Whether you’re a licensing artists and/or creator of digital products you might be wondering if you really need your own website shop. My answer is always an emphatic YES!
Even if you’re selling on other marketplaces and doing well, for true independence and full control over your business and income you need your own platform. Here’s why 👇
You’re building a robust business
Relying solely on income generated on other marketplaces is too risky. You’re at the mercy of their algorithms, policy changes, licence terms and commission rates.
You might sign-up agreeing to a specific percentage cut, but over time that can change. When I started selling on a large marketplace their cut was 30%, now it’s 50%. Having that kind of chunk of earnings taken from you could potentially be catastrophic if that’s your only income stream.
On the other hand, if you have your own website supplementing your income, your business becomes more robust.
You’re more likely to survive financial knocks or inconsistent income. And if you focus on building your own platform, there’s a good chance it’ll earn you enough income making the other sites “nice to have” instead of “have to have”.
Your own site has the potential to surpass any of your other shops, giving you complete independence as an artist.
You’re protecting your work
There could be a number of reasons you might need to remove your work from a marketplace. For me, one of the biggies could be they might change the licence terms.
What if overnight, they change their licence which allows customers to use your work in a way you completely disagree with? It can happen, and it has happened!
This is where working on establishing stable income from your own website can save you. It means you can pull your work if you need to without a massive income catastrophe.
Selling your work on their platform is essentially utilising their business to make money, they’re entitled to change the structure or policy at any given stage. Having better control of your income (aka your own website shop) protects you from the effects their decisions might have on you.
You can create your own world!
Building and nurturing my website over the years has truly been one of the best parts of running my art business.
Of course having your own online shop comes with many challenges. But they pale in comparison to the rewards! Creating and maintaining your website is a beautiful way to express your creativity and build your independence.
It’s liberating knowing your decisions have a direct impact on your business which gives you control over your sites design, the brand you build, and the journey you take your customers on.
Conversely, when you’re one of many shops on other marketplaces it’s difficult to express your brand. How do customers “connect” with you when your shop is simply the default cookie cutter layout and design? You’re also at risk of getting lost in the sea of products!
You’re establishing trust
Let’s face it, having your own dedicated website looks professional and tells customers you mean business. This creates a certain trust level before the customer has even interacted with you.
Once you get them to your site, it’s your job to keep them there, and hopefully they ultimately buy from you, by building on that small trust you’ve already gained.
Trust is earned by producing quality work/products, after sale experience, customer support, over-delivery and more. But if you don’t gain that first initial trust, you’ll never have the opportunity to deliver the rest of your offering.
Your website is a place where you can build a trusting and inviting environment, a home-base for your customer to find you and engage with you.
Okay so you’re convinced, now what?
At this stage you might be convinced that you need your own website shop, over and above your other shops. But you’re also completely and utterly overwhelmed by the mammoth task ahead.
I get it! It is immense.
So how do you tackle it? You start small. But the important thing is to START – something I wish I did much earlier in my art career!
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you don’t sell on other platforms. Rather, aim to build your independence through your own shop revenue as soon as possible. The sooner you start, the sooner your art empire can grow 🙌🤩.
In this next “advice for artists” article I cover important factors to consider when starting your online art shop that will set you up for success!
Are you interested in joining a forum for selling digital products online? It’s a basic forum I created that will allow us to connect with each other and share our struggles, wins and knowledge. If you’d like to join you hit the button below to register.
I did look into the possibility of selling in my own store for a long time now, and so I collected information on how it can be done.
I found the worldwide tax regulations to be an absolute nightmare, and I wonder what you do to conclude that “selling comes with challenges, but they pale in comparison”. I do not see any chance of selling in my own store and getting worldwide taxes right vs. Etsy, where the marketplace collects and pays the taxes.
I would be grateful to learn which affordable tax service you use.
Dear Silvia,
I had the same problem and decided to build my Webshop with minimal Webshop – it is working with paddle, who acts as a Merchant of Record. That means that you can build your own store on your website with minimal Webshop and Paddle will do the taxes for you (for a minimal fee). You can read more about it here.
Best,
Lana
Thank you, Lana! Many many thanks!
I will look into this matter because I did not know it could work like this.
You’re very welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. I struggled a lot until I found this solution and was so thrilled once I made it work, so I am happy to help 🙂
Also I am happy to find peers who also sell digital products because at the moment I don’t have any network for that and I would love to have other people to discuss the questions, struggles and successes that come with selling digital design products.
Thank you Lana!! Really appreciate you jumping in here and offering such a great option ❤️
Thank you Lisa for starting the conversation and sharing so generously what you learned along your journey ♥️ I am a big fan of yours!
Hi Silvia, I completely understand your position! It can feel very overwhelming dealing with all that. But as Lana recommended (thank you Lana!), there are several options and services out there that will do this for you. Also look at https://www.ecwid.com/automated-taxes and I believe with Shopify they include this feature as well. So this might be an important thing to consider when choosing which platform you’ll host/build your site on.
