Craft malls is a fairly new idea for selling and marketing your craft products. As the name suggests the idea behind it is the same as for a general shopping mall. It is all about setting your craft under a professional and organised platform. You will need to take up space on rent or lease in craft malls and pay for setting up of your space. This will include decoration and furnishing. The advantages of selling in craft malls is that not only does your craft gets sold in a professional environment that provides all amenities that are modern buyer requires such as air-conditioning, restrooms, refreshments etc but you also get to have the potential of setting nationwide.

Major craft malls operate as a chain all across the nation or at least in cities that have the potential of being a major market. While some malls require your physical presence most of the professional ones will send your product for you. Once you have rented out your space and done it up in the fashion that you wish all you need to do is keep supplying them with your products as required.

If you are thinking of selling in craft mall then you will need to verify the credibility of the mall itself. Asking the mall owners on a list of the crafters that are renting out with them is a good idea. You can gain to their idea of the credibility of the malls by judging the success of the people who are already doing business with them. Ideally you should look for malls that three to five years in business. This would prove there is stability and success in selling other people’s crafts.
While getting into signing up a lease with a craft mall for the first time it is a good idea to sign up for the minimum amount of time possible. This will help you gauge the business potential with the minimum lock in of investment.

Craft Malls:

Crafters Market Place and Gifts1403 West Glen Ave.
Peoria, IL 61614
309/692-7238
Call for an information package

Apple Tree Mall
1830 W. Hwy 76
POB 1336
Branson, MO 65616
Call for an information package

A Few Online Craft Malls:

Internet craft malls

This is the same concept has the regular craft malls only that it is a marketplace that is on the Internet. The obvious advantage of having a store on the Internet is that you have the potential of reaching millions of buyers not just all over the country about all over the world. The rules about finding the right craft malls for a product the same as they are with the regular craft malls. You need to contact the buyer of the malls and check the credibility of the store. A moral owner with experience in the crafting business is always preferred.
It gets a little harder to verify the number of people who are actually visiting a particular online store. In order to get a substantial amount of buyers to any online stores requires marketing and advertising. Ask the owner of the store questions pertaining to the marketing tactics used by them and the number of hits that their website receives. Marketing online for online products requires the degree of expertise and professional knowledge. Enquire about the professionals engaged in achieving this or that particular mall.

It is common not to meet the owners of online craft malls personally. You may need to send in your craft for reviewing by the mall before they decide to put it up for you in their online store. This is a normal process.

A few online craft malls:

The Crafters Market Place

http://www.crafters.ca/

Coomers Craft Mall Online

http://www.procrafter.com:80/

Quilted Bear
http://www.quilted bear.com/

A World of Crafts

http://www.craft.com/menu.html

The Handmade in America Show
Free space to crafters

http://www.craft-fair.com/