Holiday Selling Guide with Tips and Tricks for Handmade Sellers

 When most people think of the word “holiday” it inspires visions of family, friends, food, and often presents and shopping. The details will change depending on the person and the culture from which they come. But it is nearly universal that the word conjures memories and feelings of happiness.

Most of us that sell professionally share these feelings when we hear the word “holiday”, but with an overlay of urgency and sometimes stress. It is our job to help bring that happiness to fruition and create those memories for others so that they can look back at them with fondness in the future. Holidays are certainly not about shopping and gift giving. However shopping and gift giving often supports what any given holiday is about. Handmade sellers have the opportunity to bring uniqueness and a personal touch to this aspect of the human experience.

As a handmade seller it’s likely you’ve already perfected your art, or at least have progressed to the point where you excel at it above most. The tricky part is to make sure you are prepared for everything else that comes with selling what you have created. The holidays can be an especially challenging time. We’ve gathered together some tips and tricks that should help make these challenges smoother for you, leaving you more time to make your own happy memories.

Create a Plan

When you make something, do you just grab some random materials and try to squash them together, hoping that whatever results will be useful in some way? Perhaps there are a handful of artists that work best this way. It sure would be interesting to get a peek inside their brains! Very few people can work like this and get positive results. The chances are you have a plan when you create something to sell. It might be as simple as what materials you need to buy, or the order in which you put things together. You’ve probably changed and adjusted your process as you’ve learned what works best. If you’ve been creating the same type of product for a long time then you might not even think about it anymore. But there is an order and a way that you do things. Selling your products also needs a plan, and selling for a holiday needs a plan of its own.

Start by knowing what holidays are important for what you sell. If you only sell Halloween decorations then you already know your most important and busiest holiday. Think about what other holidays might be important for your business as well. For example, perhaps you make a small figurine of a witch flying on a broom and it is easy to add a hook to turn it into a Christmas ornament. Or maybe you make your own candles and most holidays are important for your plan. Rank the holidays by busiest to slowest so that you can focus where you need to. Then mark your calendar. Every holiday has a peak, and you’ll want to start by marking those peaks. Many handmade sellers will find that their busiest holidays near the end of the year are Halloween, Thanksgiving, and especially Christmas.

• Halloween peaks each year at the beginning of October.

• Thanksgiving peaks each year at the beginning of November.

• Christmas peaks each year at the end of November. Specifically the four day period after Thanksgiving (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sofa Sunday, and Cyber Monday).

Once you know your holidays and when they peak, work backwards from the peaks and mark down when tasks need to be completed to get ready. When do you need to buy your materials? If you make your products in advance before they are purchased, how many should you create and when should you have them ready for sale? When do you need to take stock of your shipping supplies to make sure you have enough to ship as soon as possible? When do you need to have seasonal products available for sale on the marketplaces where you have a presence?

If you are having trouble figuring out how to plan for a specific holiday, then look at your sales from last year. Look at the entire year and not just the holiday time. Was your slow season about as busy this year as last year? If you’ve been busier this year during your slow season then the chances are you’ll be busier this year during the holiday season. Take a look at the percent increase from year to year and use that as a guide. If you are a well seasoned merchant then look at multiple years so you don’t get trapped by an anomaly. Numbers from the last few years are not necessarily reliable due to the Covid effect, so use them cautiously. If you are new to selling your creations or if you just aren’t sure how much business you will get, then be careful that you don’t over buy your supplies unless you can afford it. It is better to shut your shop down early/temporarily for one holiday because you don’t have enough than it is to shut down your business permanently because you bought more than you could afford and were not able to sell it.

Curate Your Product Assortment

The selection of products that you present is almost as important as the individual products themselves. When you are getting ready for an upcoming holiday, focus only on those products that are appropriate for that holiday. This is one of those situations where less is more. If a buyer is browsing your store for something Halloween related they don’t want to see something that is specific to Valentine’s Day or Flag Day. If you lose their interest they’ll leave your store and browse somewhere else, and this means they might miss the perfect product that you’ve put love and energy into creating just so they could find it - because they got bored looking at your Flag Day products.

