One question I get asked quite often is “Should I Be Selling My Products On Amazon Handmade?”
You might just be getting started and are wondering where you should set up your shop, or you might already be selling your handmade products elsewhere and wondering if Amazon is worth adding to your arsenal, to get more traffic/sales from a different sale platform.
Naturally, you will have come across Amazon Handmade, and might be wondering if it’s the right platform for you.
First I want to tell you that it’s really good that you are asking this question! There are a lot of platforms that you can sell your handmade products on, and it’s great that you’re considering your options rather than randomly picking one as there truly is no one size fits all.
Different platforms attract different customer bases, offer different features, and charge different fees.
So in this article I want to talk to you about Amazon Handmade and give you my thoughts about what you need to consider before deciding if you should sell your products on that platform.
Let’s dive in!
If you’ve been Googling this question I bet you’ve seen all sorts of opinions. Some articles will say “I made SIX FIGURES on Amazon Handmade!!” and others will say “I tried Amazon Handmade and it was HELL!”
Not very helpful, right?
Let’s stop thinking about this as a black-or-white decision and instead let’s talk about what you should consider to decide for yourself if it’s a good thing to do for your handmade business or not.
In the spirit of complete transparency, I do have an opinion that you’re about to discover I suppose 😉 but I think it’s important to make clear that you’re entitled to your own opinion, and what works for one seller might not work for another.
With this post, I just want to give you some things to think about as you make your own decision.
To start, let’s just make sure we’re on the same page and quickly cover what Amazon Handmade IS and how it’s different from the mainstream, general Amazon marketplace:
With that in mind, there are 2 main questions to ask yourself that will help you figure out if Amazon Handmade is the right marketplace for you:
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The first thing you need to think about is if Amazon Handmade has the customer base you want to sell your products to.
When people think of Amazon, homemade products are not the first thing that comes to their mind.
People who shop on Amazon are usually looking for a good price and… very fast shipping.
I mean… Amazon pretty much invented the culture of next-day delivery. Amazon customers are renowned for wanting their product like yesterday please.
So the question is… is that your ideal customer? Will this customer appreciate and value your product enough to buy it?
This really has to do with the reputation of the Amazon platform, with Amazon’s own brand.. Will your ideal customers think of going to Amazon to purchase products like yours?
Will they expect or be happy to wait for a longer processing time while you create your products?
If you sell something like stickers for example or car decals, both fairly quick to create and ship on your end, it might not be such an issue – but if you plan on selling One of a Kind items or if it can take you a few days or weeks to create your wonderful product – it might be a little more problematic.
Besides the fact that Amazon doesn’t really attract handmade product shoppers to start with, EVEN IF someone came to Amazon with a set intention to purchase a handmade product… it’s not super obvious how to get to the handmade department.
Take a look at this video and I will show you what I mean.
The second thing you need to consider is whether Amazon Handmade is a match for your brand, positioning and pricing goals.
We talked about the customer database on Amazon, but what about the competition? What about the other sellers that would be selling next to you on the platform?
Here again, I have reservations as to whether this is a good choice for makers and handmade sellers because… similarly to what we were just saying about the customer database, the brand reputation that Amazon has built over the years is not attracting handmade shops prioritarily.
Now, on Amazon Handmade itself – to be accepted as a seller in the Handmade Amazon store, you do need to fill in an application and so at first it feels like this should protect you from competing against stores that are NOT handmade and sell manufactured goods at lower prices instead …
…. but in reality, the line between Amazon Handmade and the regular Amazon store is pretty blurry from a customer point of view.
As a customer, you can easily start on Handmade but end up clicking something that takes you to a competing product on the regular Amazon platform. If you go to Amazon.com/Handmade and pretend you’re shopping for a handmade product and looking around – I’d bet that you’d end pretty quickly on a “regular store” listing that’s not necessarily part of the handmade program.
Because in search results, Amazon ends up showing you results from “all departments” and you suddenly are competing with all Amazon sellers… not just handmade shops. Let me show you:
So . . . when I reflect on these two points . . .
I personally think that for most handmade sellers, Amazon Handmade just isn’t a great fit in terms of where you need to position your brand, how you need to present your products, and the prices that you need to charge to make a comfortable living selling handmade.
My biggest fear is that handmade sellers start competing on price when they enter the Amazon ecosystem- which is a slippery slope and a battle you can not win when you’re fighting against manufacturers.
