Which hosting plan for a craft or handmade business: Instagram, WhatsApp and a simple shop

Choosing the Right Plan··· 267 views· 3 min read

The short answer: many craft businesses start on Instagram and WhatsApp, and do not need a big shop on day one. A simple site with photographs, prices and a WhatsApp button already brings customers who do not know you from social media, and the entry plan is enough. When orders grow and you want to take payment on the site, you move to a shop.

What weighs, and what does not

Part of the site What to do
Photographs The sale is made through the image. Good light, a plain background and all of them shrunk: Image optimisation.
Prices and timings As text: the price, the size, how long it takes to make. If each piece is unique, say so.
Orders By WhatsApp, with the piece’s name already written in the message: Putting WhatsApp on your site. You can add the WhatsApp Business catalogue: The WhatsApp Business catalogue.
Instagram Put on the site what social networks do not keep: the story, the prices, how to order and how to reach you.
Payments Agree how to pay with each customer. When you want payments on the site, it is already a shop: An online shop with local payment methods.

How to choose, step by step

1 Start with the entry plan and a site of a few pages: pieces, about, how to order.
2 Photograph with a method: the same light, the same background, so the site looks like one thing.
3 Put the WhatsApp button on every piece.
4 Link the site to your social media and social media to the site.
5 Move to a shop when orders by message are too many to manage: Which plan for a shop.
Give the true lead time. A handmade piece takes time, and a customer who knows how long is satisfied; one who does not know grows suspicious.
Keep the original photographs somewhere safe, besides your phone: see Making and keeping your own backup.

Want to put your craft business online? Tell us what you make and how people order from you today.

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In our plans

SituationPlanWhy
Start: a few pages with pieces, prices, how to order and a WhatsApp buttonPro1 site, 10 GB NVMe SSD and unlimited e-mail accounts on your own domain
A simple shop with payments on the site, or a second brandPlus6 sites, 20 GB NVMe SSD and unlimited databases for the shop
A shop with many pieces and many photos per pieceUltra or Businessunlimited sites and 30 to 200 GB NVMe SSD

WHEN TO MOVE UP: Move up when the orders by message are too many to manage and you set up a shop, when the photos of the pieces fill the 10 GB (Disk Usage in cPanel shows it), or when you want a separate site for another line of products. Moving up can be done at any time and the site is not lost.

SEE ALSO

Setting up a product catalogue in the WhatsApp Business app

Putting WhatsApp on your site: the link, the button and the ready-written message

An online shop with local payment methods: WooCommerce and getting paid

Which hosting plan for an online shop, and the signs it needs more

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