Hello! I'm wondering how others find selling jewelry on shapeways are dealing with prints not coming with hardware (such as chains, jumprings, etc). Does this affect customer sales?
It is possible for customers to purchase chains when buying a pendant (see the "Add a Chain" prompt underneath the Buy Now button). As for jump rings, you can incorporate that into your design so that the customer doesn't have to attach a jump ring to the pendant to string it on the chain. If you're making drop earrings, that's a bit trickier. The customer will have to purchase earring hooks and add them themselves, but this isn't difficult as long as they have needle-nose pliers at home. As for whether it affects sales, hard to say. I sell on both Etsy and Shopify, and most of my sales are there. Sales directly on Shapeways are rare but they do happen, especially once Google finds your products.
I just started selling on Etsy only to find that Shapeways service charge for doing so is about the same as my cost to build it. After Etsy fees I am making less on Etsy sales than I do direct through Shapeways and thats after doubling the price on etsy. Do you come up with similar numbers and what can you do to get your margin back up?
I'm not using the Shapeways-Etsy integration currently so I don't have a feel for what the Shapeways service charge is vs. Etsy fees. For my Etsy and Shopify shops, I order directly from SW and keep a small inventory, adding chains, hooks, gift boxes, etc. There's more customer service and fees involved, so my prices are higher on Etsy and Shopify. Don't be afraid to raise your prices. Most people shopping on Etsy are looking for a unique piece and they're willing to pay for something they can't get anywhere else. They are also willing to pay a higher price if they are communicating directly with a designer/maker/small independent business than with a big corporation. The main advantage of the Etsy ecosystem vs. SW is the huge amount of organic traffic of people with just one purpose, to buy. Once you figure out SEO and all of the other little tricks, the sales just happen. Much easier than selling on SW.