Seller Handbook
Everything we have learned about selling handmade, in one place. Written from real orders on this site — what makes a listing sell, what makes a buyer angry, and what to do when something goes wrong.
Photos decide it
- Daylight, plain background, no filter. Handmade sells on texture. A filter hides the exact thing the buyer is paying for.
- Show scale. A hand, a mug, a coin. “Small” means nothing on a screen.
- Show the back and the seam. Buyers who look closely are buyers who do not return things.
- If it can be personalized, show it personalized. A blanket with a real name stitched on outsells a blank one by a wide margin.
Titles people actually type
Write the title the way a shopper would say it out loud: what it is — who it is for — what makes it different.
Weak: “Handmade Blanket”
Strong: “Chunky Crochet Baby Blanket, Personalized With Baby’s Name, Made to Order”
Making time is a promise
Whatever number you put on a listing becomes a date on the buyer’s order page and in their inbox. Pad it. A piece that arrives early is a five-star review; a piece that arrives one day late is a support ticket.
Shipping times used across the site come from one shared source, so what you promise and what the buyer is told can never drift apart. See Shipping & Delivery.
Personalization is where the money is
- Copy the buyer letter for letter. GRACE and Grace are two different pieces. If it looks like a typo, ask — do not guess.
- Send a proof for anything with a name, date, or message. Most buyers approve the same day, and a proof turns a possible refund into a happy delivery.
- Personalized work is final sale — and that is exactly why the proof matters. More than four in ten personalization problems come from a typo that a proof would have caught.
Answering buyers
- Answer within one business day, even if the answer is “let me check and come back tomorrow.”
- If you are behind, say so before the buyer asks. Nobody has ever cancelled an order because a maker was honest early.
- Never argue in a review reply. Fix it in messages; reply to the review in one calm sentence.
When something goes wrong
- 1Damaged in transitAsk for a photo, remake or refund, claim the postage separately. Do not make the buyer chase the carrier.
- 2Lost parcelWait out the carrier window, then remake or refund. Ettee Purchase Protection covers the buyer either way.
- 3Your mistakeRemake it and cover the return. It costs less than the review does.
The buyer-facing version of these rules is on Returns & Refunds and Ettee Purchase Protection. Read them — that is what your buyer has read.
Selling into the holidays
- Handmade demand does not build slowly in the autumn. It arrives in a wall, usually six weeks before the date.
- Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, is the single biggest day of the year for shops this size. Have stock ready and your making time honest.
- Post your cut-off dates early and hold them. Our published ones are on Shipping Deadlines.
