February 2021 Handmade Seller Magazine 65 | Page 18

Intriguing Results from a Worldwide Survey of Handmade Sellers
80 % of handmade sellers who have had a shop for less than a year made less than $ 1,000 from it and 96 % of the sellers who are making between $ 30,000 and $ 50,000 per year have been selling for more than two years .
HANDMADE INDUSTRY — worldwide survey handmadeseller . com
— FEBRUARY 2021

THE STATE OF HANDMADE

Intriguing Results from a Worldwide Survey of Handmade Sellers
Last year in January , my friends and colleagues Mikaela Danvers , Jess Van Den , and I decided to put together the State of Handmade survey , a comprehensive survey to collect a swathe of data from makers all over the world : about the sort of work you ’ re doing , how much you ’ re working , how much you ’ re earning , the platforms you ’ re selling on , and much , much more .

80 % of handmade sellers who have had a shop for less than a year made less than $ 1,000 from it and 96 % of the sellers who are making between $ 30,000 and $ 50,000 per year have been selling for more than two years .

“ SOCIAL MEDIA REMAINS THE TOP MARKETING CHANNEL ,

Granted , this might not be what you want to hear if you ’ re just about to open a shop , but it confirmed what I ’ ve always known from my experience working with hundreds of shops over the years ; it takes more than a couple of months to get the ball rolling and to see consistent , reliable sales coming through from your shop .
Deborah is the founder of Tizzit . co . She helps makers and handmade shop owners start , grow and profit from their handmade shops via her weekly video show and her membership community , Tizzit HQ .
You can download the results of the 2020 edition right here . This year , we are running it again , and I would love to encourage you to participate . It ’ s completely anonymous , should take you under 10 minutes , and will help us understand what has changed in our industry , where the handmade world is at , and how COVID-19 has affected makers in business .
By Debora Englemajer from Tizzit . co
For now , though , I ’ d love to share with you my three favorite takeaways from the 2020 survey . There were many more , it ’ s not easy to choose , but I think these three stats say a lot about our industry at large :
Anyone selling you the promise of anything else is using anecdotal evidence , which is not quite the same as actual data .
This isn ’ t what most ‘ experts ’ will tell you because courses that promise , “ how to make 6-figures in 3 months ” have got a lot more appeal , but it ’ s also misleading ...
... so , here ’ s what the data from the State of Handmade 2020 actually told us :

80 % of the sellers who have had a shop for less than a year made less than $ 1,000 from it .

96 % of the sellers who are making

between $ 30,000 and $ 50,000 a year have been selling for more than two years .

WITH INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK LEADING THE WAY , AND PINTEREST JUST BEHIND .”
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