I personally have my accountant deal with all my VAT and tax obligations – paying him is money well spent! I’m definitely not a tax expert but I do know your location also plays an important role in your tax obligations. I use the built in Woocommerce tax feature.
Hi Lisa, is your main shop on web shop?
Every time Etsy does something to make me question whether I want to be on the platform I wonder whether I should build a shop off of the platform.
Do you love your webshop?
Hi Dvorah, my website is a WordPress website and I use the Woocommerce plugin for my shop. There are good alternatives like Webshop and Ecwid that allow you to embed a shop onto most platforms. So you could have a WordPress site and have your shop on Ecwid that’s embedded. That way you can benefit form the features they offer, like auto vat collection etc.
Lisa, sou artista brasileira e admiro muito seu trabalho. Você usa o WordPress para sua loja online? Recomenda que seja feito com o WordPress? Atualmente uso o Wix para minha loja, no entanto ele só permite download por 30 dias para meus clientes. Poderia falar sobre plataformas onde podemos integrar site e loja? Obrigada!!
Hi Eliana,
Yes I use WordPress and Woocommerce. I don’t know enough detail about all the other platforms available as there are SO many out there. But when choosing a platform, if you decide to move, you need to work through all the factors that are important to your business and make sure the platform is suited. You have a great advantage because you already have experience running an online shop, so you know what’s important and what functionality etc you need. In my next article, I’ll include some areas to think about when choosing a platform.
As Lana & Silva said, thank you Lisa for starting the conversation. This couldn’t have come at a better time! Next Friday I start my retirement from working for someone else to working for me. I can’t wait!! This is just what I needed to read!
Whoohoooo!! Super happy for you Jordan! I’m 100% sure you’re going to love building your own brand and business. I wish you all the best with that!
Thank you for the encouragement Lisa! I have had a website for some time, but I need to put more work into it and also utilize my mailing list more to connect my followers with my website rather than Etsy. And the tax info is amazingly helpful. I use Squarespace if anyone else would like more information about that let me know. I migrated everything directly from Etsy a long time ago. But I hate adding new products in both places. I wish there was an app for that. Contact me at [email protected] if you’d like to connect about squarespace or just become business friends!
That’s super generous of you Robyn!! I’m sure many people will be very grateful for advice on Squarespace!
I use to do the same with sending people to my other shops because my first site didn’t have a shop. But once I had it up and running and poured energy into promoting my own shop, my site really started growing in traffic and sales. It built up to enough sales for me to warrant spending time and money on improving the look and functionality of my site which has evolved so much. It’s definitely a journey, but chipping away a little by little really adds up over time!
PS. Your maps are incredibly gorgeous!! Every thought of teaching a class on how to create such beautiful maps?
Lisa, thank you so much for the post. The topic couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m currently setting up a website with Shopify. I do sell on other platforms. I’m trying to build my audience and I’m hoping this will help. I have been listening to you on The Honest Designers podcast. The topics on the podcast have been a huge help for someone starting out. Thank you!
Yay!! SO happy you’ve started your website journey! With time and dedication, you can definitely grow your audience. Glad the podcast has been helpful xx
This has come at just the opportune time. I’m being tinkering with wix , square space, shopify and not sure where to start but I’m also interested in physical products.
This tax info. is great to know from the beginning. Thank you for sharing.
So glad this was helpful Navita! Reading your reply reminded me of when I first started, I spent so much time “tinkering”. I had all these ideas and wanted to try EVERYTHING! I think I opened a shop on Redbubble, Society 6, Shopify etc. I was all over the place! What I did learn from all that is, although it would be fantastic to have all these wonderful different products, it’s best to stick with one type of offering, i.e. choose between digital or physical. The reason is the audience for those different types of products are very different, focusing on one niche is much easier and also yields better results because your time spent on building your brand and getting found will be to one focused group of target people. Spreading yourself too thin means you might “water down” your efforts. Hope that helps!
Me encanto el tema, precisamente yo me lance al abismo de las webs y lo he hecho sola y me va de maravilla, claro aun creando mi mundo y lo principal es perder el miedo a que algun dia tengas exito! jijiji
Sabes lisa me encantaría que pudieras tener unos pinceles o arte tipo banners, y mucho más, como el estilo de Easy Peasy animal drawn algo ya semi listo para poner usar en la personalización de la web.
Los fondos todos los tengo, pero algo más delicado… mi caja de deseos jijiji.
Besos y gracias .
Hi Iris, Yay!! Super happy you’re building your own website and that it’s going well! Yes our fears seem to get in the way far too often
I LOVE your idea about ready to edit items for websites, can you elaborate more on that? What particular areas of items would you find helpful? Thank you
Hi Lisa, thank you for this good advice… I sell quite well on Spoonflower but am not sure how I would do that from my own website? I don’t want to have any stock or have to post anything to people. Thanks again, Katherine
Hi Katherine, I’m so happy to read you do well on Spoonflower, I know many artist would be inspired by that! Because your art or product is physical in nature (not digital), you would need to rely on manufacturers or companies that create the product for you. Have you thought of drop shipping? You won’t need to keep stock as they print on demand, plus they do all the shipping for you. Here’s an example of one company that does fabric print-on-demand for you. If you go that route, you can expand into other products, like stationery etc that works great with pattern designs.
