Opening a store in a Craft Mall is just the beginning, building a successful online business is a slow process that takes work and commitment.
You start by creating content for your new shop, customers coming to your shop cannot touch and feel your unique handmade crafts like they would in a brick and mortar shop, so it is extremely important that your images are crystal clear and your descriptions are detailed. It is also very important that you tell your customers about you and your craft and maybe even add your picture so that your customers can see who you are, this makes the customer feel like they know you.
Being in an online crafters mall can give you an advantage because there are already customers coming and shopping there, but that doesn't mean that you can sit back and do nothing, "well actually you can" and you might even get a few orders, but if you really want your business to succeed you will have to work at it.
So where do you start!
You start by focusing on getting traffic to your shop. By spending just a few hours a day promoting your new shop, you will find that little by little the customers will start coming and buying.
So where do you promote!
You can start by writing a couple of small adds about your unique handmade crafts and post them in online shopping classifieds, in your local newspapers and in online craft directories. You can place ads on sites like Craigs List or Kijiji for free. Join forums relating to your craft, start a Facebook page, open a Twitter account, post to Craft Blogs, start your own Craft Blog. Tell everyone you can about your unique handmade crafts and your new shop. It might take a year to build your business but in the end your hard work will pay off and you will have a steady flow of loyal customers coming and shopping in your online store. At this point you can start expanding your business.
There is no overnight success in any business on or off line, but with a little effort your handmade craft business can and will succeed.
The GLC Arts and Crafts Online Mall is designed to bring together Artists and Crafters with interested buyers worldwide.
