Handmade Selling Platform Amazon Handmade Review

AMAZON HANDMADE   - is it a good selling platform for handmade products?

A Handcrafted Business Walk Through & Review

It's the turn of the giant Handmade Selling Platform Amazon Handmade.  Amazon Handmade launched in 2015. It's a store within a store at Amazon.co.uk that only stocks goods from handcrafters that have been accepted to sell there.

Handmade Marketplace Reviews by Tracey Phillips.

Tracey is  Jewellery Designer at Bright Shiny Objects and Handmade Marketplace Reviewer too!

"I've been tasked with trialing out about the various selling platforms available for us handcrafters, makers, designers and artists, and sharing my experiences with you.
I already sell on Etsy which is probably the most recognised platform, so it is a great chance to try a few others."

Tracy

How It Works

To apply to sell on Handmade at Amazon you’ll need to complete an application form which according to Amazon will take about 30 minutes.

It starts as you'd expect with the usual name and address, if you already have an Amazon seller account, you'll need to enter your current username and password.

They want details of any existing platforms you sell on such as a website URL.

You will also need three photos of your products, a photo and description of your production process and a photo of your workspace.

Now this is where I struggle; my usual workspace is on my lap on my sofa, I’m not sure they want a photo of that! And I'm not sure that will fill my customers with joy either.

So, I had to mock up a table workbench!

I think it looks ok, considering.

Tip: when in doubt go close up!

They also want to know:

- if any of your components are mass produced ( for me it's jump rings and clasps),
- how many products you can make in a week, and
- the average time taken to make a product.

That's it!

Click submit application and you get a code that you can use to check the process of your application.

An Amazon team member reviews your application and you get informed within a week whether you've been successful or not.

Hopefully I will get in or this will be the shortest series of blog posts ever!

I'll keep you updated.

   Well that didn’t take long!

The very next day I received an email telling me I’d been accepted, so now for the next step which is to register.

How you register for Handmade at Amazon depends on whether you’ve sold on Amazon before and, if you have, what type of account you have.

I have a seller account already so hopefully it may be a shorter process (she says….hopefully!)

Currently I have an individual selling account so the first thing I need to do is upgrade it to a professional one…it tells me that there is a £25 monthly charge for this…hmmmm…this is supposed to be free….

O.K – then it says that:

‘During registration you will be asked for contact information including Credit card, Phone number, Company registration details (if applicable), Primary Contact Person Information, Beneficial Owner Information (if applicable) and Bank Account Information. Don’t worry, the monthly fee is waived for Handmade sellers so you will not be charged a monthly fee’

Right we’ll see….. click upgrade and it says:

‘Sell your products in our Handmade marketplace and share your Artisan story with tens of millions of customers. For a limited time, your £25 monthly Selling on Amazon fee will be waived when certain conditions met. Learn more.’

Yep, sound good, click on learn more… ‘There was an error displaying this topic’. I’m getting a bit fed up now, I only want to know what the conditions are!

Searching on Google I’ve found this info:

‘Registering for Amazon Handmade comes with a free Professional selling plan. If you currently have, or previously had, a Professional selling plan, you might be eligible for the free Professional selling plan if you are a Professional seller who sells primarily on Handmade and does not sell more than 40 non-handmade products in categories other than Amazon Handmade in a given month on your Handmade account. If you currently have an Individual selling plan, you must upgrade to a Professional selling plan first before continuing with your Amazon Handmade registration. Selling more than 40 non-handmade products in different categories on your Handmade account will result in you being subject to the monthly fee of $39.99, as outlined in the seller agreement. The current $39.99 monthly Professional selling plan subscription fee is waived through December 31, 2019 for Amazon Handmade artisans.’

I will leave myself a reminder to check this next December, I don’t want any surprise charges for Christmas 2019. 

[2020 UPDATE:  Amazon have updated the Handmade Fees information to say: "Joining Handmade, creating your shop, and listing products is free. When you make a sale, Handmade will deduct a 12% referral fee. The reduction of the referral fee from 15% to 12% applies until 31 December 2021. 

During registration, you will register with a Professional Selling plan that provides you with Handmade specific tools and support to grow your business. While the Professional Selling plan costs £25 per month for an Amazon Seller, this monthly fee is waived for Handmade Artisans."]

So finally I get to click register, that done I go to my dashboard to be greeted by a balance of -£30….

I panic for a moment until it sinks in that it’s a minus in front. Going into the payments account I can see that there is a credit of £30 for ‘product refunds’. I’m assuming that they credit the seller account fees before they are due to be taken…odd way of doing things!

I’ve got a headache now….hopefully listing products will be simpler than this….

I think I’ll leave that for the next part in the Amazon Review

This is pretty easy, so far so good.

I’ve managed to set up the shipping profiles, it was pretty easy and made sense. So now just have to sort descriptions and locate the photos that I took of the products for Etsy…..urgh, this is going to take a while.

Wish there was someone to do this for me…..

….this is when the light-bulb lit up ( well a faint glow anyway).

There is a fab website called Fiverr.com where you can find people to pay to do all those jobs you don’t want to do (not housework unfortunately!).

I found a seller offering the ‘gig’ I needed, he was offering to copy 10 listings from Etsy to Amazon – titles, descriptions, all photos, everything for $12 (about £9.90)

I figure once I have ten listings on there, a lot of my products are the same, just different years etc (sixpence coin charms for weddings) so I can then duplicate and just change the dates.

I had to give him my Etsy and Amazon handmade log in details, normally I would be a bit suspect about this but I’ve used the site before for website work with no issues (obviously you do it at your own risk!)

