Alternatives to Ebay for Selling Bead Jewelry Online

Everyone has heard of the online auction site eBay, but not everyone has had the best luck selling bead jewelry on it. I’m one of those people. I find that it’s just too difficult to compete with the other bead jewelry artists in pricing and quality.

For bead jewelry artists who don’t want to start their own website or those who want to sell online through other means, there are plenty of options. There are really two kinds of online sales sites.

1. Online stores allow you to display your wares and sell them for a set price.
2. Auction sites allow you to put up your pieces for “auction” for a limited time and allow potential buyers to bid the price up, with the highest bidder buying your jewelry.

There are pros and cons to each, but I’ve generally found that online stores are easier to manage because you’re not constantly monitoring auctions and timing and pricings.

Here are a few alternative sites I’ve looked at for buying and selling bead jewelry. Feel free to post your own experiences with some of these sites!

Etsy.com – One of the largest and most well-known sites designed for selling handmade arts and bead jewelry. Etsy allows you to build your own web page where you can sell your designs, promote yourself and even track how many people have viewed your items. It’s a pretty big site now and there seem to be a lot more sellers than actual buyers. There’s also a LOT of competition on the site now. Etsy has some neat shopping features, including shopping by color and by time period. Some of the features work better than others. Etsy makes money by charging a small commission on each jewelry sale.

Ebeadmarket.com - This is one of the newer jewelry selling sites that has been put together by some bead industry veterans. Like etsy you can build your own online jewelry store here, but unlike etsy this entire site specializes in nothing but bead jewelry. I think the design of the site is a little outdated and I’m not really sure how many pieces are really selling. There is a yearly membership fee and a few other percentage fees that seem a little steep to me.

Ioffer.com – Not really a site designed for bead jewelry, but I’ve seen some people selling some amazing custom-made beaded pieces here. It’s not really an auction site, but rather like big yard sale where you set a price but people can make counter-offers and negotiate a price.

Artbyus.com – The main focus of this auction site seems to be wall art, but they have a section for jewelry, and most of it appears to be beaded. They are a traditional auction site that works in very much the same way as eBay.

Artsefest.com – An online electronic artsfest, this site has lots of different categories for sellers to display and sell their wares. You can set up your own bead jewelry store here and sell items at a set price. They charge a monthly fee for having your online store here. They’re really aiming for the artisan who doesn’t want to set up his or her own jewelry website from scratch.

Justbeads.com – Here’s a great idea for a jewelry beading auction site: don’t just focus on selling finished jewelry pieces, but also focus on selling the beads themselves! If you’re looking to buy beads in bulk and don’t mind spending some time looking around you can find some pretty good deals here. One of the owners of a local jewelry store here told me she sometimes buys her supplies from justbeads.com if the deal is just too good pass up.

Good luck with your online sales! Don’t get discouraged! Sometimes it takes a lot of time to find the right audience for your beautiful work!

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