Sure, you’ll have some products in your store that are not specific to the upcoming holiday (plenty of people have December birthdays). It might be appropriate to keep those products in your store. Use categories to separate them out so that your customers that are shopping for a specific holiday don’t have to sift through everything. But don’t make that your focus. Instead focus on creating the products for the upcoming holiday. It might be difficult to decrease the priority of your out-of-season items - especially if you are really attached to them. This is one of those times where you might need to make a sacrifice or two for the benefit of your business. Keep your selection of products fresh, up-to-date, and in the spirit of the holiday you are targeting. Not only does this give a fresh and more appealing look and feel to your store, but it also has a high potential of increasing your sales.

Perfect Your Product Presentation

Let’s talk about products. The way you present your products is the most important factor when it comes to turning a visitor into a buyer. Done correctly you can help your customers have a more enjoyable (and more profitable for you) experience finding, evaluating, and purchasing what you make. You want to avoid making your buyer cringe and instead make them smile and reach for their credit card.

If you’ve done even a small amount of research on what people recommend for product titles, images, descriptions, and SEO (search engine optimization), then you’ve probably read some conflicting information. This is because what is best is constantly in flux. There are some basics that have stayed the same over the years, but changes in technology and policies related to search are constant. Every time Google changes its rules and policies it affects how products appear in their search results. The same is true for most marketplaces when they make changes to some of their policies and procedures. If you’ve been selling your products for some time then you might have had really good success with writing your product titles in a certain way ten years ago, where the same method could get you pushed to the bottom of search results today. If you have older products that you listed years ago, then they need to be reviewed and adjusted. If you have new products that you need to list then there are things to keep in mind while doing so.

Titles

When searching for something to buy, the first thing your customer sees will usually be the product title. If it looks interesting and relevant to them then they will click to read more. If it is off putting in any way then they will move on before even glancing at the description. When writing your titles make them clear and easy to read, but also eye-catching. Don’t be afraid to include words like handcrafted, handmade, and unique. These are selling points that can tip the scales in your direction when someone is making a purchasing decision. It might also be appropriate to include keywords that are specific to the holiday you are focusing on.

Most importantly, write for the human that is deciding whether or not to buy from your store. Do not write for a search engine. Over the years search engines have gotten much better at their job, and they are now designed to look for titles and descriptions that have been written for humans. If you try to write for a search engine instead of a human then you very well might get the opposite results than you hoped for and find your product buried in search and not boosted. Instead write for your customers. Think about what wording might draw the attention of someone that is scanning a crowded search results page, and then will keep their attention and encourage them to click and read more.

Finally, make the most out of the space that you have available. Different marketplaces allow a different number of characters for the title field. Try to use them all, and please (please, please, please) don’t include emojis or unnecessary punctuation. They use up your character limit, they don’t work well with search engines, and they distract from the rest of your title. If you sell on Amazon Handmade you only get 60 characters for your title. eBay allows up to 80, and Etsy gives you the most with up to 140 (Etsy’s recommendation is to use between 70 and 120).

Images and Videos

I’m sure you’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. There’s a reason we’ve all heard that phrase, and that’s because it’s true. After the title the first thing your customer will see is the product picture. Sometimes they will even see it before the title depending on how they are shopping. Increasingly search engines are using images to decide what search results to present, as well. If your images are good then your customers will take a closer look at your products and get one step closer to buying from you.

Be sure to use a high quality image with a good resolution. Each marketplace has rules as far as the minimum resolution that is allowed for your images, but if you are doing it right then you should never find yourself running into this minimum requirement. Your product should also be clear, in focus, and with a white background. White backgrounds are already mandatory for most of Amazon Handmade, are recommendations for eBay and Etsy, and have become industry standard. Using a light color and uncrowded background makes your product stand out so your buyers and search engines are more likely to find it. It also avoids any potential confusion about what is being purchased. Some buyers don’t bother to read product descriptions and if you have props in the image with your product then the less observant will think they are buying those props too.

Present the main image of your product first. It’s sad to see a great product with great images and the main image is a close-up of some small detail and not the full product. This is something to keep in mind when adding your images and also when reviewing your products after they are listed to check for mistakes (you do that, right?). That being said, you should also include those close-up images, and back views, and side views, etc. If the marketplace allows it then one or two life-style images of your product being used can go a long way toward encouraging a purchase. Have you ever shopped for earrings? Most earring sellers know to include the measurements, but not all include an image of an ear wearing the earring. An abstract number might seem smaller or larger to your buyer, and then it arrives in the mail and they realize it looks way different on an ear than they expected. And you get to process the return.

