6 Tips for Selling on ArtFire and Reaching More Customers
If you’re a maker selling handmade goods online, you’ve probably heard about ArtFire, the e-commerce platform specializing in artisan-made items. Maybe you’re even already selling there.
But are you using best practices to ensure your works of art get snapped up faster than you can say “one-of-a-kind”?
Read on to learn the benefits of selling on ArtFire and how to market your ArtFire online store for optimal success.
What Is ArtFire and What Are Its Benefits?
Headquartered in the arts district of Tucson, Arizona, ArtFire is an online-marketplace that serves as an alternative to Etsy, eBay, Amazon, and other co-op e-commerce platforms. Only ArtFire is more narrowly focused on handmade items, vintage items, fine art, designed items, maker-made media, and traditional craft supplies.
Experienced ArtFire sellers will tell you that ArtFire (www.artfire.com) is fantastic for getting your creations in front of shoppers seeking one-of-a-kind or handmade items.
But it’s also revered by artistic small businesses because it offers the following:
- Tiered pricing that allows smaller-scale artisans to pay a smaller monthly fee and no additional listing fees
- A very active community of ArtFire shop owners
- Great customer service for buyers and sellers, including helping shop owners with SEO, social media, and other online marketing strategies to rank in Google search results
- The ability to sell up to 10 items at a time for free or an unlimited number of items for a set fee
- Random search results (not the newest item first), which allows you a better chance of exposure if your listing isn’t new
- The ability for shoppers to buy on Artfire.com without setting up an account by entering credit card and shipping details during checkout (lower barrier to entry!)
Getting your goods on ArtFire is a great step toward selling your works of art online. But equally important is taking a few extra steps to ensure your items get noticed. Ready?
6 Tips for Selling on ArtFire
Just because you make the best handmade jewelry, designer dog houses, or life-size personal puppets doesn’t mean you’ll get the attention you deserve—unless you make sure potential customers see your offerings and get a sense of how stunning they are.
The best way to do that is through pro-level photography, design touches on your storefront, and clever marketing. The following six tips—accompanied by free tools!—will get you there, whether you’re a new seller or a seasoned pro.
1. Take Great Photos
The most important thing you can do for the success of your business when attempting to sell handmade items is to take great photos. Because shoppers can’t taste, smell, hear, or touch your products, the images you take are the most influential representations of what you’re selling. So make them work for you: Take clear, clean images with a white, neutral, or relevant background. Use natural light or a tabletop photo studio or remove any unwanted background with Adobe Spark’s Free Background Remover app.
2. Dress Up Your ArtFire Online Store
Good news here: there are a lot of cheesy, amateur-looking storefronts on ArtFire. Everyone wants homemade, but not that homemade! Take a few minutes to spruce up and customize your storefront in two easy steps:
- Create a beautiful welcome banner for your online store using a free online banner template. Use images, graphics, text about your store or special promotions, or all three—just make sure they fit well with your brand aesthetic and products.
- Add a logo for your profile image. A logo can be words, an image or graphic or both. Again, this is an opportunity to convey your professionalism and style as a designer, so make sure it fits who you envision you are as a designer and brand. You can make it easy by using a free logo design tool.
3. Promote Your Products on Social Media
You’ve now got great photos of great products, so you have great social media content! Whatever you post will further the visibility of your items and your brand, and potentially drive traffic to your online store.
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are perfect places to strut your homemade stuff. Just make sure to include links to your store, specific product, or both, and use a cool free online photo editor to make extra-engaging images to post.
4. Network and Create Real-World Promotions
Word of mouth and in-person promotion are very real ways to garner new customers.
If you’re a jewelry designer, wear your jewelry everywhere—and carry business cards you can hand to people who inquire about it. (Score! Here are free business card templates.)
Soap maker? Samples with your logo and web address make for good marketing.
Got access to local farmers markets, street fairs, or maker fairs in your area? Get a booth, sell your stuff, and hand out business cards and one-page marketing brochures (free template here).
5. Create Lists on ArtFire
Internal marketing works too, especially if you loop in peer support by creating lists on ArtFire. When you create a list that includes products by other ArtFire makers, those maker shops get notified and are likely to check you out. Along with garnering goodwill, this gesture furthers your brand visibility among the community and beyond, especially if any of the included shops share your list on social media.
6. Engage Your Customers
People support people. While you may make wonderful items, you’re not probably not the only one selling jade necklaces, hand-painted zodiac rocks, or handmade felt animals. Engaging with your customers reminds them there’s a real human behind the brand, personalizes the buying experience, and inspires shoppers to support you as an artist.
Make all exchanges as friendly, authentic, and professional as possible.
Send a handwritten note with each purchase and remind buyers to leave a review and follow you to keep up with your latest work. Respond to questions promptly. Deliver the very best customer service.
Little touches such as these can turn a one-time purchase into a repeat loyal customer.
Ready, Set, Sell Better (and More)!
See? That wasn’t so hard. To set yourself up for success, post great photos, design a stunning storefront, do a little social media promotion, network and execute a few relevant real-world promotions, create lists on ArtFire, and deliver top-notch customer service. These small efforts will go a long way in inspiring more action on your ArtFire account and garnering lots of new fans and art friends.