Just 2 hours later (would have been faster if he didn't have to keep messaging me for the 2 step log in text code for Amazon) the job was completed.

It would have taken me at least that to get 10 products listed, mainly because I would have been doing lots of other tasks to put off doing it!

Of course you can do it yourself but thought I’d give you another option in case you need that kick up the bum to get you started and your shop open.

Now I will be busy listing more items and I’ll let you know how it’s going in the near future

Gwood news is I had my first order!
That was quicker than I expected!

Bad news is that a rookie error meant I neglected to notice that the imported products from Etsy didn’t automatically use my shipping profile. I have unwittingly offered free postage, but hopefully that means you won't!

Not a disaster but annoying! All sorted now though.

If you have a similar problem first you need to set up your shipping settings (top right of page – settings – shipping settings).

Then you need to click on the item in your inventory, click on additional info, scroll right down to the bottom and there you have the drop down box to choose your ‘merchant shipping group’ which is the shipping profile you set up earlier.

Fulfiling the order is very much like Etsy. You can print out a packing label, and then just mark it as fulfilled once the order is posted.

I’m pretty impressed so far.
I’m not working the platform, or applying any tactics. I’ve basically copied my exact listings off Etsy and I am letting Amazon Handmade work it's own magic.

It is really interesting to see how it will all work out.

A few weeks have passed now. So, what’s happened?

Well I have had seven sales which I am really happy with and isn’t bad for a brand new shop on a new platform. Especially a shop which isn’t trying to work the system.

You do have to check your emails regularly, as you are only sent an email for each sale and you don't get a cha-ching sound sadly. (I do love that with Etsy)
But the good news is you don’t have to relist, (well only when a product is sold out) and you just get charged when you sell something

Whether I will carry on with Amazon handmade when the free trial is over (Dec 2019) will remain to be seen, it will all depend on the sales if it is worth paying $39.99 a month to stay selling on there. But at the moment I’m quite happy so why don’t you give it a go! There’s nothing to lose at the moment!

May 2019 update!

I’ve been on Amazon Handmade for 4 months now. I am getting about 6 orders per week (I’ve got about 55 products listed now) so it is worthwhile.
I am sure if I ‘worked the system, and figured out all the tactics, then I could get more. But for now, it takes no effort which is fantastic.

The only thing I have done in the last few weeks, is use the £20 free advertising thingy (technical term) they gave me, I spent about £7 of it and got £39.50 in sales.

I am still aware that Amazon is due to start charging $39.99 a month, so then I will evaluate again.

January 2020 Update - where has time flown to?

Amazon Handmade waived the monthly fee again for Handmade Artisans so I decided to stay as the sales are flying in. This seems to be an indefinite change, They have announced the reduction of referral fee (I didn't realise it was a reduced rate) may end on 31 December 2021. So we will see how it is going then.

I've found it relatively easy to use both to set up and to process orders etc.

In the few months I have been using it it has overtaken Etsy to become my top selling platform so I would recommend giving it a go!

I'm really glad I tested it out!

July 2025 - updates

To join Amazon, Amazon Handmade Artisans page says:

"Joining Handmade, creating your shop, and listing products is free.
When you make a sale, Handmade will deduct a 12.24% referral fee.

During registration, you will register with a Professional selling plan that provides you with Handmade-specific tools and support to grow your business. While the Professional selling plan costs £25 per month for an Amazon Selling partner, this monthly fee is waived for approved Handmade applicants after the first month."

Final Notes on selling your products with Amazon Handmade

Amazon has a very large customer base and built in trust, so selling on Amazon Handmade can be profitable. However you do need to take a strategic approach as it’s a very competitive platform, customers expect fast deliveries and referral fees are high.

Pros:

Large Customer Base:
Amazon boasts a massive global audience who buy regularly - all sellers have the opportunity to be seen by these potential buyers. exposure to potential buyers.

Built-in Trust:
Amazon's reputation for reliability, fast delivery and customer service can boost buyer confidence to buy products, including handmade products. Amazon customers tend to rely on finding the product they want on Amazon, rather than looking elsewhere.

Fulfillment Options:
Sellers can choose between Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) for convenient and fast shipping or Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) if they prefer to handle shipping themselves.

Cons:

Strict Approval Process:
Amazon uses an application process to join Handmade to vet and approve sellers, you need to be able to provide the required documentation. Not all sellers are approved.

Competition:
Amazon Handmade is a very competitive marketplace due to its large audience base. Therefore sellers need to stand out by differentiating products and marketing strategically.

Customer Expectations:
Amazon customers expect fast delivery and easy returns, they do not buy a product because it is handmade. They buy because they like it and for convenience and ease.

Amazon Expectations:
Amazon has strict listing policies and requirements, limited, which may not suit all handmade sellers. You can see the details from Amazons Seller Central here.

Tips for Selling Products On Amazon Handmade

Use High-Quality Photos and Descriptions on your Product Detail Page:
Provide clear, quality images to attract your customers, and clear descriptions providing them with all the information they need in order to buy.

Show off your USP:
Demonstrate and tell Amazon buyers should buy from you, right now, today.

Know Your Niche:
Tailor your products and marketing directly to your niche audience - they are the only people you need to please (as well as Amazon).

Overall, Amazon Handmade provides an opportunity for artisans to be in front of their potential customers at a point when intent to buy is high, while ‘borrowing’ the trust of buying through Amazon.

For some handmade sellers it’s a goldmine, for others it's a nightmare.

You have to be strategic, and play by Amazon’s rules to make the most of the opportunity.

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