can be frustrating (due to lack of sales) and at worst it can damage your brand reputation!

2. Are the numbers right?

Every week I get approached by new online marketplaces and creative and lifestyle shop and gallery owners who want to get promoted via The Design Trust website to attract more sellers like you.

If they look promising, then I ask them to provide me with some numbers. And I suggest that you do the same if you are comparing various places to sell your craft and design online.

Contact the online retailer or online marketplace and ask any questions you might have. Professional businesses will be more than happy to give you any information you might need. You can even do a credit check or research Companies House records.

I always ask online retailers the following questions:

• How many people sell on their site?
• How much website traffic do they get?
• How many sales do they get in a year?
• What is the average order value of sales?

Connected with these are questions like …

• Who is behind this site (e.g. staff, management, and potential financiers)
• What is their background and expertise? In particular in terms of growing an online market place.
• How much money do they spend on marketing the site and their brand?
• Where do they focus their marketing? Think about if that is where your potential clients hang out too.

It might not be easy to get detailed answers to all these questions, but you will soon get a broad picture about the professionalism, expertise, and potential of a site.

The good sites will be very happy to give numbers and information. They even might share their Google analytics statistics on traffic numbers. You can also do a quick search yourself around visitor numbers through a site such as SimilarWeb. 

Don’t be afraid to ask the other questions by email, if you can’t get the information online.

3. How does this site work? For you and your clients!

If the positioning matches with yours, and the numbers add up, then it’s time to start looking at some of the practicalities of working with the online marketplaces you might want to sell through:

• What are the selection criteria (if there are any)? What kind of products or images are they looking for? Do they want exclusive products? Do they want personalised products? Some sites (such as NotOnTheHighStreet) are very specific about what they want for their site and what images you need to provide. Make sure that you read the registration information thoroughly before applying.
• What are the costs? Is there a signing up or admin cost? Is there an annual or monthly fee? Is there a minimum period for signing up? Are their listings fees per item? What is the commission rate and how is this calculated? Is there a mark up? How easy is it to get out of the contract if needs be? Evaluate the costs versus the potential of extra income and exposure for you. Make sure that you read the terms & conditions and never sign a contract that you don’t understand!
• How does the buying process work? Are they keeping stock or are you? Are they purchasing your stock (most often not)? Who is responsible for providing images (most often you)? Who is packing and posting products? Who will do the invoicing? Who is responsible for transport insurance? How are returns handled? When will you get paid? How will you get paid? Will you get paid in pounds or how is the exchange rate being calculated? Are there special offers or deals and have you got any influence on that?
• Do they offer any support for selling online on their platform? Have they got fact sheets, videos, or workshops that you can attend? Can you speak to somebody to get help or for feedback?
• Do they offer any additional services and support? For example, Etsy provides a very comprehensive online blog called the Etsy Seller Handbook full of practical posts on all aspects of selling online (which is brilliant for anybody wanting to learn how to start selling online or to start selling more online!) and you can get individual feedback on your Etsy shop too or join a local group to get advice from other Etsy sellers. Other online marketplaces offer opportunities to sell at events, get extra PR, or to offer discounts.
• Are they a reliable and credible company? How long have they been selling? Have they got a bricks and mortar shop as well? Is there a clear address and phone number to make contact and ask any questions? Have you checked their records with Companies House? Do you trust this company? Do they behave professionally when you are in touch with them? Shopping online is more risky for potential clients, so if you don’t trust them why would your potential clients purchase from this site?

Deciding which online place is the best for you and your creative products and services is a very personal process.

Based on your research and the answers to all these questions it will be easier for you to make up your mind what the best place is for YOU to sell online.

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Are you looking at where to sell your creative products or services? Check out our blog post on the 5 main ways to sell your creative products and services online and then take a look at our own selected and recommended list of the 36 best places to sell your creative products and services online.