Did you try selling crochet items on the local craft fair and turned out paying more for the stall then what you earned from sales? Or maybe you listed your crochet items online and sold hardly any? If you answered yes to any of those questions this article may be just the right thing for you.
Here are some TIPS to help you increase the sales of your crochet creations:
TIP 1 – PHOTOGRAPHY
If you are selling crochet items online make sure your photos are of a great quality. Also think about arrangement and background. I would say photo is one of the most important things when selling products online. If possible invest in DSLR camera but if you don’t want to spend so much money at first smart phone’s cameras these days are great too. Lighting is very important when taking the photo so try to take the pictures using the day light or buy one of those small portable studio lighting kit (I prefer day light).
Here is a great course from Craftsy that can help you get started:
Product Photography at Home
Here are some good tutorials on how to make a good quality product picture:
Example:
If you were a customer which product would you be more willing to buy
looking at those photos?
TIP 2 – MATERIALS' QUALITY
Yarn you are using to make your crochet creations makes a big
difference to how your item turns out and how it is portrayed by your potential
customers. In my opinion it’s worth to spend a little bit more for your yarn as
products made with a good quality materials look so much more expensive, modern
and desirable.
TIP 3 - PRESENTATION
When on the craft fair make sure your items are nicely presented and visible for your potential customers. Also make sure to bring some of your best pieces of crochet work (even if you don’t plan to sell them), which will draw people to your table to have a look at them, it will be the start of the conversation and will allow people to have a closer look at your other pieces. If the person will be interested in buying your show piece, you can exchange the contacts and possibly make the same item to order.
Turn Your Etsy® Shop into a Sales Machine Course at CreativeLive
This is an example of my crochet stall (Apologize for bad quality photo). I was just starting out back then but brought absolutely everything I crocheted so far. Note how not everything lays flat on the table. I used rolled towel to display my headbands, for making the teddy bear more visible I used up-side-down wicker’s baskets. Guess what brought the most attention? I bought this lovely cream jewelry stand purposely for displaying items and it did a great job, every single person that passed my stall stopped to look at my colourful owls (you can find crochet owl pattern
here).
TIP 4 - COLOURS
Choosing the colour of the yarn and colour combination for
your crochet item is very important too. Have a look on the most popular and
admired crochet items on the internet, go through popular blogs and Craftsy’s
trending page see what colour combination is most trendy at the moment. Currently
I would go for light shades of beige and grey and also pastel colurs. I wouldn’t
use any dark colour yarn anymore (I did use in the past) as in my opinion it gives the old-fashion look.
I personally love to use chunky yarn! Not only because I
like the way you can clearly see all the stitches but also because your crochet
work grows so much faster than using let’s say 2 ply yarn.
Most people calculate the price of their crochet product on
the time it takes them to make it. (See my blog post on
how to price crochet items for sale). The chunkier the yarn the quicker your crochet rows
appear in front of you, which equals with less time spent on crocheting or
achieving bigger size item. Usually for bigger item you can achieve a better
price. I would especially recommend it for making blankets, you will make them
quicker so you can either charger less and make the item more saleable or you
can charge the same and you will make the same money for less work! Ps. Thicker
blanket will make you warmer too :)
Example: Here are 2 crochet granny squares. One made with 2 ply yarn and one made with a chunky yarn, both have the same amount of rows. You can see the difference yourself.
TIP 6 – QUALITY
If your items don’t sell very well, possibly take a good
look at your items and ask yourself a question. If I was a customer and saw
this product in the shop, would I buy it for myself and how much would I be
prepared to pay for it. If you have just learned to crochet give yourself some
time to master the art before you start selling your items. Your crochet needs
to be of a very good quality if you want to try selling your work so do pay
attention to the finish of your pieces and they will definitely sell much
better.
TIP 7 – ADVERTISING
This is pretty obvious but I thought I will mention it here.
You have to be quite active in selling your items, don’t expect people will be
knocking to your doors and ask you to make them things, unless you’re already
very known and popular. At the beginning you have to make your name out there.
Create facebook page and post your items for sale every day, re-list your items
regularity on websites like eBay and Etsy, consider creating more than one
listing of the same item etc.
Hope you enjoyed this article and you've found it helpful :)
