How to Sell Your Fabric Weaving
Numerous venues exist for selling handwoven fabric. Meet your customers and sell directly to them at craft fairs, or make your fabric available to them through craft co-ops or online. Place your work in a consignment shop, or even sell it wholesale to gift shops, boutiques or larger stores.
Instructions
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Sell directly to the public (retail) at craft fairs. Craft fairs are probably one of the most popular ways to sell handmade items, such has handwoven fabric. They vary greatly in size, type and cost. Some have entrance fees of only $25 or $50, while it costs hundreds of dollars to participate in others. Ask questions such as these to determine the worthiness of the venues: "How many other vendors will be there?" The more vendors there are, the more shoppers will attend. "What types of vendors will be there?" As a weaver, you don't want the majority of other vendors to be jewelry makers or potters because shoppers attending such a craft fair are probably looking to buy jewelry or pottery, not woven fabric. "How many years has the event taken place?" If it's new or has only been around for a year or two, attendance may be limited. "What kind of publicity do they have?" People can't come if they don't know about the event. "Do the public have to pay a fee to get in?" If so, attendance will probably be less than at a free event.
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Join a craft co-op. Many co-ops exist where each artist is allotted a certain amount of space to display his or her work. In return, the artist pays a monthly fee and/or commission (percentage of sales) to the co-op and usually has to work a certain number of hours per month at the store. New co-op members are usually juried in by existing members who evaluate the new artist's work for quality as well as for appropriateness for their group.
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Create a website to sell your work. Domain names (registering you website name) and Web hosting services can be purchased very easily and at little cost. Many website templates exist to easily build your own basic website. Web design businesses abound, if you want to hire someone to create your website. After the initial expense of Web design, operating costs are fairly low. You pay a monthly fee to your Web hosting service and a yearly fee to renew your domain name. PayPal offers a basic online shopping cart. Free open-source shopping carts, such as Zen Cart, are available, or purchase online shopping cart software.
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List your woven fabric on Etsy. Etsy is an online shopping venue for handcrafted work. You create a virtual shop and list, with photos and descriptions, the items you have for sale. It costs nothing to join. You pay $0.20 for each item you add to your shop and 3.5 percent of the sale price when you sell an item. Your customers can pay by PayPal. Etsy bills you monthly for any fees you owe them.
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Consign your woven goods to craft stores or craft malls. You pay the consignment shop a monthly fee and/or a percentage of your sales. They do not buy the work from you; you get paid only when your item sells. The shop does all the work of being open during business hours, hiring and paying staff, accepting credit cards and, in general, paying the typical overhead of running a retail store. Make sure you get a contract detailing such things as who is responsible if your item is damaged or stolen, and how long must you or may you keep an item in the store if it does not sell.
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Wholesale woven items to gift stores or boutiques. The stores buy your product at wholesale and then mark it up to retail price to sell to customers. You get paid less, but you avoid the effort, time and expense of marketing and all the other factors that go into selling your work to the retail public. Wholesale buyers usually want to purchase items in bulk or many different pieces at once, so make sure you can reliably meet your deadlines and create your work in the requested quantities before entering into any wholesale agreement.
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References
Resources
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