Some marketplaces allow or encourage videos on product pages, and while videos of products are not new, they are becoming more important over time. A good quality video of your product being used, worn, or in action can be a definite bonus. As a handmade seller you should also consider a video showing you making the product. Buyers love to know more about what they are buying, especially when it has been made by hand. This is a great place to get creative, and often you can also use the video in your marketing efforts, such as videos for TikTok.

Descriptions

It probably seems obvious, but it is important to remember that your description should describe your product. There are other touches that you can (and should) add that will help convert your potential customer to a buyer. Once you have finished writing your product description be sure to take a step back and ask yourself if you have done the best job possible of describing your product.

Writing a perfect description for your product is often an exercise in contradictions and moderation. You want to be concise so that your customer doesn’t get bored or misses something important. You also want to be detailed and complete so that nothing important is left out. What you write should always be written for your potential customer, but you need to keep in mind that search engines are reading it too. Depending on where you list your products the first few phrases of your description can be used by Google and affect your placement in their SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Try to start your description with one sentence that is all encompassing. That first sentence should describe your product in as much detail as possible using as few words as possible. Don’t fall into the trap of listing out keywords (there is a place for that, but it isn’t in the description). Instead write that sentence so that your customer will immediately know what it is you are selling and will want to read more.

As you write the rest of your product description you should be expanding on the details and help your customer explore. Mention the holiday (or multiple holidays if appropriate) that is relevant. For example, if you make centerpieces for kitchen tables then you might say that they add color to a Thanksgiving meal spread and are great conversation starters. Highlighting what is unique to your product is a great way to convince someone to buy from you instead of a competitor. The uniqueness might be the finished product, or it could be part of the process that you use to make it. Giving perspective and context to your product and how it is made can be a powerful and interesting addition to your description and avoid creating a dull read.

If you are selling on a marketplace (such as eBay) or your own store where custom HTML or templates are allowed, then take advantage of it! A well designed template can add some festivity to your description. Something as simple as a basic border can help draw attention to your product and set it in the mind of your customer as being relevant to the holiday they are shopping for.

Tags, Attributes, Search Terms, and Item Specifics

Different marketplaces have different words for them, but they are all names for keywords that are used by search engines to decide what to show someone that is looking for a product. They are used by more general search engines like Google, but also by the search engines of individual sites like Etsy and Amazon Handmade. The primary purpose for a marketplace is to show relevant products to potential buyers so that the marketplace can get the most sales possible, regardless of the seller. The primary purpose for you is to get your product viewed by anyone that is likely to buy it. The more your keywords match a buyer’s search, the closer your product will be to the top of the search results page.

This does not mean that you should add words just because you think people will be searching for them. Every word that you add to your product should be relevant to what you are selling. Partly this is because some marketplaces have rules against keyword spamming (using keywords that are not relevant for the sole purpose of getting better placement in the search results page), but mostly it is because it is bad for your business. If you use terms that aren't relevant to the product then you might get a ton of views. Those views won’t convert to sales if your product isn’t what is being looked for. Take up the allowed space for your keywords completely and use as many as are allowed, and do this in as wise a way as you can.

Ultimately you should choose keywords that are relevant to your product and your customers are likely to use when searching for products such as yours. Synonyms are helpful and you should use them as much as you can without taking space away from other important words. What you should not do is repeat words, add misspellings of words, or add plurals of words. If you have already added “centerpiece” as one of your keywords then you do not need to also enter “centerpieces” or “centerpeece”. In the past this was helpful when your potential buyer was careless with their typing. In the present search engines already account for this automatically and you are wasting your allotted space if you duplicate their work.

Promote Your Product

In a perfect world there would be no need to advertise or promote. You would spend your time creating and the recipients of your genius (admit it, you are a genius) would find you all on their own. Unfortunately that’s not how it works. Even if you can think of a popular brand or two that doesn’t have to advertise much and still does good business, I can guarantee you that they didn’t start out that way. If you don’t invest in promoting your product, both in time and money, then you won’t be selling for very long. The good news is that you have plenty of options to choose from!

