Can you be successful selling one-of-a-kind items?
There are a lot of people out there that will say, “don’t sell one-of-a-kind of items if you want to have a successful Etsy shop or handmade business, because it’s very difficult and it won’t work.”
But it’s not that black and white – and so today I’d like to offer my answer to that question, and – spoiler – I’m going to tell you that yes it is possible, but there are definitely a few things that you need to be aware of and take into account before deciding that you want to sell only or in majority one-of-a-kind items.
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
Now first I want to point out that in a previous article of mine called the top six tips to make money selling your crafts online, I did have a tip in there saying try not to sell one-of-a-kind items.
And I did get feedback on that from people who were worried, because I had scared them a bit and they wanted clarification. So I want to use this article as a chance to explain what I really meant about selling one-of-a-kind items, because I wasn’t actually saying you can’t make it work – and I’m sorry if I didn’t make this clear back then – I was just saying that it can be harder to scale, and that you need to think through potential difficulties and opportunities it might present to see if it will work for the products you are selling and for your business goals.
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Before I start I want to quickly define what I mean by one-of-a-kind, just so we’re all on the same page.
A one-of-a-kind item is an item in your shop that you list for sale and once it’s sold you won’t have any others like it – it’s an original. It might be a piece of jewelry, it might be a clay creation, but the person who buys it knows that no one else will ever be able to have one like it.
Of course every handmade item is by definition “unique” but “one of a kind items” take this a step further as they are not reproducible. There is only ONE item like the one you list – it can’t or won’t be made again.
OK now that we’ve defined one-of-a-kind items, let’s dive into what factors you need to consider to decide if you want to sell one-of-a-kind in your handmade shop.
The first thing that you have to be aware of is that if you are only going to be selling one-of-a-kind items, it’s going to be harder to scale.
For example, you can’t hire staff to help you make your products because each item is completely unique and made by you, and you’re going to hit a ceiling of how much time you have available in your business affecting how many items you can actually make.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, you might not want to scale your business and hire people! I’ve talked about this before. I think that success is defined very differently by any one of you, you really just need to look at your definition of success and see if this fits within your goals.
Some of you want to have multiple six figure businesses, hire a team, and be in different retail stores . . . and those goals are not something that’s going to be feasible – or easily feasible – if your sales all come from one-of-a-kind items.
Others of you may have different goals, perhaps you want to really enjoy what you do, make a modest profit, and you have another income in your family so don’t need to make loads of money.
So you’re essentially looking at the balance between how much time you have or want to work on your business and how many items you need to make at the price that you’re selling your one-of-a-kind items to actually be reaching your revenue goal — and if that equation works for your situation, then wonderful!
If not, then you will want to consider having some more reproducible items, or you need to take a look at your pricing to be sure you have an effective one-of-a-kind pricing strategy with ample pricing margins.
The bottom line when developing an effective pricing strategy for one-of-a-kind items is this:
You must use perceived value to ensure really healthy profit margins for your products, because selling one-of-a-kind products with medium or low profit margins is going to be really hard to make work.
When you’re selling one-of-a-kind items, you must make good money on each product. Trying to be successful financially with a shop that only sells one-of-a-kind items that are low priced, or even medium priced, is going to be a lot more difficult.
So if you’re a jewelry designer that sells one-of-a-kind pieces, your pieces might be priced at a few hundred dollars each – based on the materials used, some of them maybe even be priced in the thousands. But if you’re selling one-of-a-kind products at low prices, say for example $58, and you make a $15 profit on each one, it’s just not going to work.
And so the higher your perceived value and the higher your prices the better.
It also makes sense that one-of-a-kind products should be higher priced, because they’re truly genuinely unique and exist only once – if you market effectively, the higher perceived value will justify the higher price. So it’s something that you should be able to communicate very effectively.
Next I want to point out a common mistake I see in one-of-a-kind handmade shops, which is not having a cohesive product offering.
Even though each item you sell is unique and one-of-a-kind, the last thing you want to do is to sell a bit of this and a bit of that and a bit of everything in your shop— your shop still needs to be cohesive!
For example, even if you ONLY sell jewelry, selling one-of-a-kind is not a free pass to have a bunch of different jewelry styles because you like to experiment with different techniques and materials and regularly change your aesthetic.
It still needs to have a theme and a brand, and everything needs to work together – there needs to be a designer aesthetic in the shop that is easily recognizable.
You can have cohesive lines of jewelry yet each piece can be very different and unique – because even though they are unique they are still all jewelry of a similar style.
So if you sell one-of-a-kind, you need to make sure you have a cohesive product offering and a really strong brand behind it – where even if all one-of-a-kind, all your products can easily be recognized as made by “you” and part of your brand.
Next, let’s talk about using collections and how it can be an effective way to market one-of-a-kind products and increase sales of your handmade products.
Many people think that if you sell one-of-a-kind items – you can’t work in “collections” because each item is its own unique style and that product collections only work for handmade products that are reproducible. But nothing is further from the truth!
