How to Tell if your Craft Business Has Too Many Products

If you’ve been reading my articles for a while, have taken one of my free email courses or have read any of my ebooks, you know I encourage handmade businesses to limit how many products they make and sell.

With me constantly preaching about limiting products, it makes sense that one of the most common questions I get is:

“Am I making too many types of products?”

Although I can’t answer that question for you without gathering information on your revenue, profits, return on investment, etc. I can help you conclude.

*It’s important to know that there really isn’t a “right number” of products to offer. There’s a right number for your business and that number may be higher or lower than what other businesses offer or what I suggest.

Use the following tips to determine if you need to refine your product line.

 

Why you shouldn’t offer too many products

A lot of product variation may attract several shoppers to your craft show booth and keep them there longer as they browse your entire selection.

However, this study proves that too many options result in fewer sales. 

Shoppers become overwhelmed by the number of products and product options and instead of making the hard decision (of which item to buy), they make the easier decision; to walk away and think about it.

I used to think the more products I offered, the more people I could sell to. However, experience has taught me that the opposite is true and that making a wide variety of products eats into my profits and exhausts me. 

If you want to learn more about why too much product variation is bad for business, check out:

• How your Creativity is Killing Sales
• Why Too Many Products Harms Sales

 

How much is too much?

In general, a small handmade business tends to offer too many types of products when they venture into too many categories of products and/or too many subcategories of products or product options.

To build a profitable business, it’s often most beneficial to stick to one category of product, create 1 – 5 types of products (subcategories) within that category, and no more than 5 options in each product.

One Category

In most cases, a handmade business should stick to one product category. Meaning, all of your products fall under one of the common categories:

• • Accessories
  • Art
  • Bath & body
  • Children’s
  • Home décor
  • Jewelry
  • Etc.

As you branch outside of one category, it often requires different materials, tools, skills, etc., which means it’s harder to be efficient and profitable.

 

1 – 5 Subcategories

There are still a lot of products one can make under one category. So to ensure a product line isn’t getting carried away, it helps to stick to 1 – 5 subcategories or types of products. 

Examples of that might look like the following:

• • BATH & BODY category:
    • (1) Bar of soap
    • (2) Hand lotion
    • (3) Toner
  • JEWELRY category:
    • (1) Earrings
    • (2) Rings
    • (3) Necklaces
    • (4) Bracelets
  • ART category
    • (1) Acrylic paintings

 

3 – 5 Product Options

Many makers stick to just a few types of products, but they go wild with the number of options they create in each product (e.g. aprons offered in dozens of color and pattern options).

If you’re going to offer options, sticking to 3 – 5 variations of one product helps ensure your selection doesn’t expand too much. 

For example:

• • BATH & BODY category:
    • (1) Bar of soap
      • (1) Normal skin
      • (2) Dry skin
      • (3) Oily skin
      • (4) Mature skin
    • (2) Hand lotion
      • (1) Normal skin
      • (2) Dry skin
      • (3) Oily skin
      • (4) Mature skin
    • (3) Toner
      • (1) Normal skin
      • (2) Dry skin
      • (3) Oily skin
      • (4) Mature skin

 

Following this guideline will streamline your craft business and make it more profitable.

The more products you make, the more work you create. For each type of product you create you must:

• Buy different materials
• Use different tools and production techniques
• Take photos
• Write descriptions
• Design/buy packaging
• Calculate prices and shipping fees
• Determine how to display and photograph it
• Etc.

That creates a lot of work for one person.

 

5 ways to tell if you’re offering too many products

To help you determine if you’re offering too many types of products or too many options, try answering the following questions.

 

1) Are your products for the same type of customer?

Imagine walking through the mall and noticing an amazing top in a store window. Once you step into the store, you notice that nothing else matches that top and there are only one or two items that match your style.

Suddenly, that top is less appealing. 

On the other hand, if you love everything in the store and the majority of items fit your style, the top becomes more appealing and you’re likely to buy more than one item.

When one of your products catches a shopper’s eye and they stop at your craft show booth or visit your Etsy shop, can they find multiple items that are a fit for them?

Make sure you know who your target market is and that every product you carry is a fit for them.

>> Here’s how to find your target market: How To Find the Correct Target Market for your Craft Business

If the same customer wouldn’t wear/use/consume/display/etc. all of your products, it’s likely you’re offering too many types of products.

