Best way to sell greeting cards online?

January 14, 2022 8:30 AM

A relative designs greeting/holiday cards as a hobby and wants to start selling them online. Google unearths suggestions such as this. But if you have similar experience what's your favorite method?
posted by mono blanco to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

This is a different category, but my reasoning might be handy. I sometimes make premade book covers--covers that self-pubbed/indie authors who want to save a bit of money on a book cover will buy. There are a few sites that allow designers to sell via them, a lot of premade designers sell via their own website, and then there's Etsy, where just a few of us sell.

The premade websites and Etsy both have much better SEO than my own website. Anyone searching online for "premade book covers" is going to find them before they find me. Also, while I design and maintain websites at my day job, I do not want to keep doing that when I go home, so I don't want to have to keep on top of managing the website and whatever ecommerce plugins I want to use.

I moved over to Etsy when one of the premade cover sites I used increased the percentage they take from the final fee. I do not begrudge them this, as I know how much work it is to maintain the sort of thing they're doing, but at the best-selling price point there, I could not justify the drop in profit I'd be making after accounting for my costs and labor. Etsy charges periodic listing fees that are a significant amount less than the fees the premade sites charge, and also handles sales tax, which my state requires be charged on digital items, and is a well-known site that people trust more than J. Random Website.

In your relative's case I expect the biggest concern will be whether they want to hand-make the cards and mail them out personally, or whether they want to just do the design, upload it to a place like Zazzle, and let Zazzle take care of the printing and mailing.
posted by telophase at 10:42 AM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I have used my own site via Shopify, eBay and Etsy. I had the best results with eBay, e.g hundreds sold as opposed to single digits on the other sites. I didn't do a lot with Etsy however so that might have hampered sales.

If she is having them printed - Zazzle has the lowest quality, vista print is a little better, Moo has the highest quality.

It isn't a high-profit experience but if you love small mail and cards you can make a small profit and enjoy the time spent.
posted by mulcahy at 10:52 AM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Many of us shop Etsy precisely because it’s not eBay.
posted by BostonTerrier at 11:11 AM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

If they have a good line, with at least 20+ cards; they can look for card companies that have some commonality and try to sell the the through that distributor.
posted by theora55 at 11:49 AM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]