Interesting article! Very helpful for artists unsure how to market their products!
Thank you David!
Hi Lisa, firstly, thank you for inspiring us all! I’m so grateful I found you you are truly amazing.
So my question is, how did you get started making your website with WordPress? Did you create it yourself, and if so, can you recommend a great tutorial or guide?
I’m attempting to take the leap and build my own website (more for lack of funds) after many years of putting other things first and I’m just gonna say.. this is scary as heck But to not be creative is not an option. So I’m looking for a way to make my dreams finally happen.
Thank you for helping us all believe it is absolutely possible ❤️
I’m so grateful you found me too! I love connecting with other creatives ❤️
My very first go at designing my website, I did create myself entirely (it wasn’t great but did the job). I used a very simple free WordPress theme and modified it to suit my needs. I can’t recall off-hand which tutorials I watched but I essentially just Googled my question every time I got stuck – I still do. I watched A LOT of YouTube tuts
Then my next phase (when I started earning more from my art business and could justify the expense) was to hire a company to build my site using my new designs. In this phase I designed each page in Adobe Illustrator, did all my drawings etc and layout for how I wanted my site to look, then asked the web developer to use my design and create my new WordPress website.
The next (and hopefully last) phase which is what my site looks like today, I did a similar thing, which was design in Adobe Illustrator, then used the Divi Theme to start building it and translate all my ideas and designs into a working site. This I did about 90% myself watching many Divi tutorials on YouTube and the Divi site. I asked a web developer to help with tricky stuff like transferring my staging site to live etc. and other tech stuff. I was able to tackle it due to my years of forcing myself to learn some coding and figuring problems out myself instead of just asking a developer. It does take perseverance and patience but for me it’s SO worth it because I do everything myself now and can change whatever I want, when I want Hope that helps!
Yes that helped a heap!! Thank you so much Lisa ❤️
Oh this is such an inspiration blog. I have a blog but I hardly use it— it’s true that my efforts go so much into social media posting that I often forget to draw the traffic into my sites. Really helpful insights!! Loving this series
Glad you found it helpful! It’s a good exercise to review whether your social shares are translating into actual sales/customers. Although posting on social can grow your audience, it’s good to be mindful of which efforts are actually yielding results to grow your business/income/customer base etc. And then do more of that!
This is so timely for me! I have a tiny little website (Google Sites) that is simply a placeholder for the moment and links to the products I currently offer on Zazzle. I’ve been considering also doing a Society6 shop as well. Benefits are – they take care of everything while I am getting my portfolio and collections together. Downside? The royalties aren’t great, and the marketing I need to do is a pain in the butt – and I haven’t started with that yet.
So far, I’ve made a whopping 4 sales – 3 to family…! LOL! I have big goals but am learning as I go – kind of how I learned with my first business 28 yrs ago (completely different field but did all my own marketing and website design – so I can do it…lol!). I really do NOT want to do the fits and spurts and reworking of things like I had to in my other business. And this field of artistry being so very different from my last business leaves me feeling like a total newbie! lol!
Today was a day I had set aside to take a closer look at what I am doing, is it working, what do I need to do to work smarter, not harder…And, I just recently found your blog and really appreciate the insights you are offering. I look forward to learning more! Thank you!!
Lisa, I found you on DesignCuts, have bought several of your design products (especially love the Nitty Gritty brushes for Procreate), and decided to search for you outside of that, and here you are! I’m an analogue and digital collage artist considering getting an e-commerce site, so all of these comments are so helpful. Thank you!
Hi Marjorie! Thank you so much for your support, I’m super happy you are enjoying the Nitty Gritty brushes! Glad you decided to come visit me here So glad you found the comments helpful ❤️
Hi Lisa! Thank you so much for always answering the questions, and concerns, in my head! I really appreciate your willingness to help other creatives! I think I found you through one of your blog posts on Advice for an Online Art Business. Your encouragement and advice definitely made me rethink many things! I had a Digital Business for a few years (currently on pause) but became so frustrated and disgusted by all the theft from both individuals as well as other countries and companies. I felt defeated and shut down. I pivoted to physical products but that has become more than I could have prepared for. After reading your advice post and now this one, I am making strides to reopen my digital shop and create new product lines! I’ve purchased several of your brushes over time, and truly feel, with your products and instruction, I have become a better illustrator! It’s my passion and I can’t imagine ever doing anything else so you have been an amazing support for me! Would you ever consider mentoring?
Thank you Dina! What a wonderful comment! Thank you for sharing your story, I know others will find it helpful. Yes physical products can be a challenge having gone down that road myself There will always be dishonest people sadly, but it’s important that we don’t let them steal our desire to share our art (even if they steal our work for their own benefit). The world needs more joyful art now more than ever! I wish I could offer mentorship but unfortunately I just don’t have the available time, being a one-woman-show for my business just seems to take up all my time. Best of luck with your new website!❤️