I’d been looking for an online selling platform for a while when I came across Crafter’s Market UK. I’ve got an Etsy shop (well, two actually – one for Helena Handcart and one for everything else) and while Etsy’s customer base and reach is huge, the fees are a bit eye-watering and you can sometimes feel lost amongst the crowd. A tiny voice in a huge (if vibrant) throng. So I was after something different to sit alongside my other shops - something smaller and friendlier and with less of the eye-watering element!

There are a few alternatives out there but when I looked into fees and read reviews, I kept finding things that put me off. And then I found Crafters Market which claims to be:

“Created out of the frustrations of using some of the alternative marketplaces out there, with the aim of establishing a supportive community of likeminded crafters to help one another grow and succeed.”

So far so good…

CMUK is a relatively new platform, having launched earlier this year, but when but when I contacted one of the co-founders, Holly, she was really enthusiastic about what they’d achieved so far:

We launched the website on March 1st and in the 5 short months we've been live our community has gained over 700 vendors and over 4000 products. Our site visits are also improving month on month, with July seeing over 10 thousand unique visitors!

Crafter's Market UK has been an exciting adventure and we are very proud of the accomplishments we've made so far. Like optimising the site for Google Shopping and enabling vendors to connect their CMUK stores with Facebook & Instagram shopping. We can't wait to see how things unfold from here!

Holly was also keen to highlight that, through an agreement with Ecologi UK, for every order placed on the Crafters Market site, a tree is planted. Pretty awesome, right?

Their fee structure is also really simple and very good value, in fact you can set up a shop entirely for free (no listings or set up fees) and the only costs you will pay are 5% on sales and the payment processing fee (which is charged by the payment provider). Brilliantly, they also have a ‘fee calculator’ on their website that you can enter your selling price into and it tells you exactly how much profit you will be left with on each sale. As anyone who’s sat chewing a pen and scratching their head in frustration trying to work out all the different Etsy fees will attest to, this a total breath of fresh air!

The free account looks good but does have limits - number of products being one so I went for the ‘Plus’ account which is £5 a month to list as many items as you want and with no percentage taken on sales. Yes, none at all. Of course the upfront fee does take away the ‘free to set up’ aspect but alongside the community elements, it seemed like a good offer to me, so I went ahead and set up a shop.

And… so far so good! It’s been great to have somewhere where I can have all my products (cards, jewellery, mugs, magnets, notebooks and prints) in one place and to be able to list my full range without having to pay individual listing (and re-listing) fees regardless of how fast an item sells. The whole experience feels organised, transparent and straightforward which is always good!

And the community element is lovely too. The site has a Facebook group where people are friendly and chat about many aspects of crafting, designing and running small businesses, and the two co-founders are always on the end of messages to answer any questions. Holly, in particular, has been brilliantly supportive.

It’s also felt good to join a smaller site with a more engaged community and founders who take the time to promote everyone’s shops. They've already featured my products on their Instagram feed several times and highlighted me under ‘editors picks’ on their home page.

I’m also impressed by the quality of the work on the site - from a customer perspective you could spend many hours browsing and come away inspired and with virtual shopping bags bulging (and your wallet a little lighter!) I’ve been sharing some fellow crafters’ work in my instagram stories so keep an eye out if you want to see more inspiring examples.

Of course it will be a while yet before I have any sense of how my shop might go long term but I’m pleased to find a somewhere I feel linked to a community of craftspeople and creatives. If you’re looking for somewhere to sell your own creations, I definitely recommend checking Crafter’s Market UK out and if you’re on the look out for special hand crafted/designed gifts I’d urge you to pay the site a visit.

Oh, and if you’re a fellow shop owner, give me a shout on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and we can link up - after all, helping each other grow and succeed is part of what Crafter’s Market UK is all about :)

P.S I've just (since writing this) signed up to become a Crafter's Market affiliate so if you’re thinking of setting up an account having read this post then please follow this link. It means I get a commission (at no extra cost to you) - thanks so much!