Paid Promotion

All marketplaces offer multiple tools to help promote your products. These include coupons and discounts, seasonal campaigns, email placement, sponsored products (giving you the top spot in relevant search result pages), and plenty of other options. Marketplaces are constantly trying out new options like these so research what they currently offer and keep an eye out for new ones. Try them all. You don’t have to try them all at once and be careful not to spend more than you can afford. If you are new to promoting your products then you’ll want to start slowly until you know what works for you. Test the paid options at the lower funding levels, increasing those that are profitable and stopping those that cost more than they return. Some require payment upfront with no guarantee of sales, and here you should proceed the most cautiously. Other options only cost you when you get a sale. As long as your profit margin can handle the extra fees then go a bit wild until you find out if it is helpful for your business.

Free Promotion

There are also plenty of ways to promote your products without spending money and here you should be the most generous with your efforts. How much you can do here doesn’t depend on how much money you have available to invest, but instead how much time you have available. You can try as many as you have time for without distracting from the rest of your business. If some options are more enjoyable to you then start with those. This doesn’t mean you should keep using a promotion avenue if it isn’t bringing in any sales. Your time is worth more than that. But if there is a free option that might help, then you should at least give it a chance.

Social media by far offers the most free ways to promote. Create a business account on any social channel that might help get you sales. It’s okay to occasionally post about your business in your personal accounts, but be careful not to fill your personal feeds with demands that your friends shop at your store. They’ll just tune you out after you’ve done this for a while and this isn’t good for your business or your personal life. The best way to leverage your personal contacts is to use your personal accounts to let your friends and family know about your business accounts. Post once or twice encouraging them to follow you there if they wish to support you in your business adventure.

What you post to your social media accounts is where you can use the creativity that has served you so well creating what you sell. Of course you should post pictures of your products, especially when you have new ones or are running a sale. Have all of the marketplaces on which you sell front and center in your profiles so that your followers can easily see where they can go to view more details of what you have to offer. Also show details that won’t be of interest to all of your buyers, but that others will find entertaining. Don’t expect anything that you do to go viral, and trying to create something specifically so that it will go viral is almost always a waste of time. But if you create entertaining and informative content then you might be surprised by the number of views that you get. Be creative with your posts and show off. Now is not the time to be humble. Use both images and videos. You can show how you make your products and show them being used. Is there an unusual way that your product can be used? Show that too. Tell a story, such as how you came up with the idea for your product. Do you sell something breakable or with an odd shape? Show how you package it and give your buyers confidence it will arrive in one piece. Do you have customers that are willing to send video of them using your product, or written testimony? Your social media accounts are great places to post them.

While social media is the best way to promote your products for free during this time of human history, there are other free options available and you should always be keeping an eye out. The most important free promotion option other than social that you have is yourself. If your product is something that you can wear, then wear it. The chances are someone will ask you about it and you can sing your praises and let them know where they can buy it. You already have a business card sized insert with details of your business that you put in the packages that you ship for sales on marketplaces that allow it, right? Carry a few of those with you at all times so that you can give a copy to anyone that expresses interest in your business.

Offer Fast And Free Shipping

Free Shipping

Unless you are very new to selling online then you already know one of the biggest contradictions in online selling. Free shipping is never free. That matters a great deal to your business planning because shipping is one of the biggest expenses that sellers have to account for. That doesn’t matter at all to your buyers. Studies show that about half of buyers leave their shopping cart and never come back when they encounter extra charges that have been added to the total. Whether you think shipping should be included in the price of the product or added on at the end, it doesn’t matter to your buyers. They’ve already decided for you. And search engines agree with them. Products with free shipping get higher priority in search results and are more likely to be seen. You’ll need to estimate the cost of shipping and increase your product prices to account for it. Your buyers will see free shipping. They won’t see the extra few dollars that you’ve added to the price because they never saw the price without it.

If you believe that the products you create are an exception to this rule, then I implore you to test it out before making up your mind for good. Start with a small batch of products, or maybe only one of the many marketplaces on which you sell (you do sell on multiple marketplaces, right?). The products that you make could be in the 1% of products that require paid shipping to be successful and profitable, but this way you can make an informed decision. Run the test for a period of time that will give you enough results so that you can be sure, and then adjust your business accordingly.

