The best online platform for selling Pottery!

The title is catchy and got your attention, but the answer isn’t 100% straight forward as it depends a little bit on how involved you want to be and how much you have to spend. If your budget is low, and when I say low, I mean less than £1,000, I would say you need to be doing the majority of the work yourself. If your budget is modest and £1,000 or more, then you can consider employing the skills of a website designer or agency similar to myself. Let’s look at each of these in detail – and see which is best for your business. 

Do it yourself < £1,000 budget:

If your intention or budget is steering you towards a do-it-yourself approach, don’t be scared – there’s a number of platforms out there, which are very user friendly – making it possible for the least experienced to create a nice attractive website which with the right content will result in selling items and finding returning customers.  The main platforms for this are:

• Etsy – Simple, Fast and Cheap
• Wix – Easy and Flexible
• Squarespace – Great templates and simple stores
• Shopify – Best online selling tools, but not geared for beginners

ETSY

Etsy is US based, works well in the UK and offers a simple and relatively easy and fast to develop and doesn’t have a fixed monthly subscription for its basic online marketplace. The downside is that it’s pay-as-you-sell, with fees taken per item and per sale instead:

• Listing fee: ~$0.20 USD (~£0.15) per item per 4-month listing

• Transaction fee: 6.5% of the sale value

• Payment processing: ~4% + £0.20 per sale (UK)

• Optional Etsy Plus subscription: ~US$10/month (~£7.50) for enhanced features

Etsy doesn’t charge a dedicated monthly cost just to list.  So, you pay listing + transaction + processing fees as you sell.

This can work well for some businesses especially craft businesses like pottery, where the value of the item can cover the ETSY overhead costs. It’s an ideal starting point, but not very sustainable as your business grows and you lose up to 8-10% in fees.

WIX

Wix is also US based and works well in the UK. It doesn’t have a free ecommerce option — you need a paid plan to sell products. Typical monthly pricing (paid monthly) is:

• Business / eCommerce plans: ~£16–£36/month depending on tier and features (e.g., inventory limits, abandoned carts, multi-currency)  

You can start with cheaper plans, but real selling features begin at the Business plan level, often around £16–£36/month.

Wix is a great all-round solution, offering a number of attractive templates as well as AI generation. It can seem a little daunting to begin, but If you have the time it’s well worth learning.

Squarespace

Squarespace has a few ecommerce options, typically:

• Business: ~£17–£24/month

• Commerce Basic: ~£23–£28/month

• Commerce Advanced: ~£35–£43/month

Squarespace usually offers yearly billing discounts, but these figures are a good ballpark for monthly costs.

SquareSpace is a great all-round alternative to Wix. They both offer great options, but the templates are quite different, so it’s down to personal favourites which you prefer. 

Shopify

Shopify’s pricing for a standalone shop is slightly higher but very robust for selling and scaling:

• Basic Shopify: ~£19–£25/month (billed annually or monthly)

• Shopify (mid tier): ~£49–£65/month

• Advanced: ~£259–£344/month

• Shopify Plus (enterprise): £2,000+/mo+ for large operations

Basic Shopify lets you run a full shop with unlimited products, payments and POS point-of-sales which is ideal for smaller shops which are expanding to online — but add-ons and apps can push your real cost higher. I would only recommend this to established businesses.