Should you be selling your products on Amazon Handmade?

1. Although they exist, Amazon Handmade seller profiles are not front and center and just don’t do a lot to help your buyers connect with you or for you to share your story and behind the scenes in an engaging manner. You can add a few images and have a bit of a description, but even on the seller profile Amazon makes recommendations for products “one might be interested in” that are not necessarily from your shop nor necessarily handmade. Not great in my books.

2. Any marketplace you use to sell your handmade products, be it Amazon or Etsy or any other, makes money from being the middleman between sellers and customers. It’s in their interest to not make it too easy for you to get in direct contact with the customers… or they could get cut out easily. But Amazon is renowned for making this even harder than other platforms. Forget about finding a customer’s email for example if you have an urgent message to send them regarding their order and fear they’re not checking their Amazon messages. This can make conversation with customers pretty difficult.

3. An important part of building a business is to build customer loyalty. Here again, marketplaces don’t want you to get to comfy with their shoppers so that they don’t get cut out of the relationship – which is understandable and why platforms like Amazon Handmade won’t let you message customers for anything that’s not to do with their orders, or add them to an email list. It’s understandable, but something to take into consideration. Their platform, their rules.

4. The fact that the professional seller fee is being waived for Handmade sellers is pretty cool – I’ll give Amazon that, but the fees at 15% including shipping are still quite high. I am not sure that’s a step in the direction of supporting small shops.  Do you have a healthy enough profit margin to support this?

5. A few positives: Listings don’t expire, and you don’t pay for listing items – unlike on (for example) Etsy, which is great. You also get access to Amazon FBA program (fulfillment by Amazon) and Amazon Prime – if you do want to use these services. Here again – it’s a great option … but does it work with the type of products you sell, your production time, the inventory this means you should have to start with, etc.

6. You can have a link to “request custom order” but they honestly have not done a lot with this. Often you get to an Amazon messenger bot which in my opinion is not how you want to start a relationship for a custom order with a potential customer, and makes selling customized/personalized items a bit difficult. 

7. My biggest disappointment, though, is the blurred line between Amazon “Handmade” and the “general” Amazon platform I mentioned before… and how little the Handmade department/store is visually prioritized. If you don’t know it exists, it’s hard to find – even if you are looking through the department or categories lists. So the advantage of “millions of shoppers everyday on Amazon” isn’t really valid if they can’t find you easily once they are on the platform . . . and IF they look for you!

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?” 

Is Amazon Handmade Any Different From Etsy?

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.

So… Is Amazon Handmade A Platform You Should Use For Your Handmade Shop?

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! 

Are You Looking For Guidance And Personal Support For Your Handmade Business?

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!