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Marketing
Handmade Soap
Making
handmade soap can be challenging and also very fulfilling.
Marketing handmade soap can be down right daunting. After
you sell a few bars to family and friends, where do go from
there? Craft fairs and Christmas bazaars are a natural choice,
though they both have very limited seasons. If you make a
commitment to a retail space, then you are truly taking that
next big step. That step however could be financially fatal.
Many crafters are not in a position to make such large commitment,
especially at the outset of their endeavor. This is why finding
a viable alternative to renting retail space is the single
most important task you will pursue in assuring your crafting
hobby turns into a successful small business.
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The
great equalizer in the world of small business is the internet,
or so we were told. Yet there are thousands of small, and large
businesses alike that have failed in the arena of ecommerce. Are
there any lessons to learn from these failures? Is it possible for
a small crafter to compete with the super retailers.
The
main advantage of being a crafter is that you posses a product that
is truly unique and it has ongoing demand from a very loyal customer
base. I have had soap buyers spend weeks to track me down, just
to get a bar of my soap that another crafter was selling at a fair.
These customers are committed to buying products from local crafters
because it helps local communities and supports local economies.
These are the types of customers that the crafter should be targeting.
There
are several outlets on the internet that target craft buyers. Some
of these charge very nominal fees and are a great place to get your
feet wet in craft marketing. You can list several items and let
the market tell which products are likely to get the best response.
One of the best sites is Etsy. If you haven’t tried them,
you should. They have a very loyal following and their overall business
is growing every month. Because they have a great feedback system
you can also see what items other crafters are having success with.
This is great way to get ideas or new products. Please do not blatantly
copy other crafters works. Use these new ideas you see to integrate
with your own products.
The
other site to get great ideas and market information from is Ebay.
Their fees have gotten a bit outrageous lately so be careful as
they can kill your marketing budget very quickly. For market research
though, they can’t be beat. I have discovered many hot new
fragrances for my handmade soap on Ebay. Stores start at $15.95.
This is about as cheap as any ecommerce opportunity available today.
Jeffrey
Dorrian is the soap guy. Really, that is his website lye soap He
has been making premium handmade soap for the past six years. "Handmade
soap is a true inexpensive luxury anyone can enjoy." wholesale
soap
Resource
: Jeffrey Dorrian is the webmaster
at thesoapguy.com. He has been making handmade soap for six years.
"Handmade soap is a little luxury anyone can afford".
Premium wholesale soap Old fashioned lye soap |