International shipping is often an exception to this rule. Most buyers expect to pay a bit more for shipping when they are ordering from a different country. You still want to keep these expenses as low as you can without cutting into your profits. If your business allows you to offer free shipping to your international customers then do it! If not, then remember you’ve already worked the cost of domestic shipping into your product prices. When you add shipping charges for international buyers, account for that cost and charge a bit less than you would have without it.

Fast Shipping

This is one of those areas that is a much bigger challenge for handmade sellers than for most others, especially if you make your products to order. Buyers of handmade products are usually a bit more understanding about longer processing times, but you still want to ship as quickly as you can. A last minute shopper might understand that you can’t get your product to them in time to give it as a Christmas gift, but that doesn’t change the fact that they probably won’t buy it from you because of the time constraints. Even worse than having long processing times is not being upfront about how long it will take. You could lie to that shopper and tell them you can get the product to them by Christmas, but when it doesn’t arrive you’ve lost a buyer for life and the chances are you’ll either have to cancel the order or accept a return. If the best you can do is make the product two weeks after it is ordered, then be honest about it. Next year your procrastinating shopper might remember and get an earlier start buying from your store.

Giving options for products that have quicker processing times can also help you get more sales. If you sell personalized products then have an option available that is more generic and you can have ready in advance. If there isn’t enough time to embroider and ship those red, white, and blue socks with the message “Happy Flag Day Jason”, then your buyer might order a pair that just says “Happy Flag Day” and you can ship today. If your products don’t have to be made to order, then you should definitely have some made in advance, especially during the holidays when you know people will order them. As you start to run low on stock, start making more immediately.

FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) doesn’t work for everyone, but you should take a look and see if it will work for any of the products that you make. It can especially be useful for products that you can create quickly or cheaply in bulk. Know that it will cut more into your profit. The benefit of having a company that has perfected fast shipping send your products for you could be well worth it. One word of caution, do not ship more to FBA than is likely to sell. You don’t want to have to make the difficult choice of paying to keep the products you made in Amazon’s warehouse or having them destroyed.

Be Productive

One thing that all handmade sellers have in common is that they would rather spend time creating and designing than listing and shipping. Sadly there is a never ending list of other tasks that need to be done. Happily there’s technology that can help you with almost any task that is taking up your time. There are a plethora of apps, programs, and all kinds of software that were created with you in mind. Want to list products faster and in multiple places at once? Look up a listing tool. Do you need to update your product details in an instant? There are at least fifteen programs available to help you with this task. Want to automate your post sale operations? Sure, it can be done. You name the task and there’s a solution for it already.

Some of these solutions aren’t going to be worth the cost for the benefit that they offer you, but others can offer you relief from tedious and repetitive work while giving you time to increase your profits. Many have free trials available so that you can test them out with no risk involved to your bank account balance. If you aren’t sure if a given solution will work for you, then start small with just some of your products or one of the marketplaces on which you sell. If it doesn’t work for you, then no harm done. If it does, then start using it for your entire business. Any time you get frustrated about a tedious part of your business, remind yourself, there’s an app for that. About the only thing that you won’t find an app for is one that will create and design your products for you.

With the right planning and a good use of your time you can make sure that you have time to enjoy holidays yourself. It is always important to take time for yourself to recharge, in whatever way works best for you. It is up to you to make sure that you have that time. So focus now on getting your calendar in order, curating your product assortment, creating perfect product listings, promoting the heck out of what you have made, and shipping as fast as possible. Then you can relax for whatever holiday is next, whether it is gorging yourself on a massive meal for Thanksgiving or attending your local Flag Day parade. Whatever you make and for whatever seasons you sell, have a great selling season!

This article is provided by Vendio Handmade, a multi-channel solution designed to help crafters, makers and artists grow their business. With this fully-featured tool, handmade entrepreneurs will list faster, save money and sell more.

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About the authors

Nathan Wood is the manager of customer support for Vendio Handmade, Vendio and Storenvy. He has over 14 years of experience helping small and medium sized businesses, and is passionate about helping sellers succeed.

Silvia Popa is Product Manager at Vendio and Vendio Handmade