You can still have collections when you have one-of-a-kind items (in fact, you should!!), and I think that too many people forget about that. You can release your products one at a time or as a collection, but either way collections can be a great marketing tool.
For example, you could create a springtime collection centered around florals. Each piece is completely unique and one-of-a-kind, but you could for example have a similar pattern or a recurring design element that is present in each piece. Or you could be using only two kinds of stones for this collection and even if each individual stone is completely unique, because you’re only using turquoise and onyx for example, each piece feels like it belongs to the same overarching collection.
So each item is going to be one-of-a-kind – they only exist once and will only be purchased once – but they also work together as a collection so the customer may want to consider buying multiple items within the collection.
For example, within a collection you can have a bracelet that’s one-of-a-kind with a ring that’s one-of-a-kind with a necklace that’s one-of-a-kind . . . so that you can upsell people to different complementary products options.
You could also upsell people to a more of a statement necklace within the collection that’s maybe bigger than the other ones— so that there are different price points within your collections as well, even if you sell one-of-a-kind.
Next I want to talk about marketing.
When it comes to marketing, it’s going to look a little different for one-of-a-kind than it might for reproducible or digital items.
It is definitely still possible to use search engine platforms like Etsy or Pinterest, you just need to tweak your strategy to make it work.
What I’ve seen work the most from people who are really successful doing one-of-a-kind is generating a following for your brand and your shop essentially, so that you can use the platform to tease whatever new collection or one-of-a-kind item that’s coming up and really build some excitement before the launch.
I’ve seen this done very successfully, where people actually sell out really quickly after their launch because customers are waiting for it – and are really excited – and they know that this is one-of-a-kind and is going to go fast.
So successful marketing in this situation will come back to your brand being cohesive and your style and your aesthetic being very clearly defined so that people know what to expect— even if every time each item is unique and different.
The final thing I encourage people to consider is the possibility of adding a reproducible collection to their product line while also offering one-of-a-kind items.
If you are looking at all the above considerations and realizing it might be hard to reach your revenue goal, consider adding a main reproducible product line.
So you will have a consistent line of products that are reproducible – they’re always the same, you stock them and if someone buys one, someone can still buy another one the next day. And you have that as the scalable part of your business.
And then have fun with one-of-a-kind items and one-of-a-kind collections on the side of that to let your creativity flow!
This can be a great compromise that gives you the best of both worlds.
So I hope this article has clarified a little bit what I think about selling one-of-a-kind. You can absolutely make it work, it just depends what your definition of success is for your business – like how much money you want to make, how much time you have to create products, all of those details.
I don’t want you to be discouraged thinking that you can’t sell one-of-a-kind successfully because you can. Selling one-of-a-kind is much like any other business decision you make, you have to think it through to see if it aligns with your business and personal goals.
I would love to know, actually, if you have some further question about how to make one-of-a-kind sales work, or a specific question about marketing or pricing or anything like that, that have to do with one-of-a-kind— if you do please drop a line in the comments below because I’d be happy to do more articles about specifically selling one-of-a-kind items if you guys want me to.
Something that’s very important when selling one-of-a-kind is PRICING and more specifically understanding what PERCEIVED VALUE is and how to use it, so make sure to read my article about how to price handmade products next to learn more as that’s exactly what I walk you through in it.
Thanks for reading, and until next time, aurevoir!
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Thank you for talking about selling one of a kind original items. I’m at the beginning of this making my own business doing just that.
You’re welcome, Rhonna! We wish you all the best with your new handmade shop! You’re also welcome to have our Maker’s Roadmap guide you https://tizzit.co/the-makers-roadmap-ultimate-guide-handmade-shop-success/
By following these tips, such as researching your market, accurately pricing your items, creating compelling listings, promoting through various channels, and providing excellent customer service, you can increase your chances of success. Remember to always stay updated on current trends and adapt your strategies accordingly.
Thank you for sharing, Atelier Global!
We’ve been selling high end, one of a kind fountains for cats since 2010. There is a division in our shop about being too eclectic or having great variety. If you care to look I’d be interested in your view.
Owner
Hi Keith! Good to hear that your shop has been doing well for 13 years! If you’d like to have Deb’s input, please send us an email at support@tizzit.co 🙂
Thank you so much for this video!
I’m currently working on launching my handmade jewelry business and one-of-kind is kinda inevitable due to how much work I put into creating one piece and the fact that I really don’t enjoy making the same item multiple times. I looked into laser cutting services in order to have an effective reproduction system but it’s too expensive (I work with brass and copper sheets). I love the idea of having a made to order collection with simpler designs that are aligned with the one of a kind ones. Should I launch with both collections ( made to order and one of a kind)? I also have no social media presence and nowadays it’s very difficult to build one. Please advise. Thank you so much!
Hello Ranya! Thank you for your comment. You can definitely try launching both collections. For social media, please check out this article:
https://tizzit.co/handmade-shop-social-media-marketing-not-working/
And if you have any questions, please ask away in our free Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/tizzit/ where you can interact with other handmade sellers. 🙂