It’s also a battle you shouldn’t need to fight because your ideal customers, who value handmade and the craftsmanship behind your products, are NOT looking for a bargain – that’s not why they shop handmade.
In my opinion it’s not something I would necessarily recommend to many handmade sellers. There are some cases in which it can work, and if that’s you, fantastic.
It might make more sense if you are a designer, illustrator, or artist and print your designs on t-shirts or on mugs for example.
But for most handmade sellers – I honestly just don’t see how the platform supports the positioning and brand image you need to evoke to sell your handmade items at the price they truly are worth because when you sell on Amazon Handmade – you sell on Amazon, and your brand is linked to the Amazon brand by association.
When the Amazon Handmade platform launched, I wasn’t sure which way it would go, but I was pretty excited by the potential – I thought that if Amazon really invested money into supporting handmade sellers – great things could happen, because well… Amazon has pretty deep pockets!
Sadly… I find myself pretty disappointed. There are advantages to selling on Amazon handmade… but enough? I am not sure. Let’s go through a few things together:
These are in my opinion the areas where Amazon really missed the mark in terms of supporting Handmade sellers differently than they support regular sellers – I just don’t’ see them going above and beyond to support the little shops. If you can help them make money, great – but they don’t really fight for you and the handmade movement, if you know what I mean!
After hearing all of that you might be wondering… “But that’s just how marketplaces are, isn’t it?”
A lot of handmade sellers ask me about Amazon Handmade vs. Etsy. I know that Etsy isn’t perfect, but I think at least it’s a better match for the majority of makers out there.
Etsy is still a big company, and it’s more lenient with what is sold now vs. how it used to be. That said, they still present themselves as a platform for handmade products, and the branding and the marketing that they do as a platform is aimed at attracting people who are interested in buying handmade and supporting small shops—so they are at least attracting a customer base that is a better fit.
Yes – sellers on Etsy often complain of paying for listing items and fees being high – but they’re still significantly lower than the 15% Amazon takes.
They also have a bunch of resources to support sellers and help them with marketing and setup, which Amazon is still missing. So… Etsy isn’t perfect but if you are going to sell on an online marketplace, in my opinion, they are a better match.
I honestly didn’t set out to make this post so negative – I went into it wanting to show you the good AND the bad but honestly I just couldn’t find as many positives as I could negatives!
Overall, here is my opinion:
As I was saying earlier there’s no one size fits all. You might disagree and find Amazon handmade to be great for your shop – but I personally think this is just not something I see as a good option for the majority of handmade sellers.
I think it might hurt your brand identity and positioning and get in the way of you connecting with the right customers and charging the prices you really need to charge.
One of the most important things I like each person I work with to remember is, there is no one right answer! Each business is unique, and you need to look at your own products and your own business plan and decide what is best for YOU!
If you would like help with some of these difficult business decisions, selling your handmade products, and more, check out all the step-by-step courses we’ve created for you over at Tizzit.co.
We make starting and running a handmade business easier for you by walking you through each step in the process and providing personal support for any roadblocks that come up along the way.
Thank you for reading—I hope you all have a wonderful day!
Until next time, au revoir!
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Thanks for your Amazon Handmade review — your observations are spot on. I’ve been “selling” on their platform for several years, and it’s been pretty disappointing.
Hello Ray! Thank you for sharing your personal experience!
I have listed around 570 paintings on Amazon Handmade site. Listed since April-May period of 2022. Not one sale as of yet on the site and very little traffic that I can see. I offer one day handling on the site and free shipping so seems like theres just really no one there.
I have done pretty well on other sites like eBay in the last 10 years or so with over 900 sales and within the first few weeks I had first sale on their platform so..does not seem Handmade is a site for me but really to early in telling and like noted in this article..listings do not expire so I still may try to market better on Handmade somehow and see if things change for the better!
Hello Jason! Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Having over 900 sales on other sites is great to hear! We hope that things do change for the better for your shop on Amazon Handmade too.
Thank you for this article.
You’re welcome, Piko! Keep checking back each week for more articles.
Many thanks for an informative article. I am feeling better about making a final decision about this platform.
You’re welcome, Regina! We’re glad to hear that it helped you make a final decision.
So it seems that you may as well sell on both of them, if you can handle it. Even if you just list a few items on Amazon, you don’t pay anything unless you sell? So might as well list on both, and see which one has the better results.
Hello Mandy! Yes – if you think your shop would do well on Amazon, as there is no one size fits all, go for it 🙂