Quote:
Originally Posted by smoky_topaz
Deviantart and eBay come to mind first. I have accounts with both of them. I just wondered if anyone on this board knew of some place that is exceptional? I tried shophandmade.com and it was disappointing. I know a little bit about etsy.com but think the fees might be a little steep. Thanks!
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The type of art you have could make a difference, but I don't think any of the sites could be considered exceptional.
Artfire is another you may want to check out.
The biggest problem with these multi-vendor, mall type sites is that while they have
some built-in traffic, they generate minimal sales if you do nothing to promote it.
Whether you are at etsy, artfire, etc., you will have to promote your store. I am not a fan of doing all that work to attract buying traffic to a site that belongs to another. You would be doing the same amount of work with your own site.
You could search for some
hosted shopping cart solutions,
ecommerce solutions and you may want to include the term "
artist" or "
designer" in your searches. Some are more geared to artists (with artsier templates, lower monthly fee than a typical retail store solution); with easy browser based set-up. With a hosted solution, they take care of all the technical aspects so you won't have to worry about any of that kind of maintenance, like if the site goes down, etc.
Compare the features of the solutions you consider, such as...what payment types you can accept, features for optimized search engine performance, how many products you can list, discount codes, customer points rewards, inventory tracking, etc. Some will have more bells and whistles than others.
Good luck! The most important thing to remember is that you have to promote yourself no matter where you are. It is
not true that if you build it, they will simply come.
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