 

2) Can your products be used together?

Creating products that complement each other creates cohesion and helps increase sales.

My craft show table started with a mixture of pajama bottoms, handbags, throw pillows, aprons, and mittens. 

None of those items are typically purchased together or used together. 

Even once I focused on bags and wallets/coin purses, I still offered too many variations. The wallets and coin purses didn’t match the purses and larger bags, so they often weren’t purchased together. 

Designing products so they can be used together encourages customers to buy more than one item. 

If someone is shopping for one of your items, would they logically buy your other items at the same time?

 

3) Do your products share a USP?

A USP (unique selling position) is hard to define when there is too much variation from one product to another.

>> Learn more about defining your USP here: How To Find a USP for your Handmade Business

You should be able to clearly summarize what you sell and how it’s different/better in a sentence or two.

An example of a good USP might be: Vegan travel bags. 

That business might create a variety of bags and wallets ideal for travel and smaller items, each made out of faux leather.

If I sell those items in leather, suede, and a variety of other materials, or I also sell pajamas, mittens, and throw pillows, I can no longer use that USP. It also becomes extremely difficult to find a common theme among all those products and clearly explain how my line of products is different.

You may be offering too many products or product options if you don’t have a USP or have a hard time clearly explaining:

>> what you sell (e.g. bags)

>> who you sell to (e.g. travellers)

>> why it’s unique (e.g. vegan-friendly)

 

4) Do your products share a signature style?

Is there a style theme that gets carried throughout all your products?

If a craft show shopper had to describe all of your products, could they pick up on a common style theme?

Your signature style communicates your visual identity (how people know a product is made by you without needing to see your logo).

If you’re creating too many types of products in an attempt to appeal to a variety of customers and styles, your products won’t have an identity. 

Offering my bags in too many styles (e.g. modern, boho, masculine, feminine, etc.) and in a variety of colors and materials, doesn’t allow me to create a signature style. 

On the other hand, focusing on vinyl for my bags and sticking to a feminine color palette reduces my product selection and defines my business’s style. 

It’s also hard to apply a signature style to a variety of products.

For example, applying “colorful statement pieces” to a line of jewelry would be relatively straightforward. Applying that style to jewelry, bookmarks, greeting cards, etc. becomes quite difficult.

You may be offering too many products or product options if you don’t have a signature style/theme that can be applied to all of your products.

>> Here’s how to develop a signature style: How to Develop a Signature Style for your Handmade Business

 

5) Can you create a cohesive display?

Whether you’re selling your products at craft shows or online, your “shop” needs to have cohesion.

It should instantly and clearly tell shoppers what you make and how it’s different.

If I’m selling travel bags at a craft show, I can use one or two types of fixtures and travel-themed props.

On the other hand, if I’m selling bags, pajamas, throw pillows, aprons, and mittens, I need several types of fixtures to display each type of product and it’s hard for my display to tell a story through color and props.

Think about the story you want to tell through your craft show display or shop design.

For example:

>> If I’m selling travel bags, I might want to tell an “adventurous travel” story.

>> If I’m selling knitted winter accessories, I might want to tell a “warm and cozy” story.

>> If I’m selling selling jewelry made from sea glass, I might want to tell a “beachy” story.

If you can’t come up with a story or a theme for your shop, you likely have too many products or too many product options.

 

How to add variation

Although you don’t want too wide of a product selection, you do want to offer variation to appeal to different customers within your target market and to different budgets.

An easy way to add variation to increase your revenue, without going too far outside the box is to offer:

• Entry-level products – these are products that introduce people to your brand and don’t require a big investment/commitment. Check out: How to Create an Entry-Level Product for your Handmade Business
• Add-on products – products shoppers can add to their purchase to improve it, complete it, care for it, etc. Check out: How to Use Add-Ons to Sell More Handmade
• Up-sell products – options that allow customers to spend more to get more value. Check out: How to Use Up-Selling to Sell More Handmade
• Down-sell products – products that get a skeptical shopper to take the leap and buy a lower-priced item, rather than no item. Check out: How & Why a Craft Business Should Down-Sell

 

Refining your product line can feel scary, so I suggest you do so slowly and watch your sales to ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Many makers, myself included, find that refining their product line makes running a business much easier and more profitable.

Creativity and fun do not have to be limited just because your product line is limited; it just becomes more focused.