5 Ways to Stand Out in a Saturated Craft Market

Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Additionally, I may get commissions for purchases made through other affiliate links in this post.

Let’s look at a few different ways to stand out in a saturated craft market.

Surely you’ve noticed that so many crafters buy a Silhouette or a Cricut and then decide to go into business. While I’m one of their (and yours!) biggest fans and cheerleaders, the amount of new home based craft businesses opening in the last few years is high. Unfortunately, this leads to market saturation.

While I’ve warned you before about some of the most overcrowded markets in the past, what do you do if you really want to sell in a saturated market?

5 Ways to Stand Out in a Saturated Craft Market

1. Go Above and Beyond

Think of the last time you had an amazing experience with a company. What made the experience amazing? Was it the personalized customer service? Extras they included with your order? Whatever the reason you loved them, there are two things that are likely to happen: 1) You remember their name and products and 2) You recommend them to others.

Strive to go above and beyond so that you’ll gain word of mouth recommendations.

2. Brand Yourself Well

Of course you’ll need a business name and a logo, but your branding should go beyond that. Branding includes the colors you use in your business, the packaging you create, and the feel of your social media outreach.

When you are selling in a marketplace, like Etsy, your branding must be top notch to stand out among other similar sellers. Remember, you want your customer to remember your business name – not that they purchased it on Etsy.

Here’s an example conversation I see all the time: Person 1: I love your XYZ thing. Where did you get it? Person 2: I got it on Etsy. All the makers out there can groan now. You want your customer to remember that they bought from you – a seller on Etsy – not just Etsy.

Take time to truly invest in your brand.

3. Be Unique – But Not that Unique.

In a saturated market, make your products unique. For example, let’s think towards Christmas. During the Christmas season, many Silhouette and Cricut small businesses make and sell personalized plush elves. If you’d like to jump on this successful bandwagon, consider finding a different blank elf to use to help stand out from everyone else or create a bundled product to attract attention. What you don’t want to do is be too unique. If you’ve identified elves as a product you want to sell – don’t go making Christmas dragons and thinking they will sell.

4. Zero in on Your Niche

I’ve talked niches on the blog before – here and here. If you’ve identified a saturated niche as your thing, you’ll have to work a but harder to get seen. For example, let’s take t-shirts. There are so many creators making and selling t-shirts. So, you’ve got to find yourself in the t-shirt niche by zeroing in on less served markets. (Every niche has less served markets within the niche.) These could be: Group event t-shirts, family reunion t-shirts, cancer survivor t-shirts, occupation related t-shirts, dance team t-shirts, sports mom t-shirts, and so many more. Whatever you decide on, become the expert in it.

5. Watch the Market for New Craft Materials and Use Them

That’s right, if a new material is released and it financially makes sense to use it in your craft business, go for it! Early adapters have the benefit of not having as much competition as there might be after the craft material has been on the market for a year.

As an added bonus, new things often get shared on social media. And, who doesn’t want a little extra social media boost?

Tell me, how do you stand out in a saturated market?