Places to Sell Handmade Jewelry Online for Artisan Jewelery Makers

Here is a list of both free and fee-based websites where you can sell your handcrafted jewelry from home.  Many venues listed are some of the best websites for selling handcrafted artisan jewelry on the Internet. Whether you want to open your own store in a craft mall or simply sell handmade jewelry from your home piece by piece on auction, online marketplaces can help you reach customers worldwide.

Some of these jewelry selling sites are craft malls, others are auction houses, and still others are blogging or website platforms on which you can build your own ecommerce sites.  Why use a handcrafter's mall, auction house, or website building platform?  The answer's obvious - when selling jewelry on the Internet, partnering with an existing website to create your own jewelry listings can save you time.  It is certainly easier than designing your own website from scratch with an encrypted shopping cart.

For this list of jewelry selling websites, I included as many as possible to give you as many options as possible.  When I was a jewelry seller promoting my own designs years ago, not all of these websites existed (for example, Etsy.com).  So did I exclude anything from the list? Yes.  Not included are:

• craft malls that didn't look legitimate to me
• those that were not fully developed or seemed unimpressive, or
• any site that seemed like a scam.  

However, I'd advise you to evaluate the retail websites on this list carefully and read each Terms of Service agreement before you sign up.  When you are deciding if you want to participate, ask yourself:

• Is the site well-established and one many people trust?  Is there a professional looking storefront or advertisement interface? Would you shop there yourself?
• Does the site have good help pages to get you started, and multiple ways to get help? (such as Contact Us pages and crafters forums)
• If you're not in the U.S., does the website allow international jewellery makers to participate (UK, Canada, Australia, India, etc.)?
• Is there information about how your work is promoted? (You'll have to do your own promoting, but it helps if there is guidance.  If there isn't, it probably means you're on your own in that department.) 

So here's the list of places to sell handmade jewelry online.  Good luck!

Sell Artisan Jewelry at Craft Malls and Online Shopping Malls

Craft malls are an easy way to sell jewelry on the Internet.  Most online craft marketplaces charge some kind of fee to list your jewelry.   Sometimes the cost involves an up-front flat fee for a storefront.  Other times there's a transaction fee (commission) per sale, and other times you're charged listing fees. There may also be some combination of the above.

A few craft malls are free and supported by advertising.  There are probably other fee types, too, as new business models seem to crop up on the Internet every day. 

Be sure to study the craft mall to make sure it's a good match for you.  The best craft malls have several advantages:

1. They handle the money.  You don't have to have a merchant account to accept credit cards, deal with customer payment, or keep track of receipts.
2. You can associate your new small business with their trusted brand, giving you a head start in establishing your own reputation and individual jewelry brand.
3. There's a support network of other crafters to help you learn how to sell your jewelry and deal with customers.
4. You can study other sellers' listings to learn how to present your jewelry to greatest effect.
5. You can benefit from the promotional efforts of the craft mall staff and the various sellers.  Their customers might browse around and find your listings!

Free Craft Malls

Ecrater is a free ecommerce platform for collectibles, antiques, and crafts.  That means you can create a retail web store there and also use its marketplace to sell your handcrafted jewelry.  It is completely free - you get 100 percent of your sales.  There is a support forum.

Ushops.com is a small and temporarily free shopping mall for handmade items.  Right now, to open a store and sell items is free.  They warn that they will probably introduce "a nominal fee" in the future. You need a PayPal account.

Fee-Based Craft Malls for Selling Jewelry

Rubylane is a crafts, antiques, and collectibles mall. You pay monthly listing fees, maintenance fees, and advertising fees, and a one-time setup fee.  There may be other associated fees, as well.  Rubylane is relatively expensive for beginning jewelry sellers, but has the advantage of being a trusted brand.  It has an easy-to-use interface and a lot of help resources.

Etsy has risen quickly since its 2005 beginning to become one of the world's largest online ecommerce platforms.  The listing fee for each item covers four months of display.  There is also a transaction fee per sale.  One reason Etsy is so popular is that it has very clear help pages and is very easy to work with.

Artfire.com is a large ecommerce website that charges a monthly fee to create an online "studio" where you sell your jewelry. I'd never heard of it before researching this list.  To me, it looks big and impressive and has a nice interface, if a little busy, with a lot of resources for jewellers.  Judging by the comparison chart of free and pay features, there appears to be a free version, too, but I couldn't find out how to get there - the sign-up free link didn't work.

Link to Craftmall.com has been removed, as the link now routes to an online fabric shop. 

Handmadecatalog.com is a smallish website that lets artisan jewelers sign up for a monthly fee plus a percentage of items sold.  As I said, it's small, and it's humble.  But it looks legitimate and is run by a crafter.

