Shopify blog
If you have a passion for handmade goods and solid craftsmanship, you’re not alone. Data from Grandview Research projects the handicrafts market to grow from $740 billion in 2024 to $983 billion in 2030.
Whether you want to sell artisans’ handmade goods or your own, now is a good time to start. According to a survey conducted by Shopify and The Harris Poll, 86% of entrepreneurs in the US say ecommerce platforms have made it easier to start a business now compared to a decade ago.*
In this article, learn about the value of craftsmanship, see examples of quality craftsmanship in ecommerce, and find out where you can sell your handcrafted items.
What is craftsmanship?
Craftsmanship is the skill, artistry, and meticulous work involved in creating things, frequently by hand. The term often speaks to the maker’s precision, expertise, and care. The work that goes into a high-quality artisanal product can distinguish it from mass-produced goods.
What is the value of craftsmanship?
Ecommerce businesses who sell handcrafted goods can anchor their brand by leaning into these four values:
Product quality and durability
Good craftsmanship aims to create higher-quality products with a longer lifespan than mass produced goods.
For example, luxury footwear brand Scarlett Chase, works with artisans in Spain, Italy, and Portugal to manufacture shoes built to last. The company uses premium natural leather and durable components, like heels and toe caps, and says every pair is handmade by a skilled artisan.
As part of their marketing strategy, the brand educates their customers on why it’s worth investing in their shoes.
“It’s really about helping them understand and educating [them] on the value of having good-quality, supportive footwear instead of buying 10 pairs of cheap things that they’re not going to use,” says Founder Sandra Powers Murphy on an episode of Shopify Masters.
Ties to history and craft tradition
Time-honored workmanship can help you stand out in your niche—and you don’t have to sell traditional crafts to differentiate this way. Take Compartés Chocolate, who is still using the same techniques they used when the brand launched in the 1950s.
“I inherited all the old-fashioned ways of making it, which is by hand, with old-fashioned equipment, with humans. No conveyor belts. No robots. And it’s worked,” says CEO and Creative Director Jonathan Grahm on Shopify Masters. “It’s the time tested, time honored, traditional way of making chocolate.”
By making chocolate by hand, the brand is able to have chunks of ingredients in their bars, like pretzels, cookies, or dried berries. “Most brands [use] equipment that has the chocolate in a piping system, and it shoots it into the mold,” Jonathan says. “The chunk would get stuck in the pipe and that would be it. [But] we’re doing it all by hand.”
Uniqueness
Handmade goods are, by nature, unique, and some makers highlight these distinguishing marks. Ceramics brand Glaze Me Pretty uses crystalline glazes that give each piece a distinct look.
“Crystallization happens during the firing, so I don’t have full control,” Founder Raquel Acosta says on Shopify Masters. “That means every piece is completely unique.”
This is something the brand highlights on their product pages. For example, the description for a butter dish reads, “Glazed with a beautiful crystalline glaze, each butter keeper has a unique pattern of blue crystals over an amber background. No two are ever the same!”
Source: Glaze Me PrettyCustomer satisfaction
Great craftsmanship can lead to happy customers. This was something Byron Peart, entrepreneur and cofounder of handmade home goods brand Goodee, saw firsthand when chatting with a customer. Before starting Goodee, Byron and brother Dexter had founded Want Les Essentiels, a luxury bag brand focused on high-quality craftsmanship.
“A woman … tapped me on the shoulder and pulled out her Want bag, a bag that we had produced probably 12, 13, or 14 years ago,” Byron says on Shopify Masters. “She said, ’I just want to let you know that this is my favorite bag, and I have eight of them.”
She explained that since she had bought a new home, she planned to purchase products from Goodee because she already knew the items would be long-lasting. “There’s a promise that we’ve built with real people in the real world,” he says. “Those products have to still work for them after eight years and not fall apart.”
Examples of craftsmanship in ecommerce
When it comes to expertly crafted goods sold online, there’s no shortage of examples. Here are three ecommerce merchants who take pride in craftsmanship.
Crochet by Genna
Crochet by Genna is a small business that produces handmade amigurumi, small, stuffed creatures made of yarn. Genna believes she found her niche in the market because each item is handmade.
“Crochet can’t be mass produced,” Genna says in an interview. “Otherwise you don’t really get that same product.”
On her website, she adds a disclaimer to each product to let customers know that because she makes each plushie, there might be slight differences between the product photo and what they receive.