Yessy.com is an online gallery focused on arts more than crafts, but there's still a substantial section for jewelry.  It's got an attractive, classy look and the items sold are anything but cheap looking. Jewelry sellers pay an annual fee plus an escrow fee on transactions.

DaWanda.com is an online marketplace that provides a shop for sellers of both handmade items and unique collectibles, jewellery included.  It has a strong international presence - the primary platform is German, but there is an English and French version, too (I've linked to the English one here).  Opening a shop is currently free; you pay them a commission on items sold.

Undertherainbow.us is a very community-oriented craft mall website with a cheerful appearance.  They charge for listing by the number of items and a rather hefty commission on sales - currently it's 15%.  Crafters are screened.  Judging by the busy and somewhat confusing look of the website, I'm thinking this is not the best place for a newbie seller to start out.  But check it out and see.

Misi is an elegant-looking UK based handmade shopping portal that provides jewellers with their own shops and subdomains.  They charge a commission, plus listing fees, and listings last for 12 months.  You use your PayPal account to accept payment, or you can accept payment by post.

Earthling.com is an attractive arts and crafts ecommerce site that charges both commission fees and monthly or annual subscription fees.  They emphasize customer service and seem to have a lot of tools to help you build your store, send listings to auctions, and promote.

Glcmall.com is an international ecommerce site for crafters that offers a full service or very limited service plan.  You need a PayPal account.  You can get a free basic store if you have no more than 12 items, or pay a monthly fee for unlimited products.

Removed link to ArtisansMarket.com, which seems to no longer exist.

Artsefest.com is a craft mall with lots of options.  There are three different tiers of monthly or yearly pricing, depending on features - Silver, Gold and Platinum.  You can build a website, link to an existing website, or simply upload listings - it's your choice. (You can sell jewelry items through the Artsefest site using any of those three approaches.)

Hyenacart.com is a family-friendly shopping website for artisan jewelers and other crafters.  They feature several"stocking" choices - in other words, a variety of ways you can offer your items for sale, including standard, holds, auctions, buy nows, and lotteries.  They charge a one-time setup fee and then a low monthly fee.  You need a PayPal account.

Sell Handcrafted Jewelry at Amazon.com

Pre-approval is needed to sell jewelry at Amazon.com.  For jewelry, you have to apply as a professional merchant.

Amazon.com is more than a craft mall, of course - it is prime retail real estate and should seriously be considered as an option.  But there are disadvantages to the size of its wide-ranging marketplace.  You may find that building a loyal returning customer base is more challenging due to the vast size of Amazon.com.

Sell Jewelry at eBay

There are at least two ways to sell your jewelry on eBay.  You can sell items individually on auction or through a Buy-it-Now listing.  You can do this simply by listing items, or by opening an eBay store.  There are listing fees either way.

EBay has the benefit of high traffic, a trusted brand name, and a professional interface.  A good time to list jewelry on eBay is during listing fee promotions when discounts or specials are offered; however, keep in mind that at those times, there are more listings competing with yours.

Also, your jewelry is liable to command lower prices on eBay than in other locations that attract fixed-price retail buyers.  The auction format means you may have to charge lower prices to attract eBay buyers, who are often looking for a bargain.

Sell Handcrafted Jewelry From Your Own Online Store Using Free Website Builders

• Blogger
• Google Sites

Two of my favorite places to build websites capable of selling jewelry are Google's own Blogger or Google Sites.   I haven't done it myself yet, but I have used both websites for other purposes (this blog uses Blogger).

Although there are no storefront templates, you can use these platforms to build an ecommerce site to sell your craft.  You can sign up for Google Checkout, PayPal, or another payment handling service that allows you to put a button on your site that lets your customers check out with a shopping cart on another site.  (Those services do cost money - usually a portion of the transaction fee.) 

It takes a lot of initial work to set up your own store and there's a lot to learn.  But it can be well worth it.

What are the basic steps to start an ecommerce store to sell jewelry?  On these platforms, you:

1. Register with a Google account.
2. Open a free blog or a website under that account.
3. Pick out a template you like.
4. Customize the template with a logo banner and custom colors and fonts.
5. Create the static content for the website, including a customer service policy, information about your store, and contact information. 
6. Install shopping cart functionality with Google Checkout, PayPal or another service.
7. Start loading in your photos and jewelry descriptions as blog posts or static pages. 
8. Promote the website.
9. Remove items or mark them as sold as they sell.
10. Add jewelry listings regularly to keep the interest of your customers.

Before You Start - Learn How to Sell Jewelery Online

Finally, you might find it helpful to read some books on online marketing to "mentor" you as you go.

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