Hiut Denim
Hiut Denim makes handmade jeans—and only jeans—under the mantra “Do one thing well.” The business is headquartered in a small town in western Wales with a history of working with denim.
After a major factory closed in 2002, Hiut hired the craftspeople who had lost their jobs, many of whom had specialized knowledge and years of experience making jeans by hand, and revamped a local economy in the process.
The brand’s product descriptions show the care that goes into constructing a pair of jeans. They provide information on where they sourced their raw materials and who created the piece. For example, their Grandmaster Rob creates and rinse-washes The Edna jeans.
Artisaire
Artisaire makes wedding invitations, cards, and other stationery, but they have developed a reputation for their elegantly crafted wax seals. To create the seals, their team individually stamps a customer’s design into real sealing wax. Artisaire also makes wax stamps with their own designs.
In some of their product descriptions, you’ll learn about the inspiration behind the design. For example, Amy Elizabeth Artistry, one of their Creative Community members, created their Alice Single Initial Wax Stamp. She drew inspiration from her grandmother’s floral-patterned crochet quilts.
Places to sell handcrafted items online
If you want to sell your creations online, you have options. You can open your own ecommerce store, where you won’t have to pay a sales commission to other platforms. Or you can try a well-established platform that can immediately get you in front of millions of users.
Here are four options to consider to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey:
Shopify
Shopify is the world’s leading ecommerce platform. With affordable plans, beautiful designs, and powerful selling features, Shopify is the easiest, most reliable way to sell handmade goods online.
Accept payments with Shopify Payments or third-party processors, and use Shopify’s AI store builder and tools to get your site up and running quickly—no coding experience needed.
AI can also help you scale your business in unprecedented ways. According to a Harris Poll survey on behalf of Shopify, between 23% and 33% of business owners and decision makers say AI has let them do things that weren’t possible for them otherwise. And 39% say it reduced the time and effort needed to run their business.*
Use Shopify Sidekick to speed up your store design process and create product listings, then use it for help with pricing, marketing, and data analytics.
Pricing: Plans start at $29 a month with an annual plan.
Etsy
Etsy is a marketplace specifically for handmade, vintage, and unique items. You can market your products directly on Etsy. The platform charges fees for set up, listings, and transactions. If you run on Shopify, you can add Etsy as a sales channel via an app-based integration.
Pricing: There may be a one-time set-up fee, and then there is a 20¢ listing fee for each item and a 6.5% transaction fee.
Amazon Handmade
The Amazon Handmade program is a specific section on the ecommerce platform meant for handmade goods.
To participate as an Amazon Handmade seller at scale, you’ll need to apply for the platform’s Professional selling account. This costs $39.99 per month, but the monthly fee is waived upon approval as a Handmade seller.
Amazon Handmade gives you access to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), where you store products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and Amazon picks, packs, ships, and provides customer service on your behalf.
Amazon Handmade connects to the larger Amazon site, which means you can connect your account to a Shopify store via the Marketplace Connect app. This allows you to run both from your Shopify admin.
Pricing: Monthly fee waived if accepted as a Handmade seller, but there is a referral fee of 15% or 30¢ (depending on which is higher) for every sold item.
Big Cartel
Store-builder Big Cartel is made for craft sellers, entrepreneurs, and creatives who want to sell art online. Big Cartel users can list up to five products on its free plan. It has a user-friendly interface, however there are only 12 templates available for site design, and there’s no AI website builder.
Pricing: Big Cartel has a free version of its product, but you can only list up to five products and include one image per product. Paid plans start at $15 a month.
* Survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Shopify from May 25 to June 8, 2026, among business owners and senior decision makers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and France.
Craftsmanship examples FAQ
How do you sell crafts online?
To sell crafts online, create an online shop with Shopify or join an online selling site or ecommerce marketplace like Etsy or Amazon Handmade. From there, list your handmade products with compelling descriptions and high-quality images and promote them through social media and other channels to reach potential customers.
What are examples of craftsmanship?
Examples of craftsmanship include handmade furniture, jewelry, ceramics, clothing, and leather goods. What these items share in common is an emphasis on skilled, detailed, and high-quality work. They might also feature customization to the buyer, such as engravings, tailoring, and made-to-order pieces.
What is the best site to sell crafts?
If you want to operate your own ecommerce store, Shopify is the best all-in-one solution for building a website, tracking inventory, processing payments, and more. If you want to sell crafts on an existing online marketplace, Amazon Handmade may be the simplest and most straightforward of the major platforms.
