Basics of Your Arcade

The Arcade at The Handmade Product Directory is becoming a popular place for artists to sell all our work from multiple shops all together in one place – in a very affordable way. All sorts of handmade products are available there – not just art.

Burst of Joy, Digital © Diane Clancy

What is The Arcade? The Arcade is a portal – a storefront with items of an artist from all their different shops all at once.  You have an online stop with whichever items you choose to have in your shop. You can have items from your website, blog, Etsy Shop, CafePress Shop, Zazzle Shop, RedBubble Shop and endless others.  Your Arcade Shop sends people directly to your other shops.

Burst of Joy, Framed Tile, CafePress © Diane Clancy

Do you have your own shop? You have a unique shop there and yet are listed with the other shops. Your shop will be its own unique shop and also your items are listed in categories so people can find them that way. You can send people directly to your Arcade shop or they can find it by browsing.  This allows you to have one spot where you can showcase ALL your art and merchandise at once instead of sending people to multiple shops. You get a readable unique link such as https://dianeclancy.dmpmc.net.

How do you get started? You may want to take a peek at some other shops before you start because the initial registration form is where you fill in a lot of your info … like your store description, profile and policies.  Unlike many other stores, this information is put in as you open a shop, rather afterwards. You can change it later if needed, but of course it is easier to do at the beginning once. You are welcome to go look at my Arcade https://dianeclancy.dmpmc.net. You may choose to use my policies and such if they work for you.

How do I open a shop? To open a shop, go to The Arcade at http://www.dmpmc.net/arcade. If you click on “Open a Store” at the right top of the page, then it will take you to another page http://www.dmpmc.net/THMD/dirsubmission.html
where you can read about opening a shop.   There is a woman in the middle of the page holding a sign with Arcade on it. Underneath that sign is “Register for an Arcade Shop Now” – click there to get to the next page – the New Store Registration Form http://www.dmpmc.net/THMD/newstoreregistration.html.

Now what do I do? You need to fill in the form. Your name, address and shop name are pretty obvious. For “Your Current Store URL” you can put in any shop or website where you sell your work.  I chose my Etsy shop since I have sold the most there.  After that are the Store Description, Your Profile, Store Policies, Shipping Policies and Return Policies. As I mentioned, feel free to look at mine https://dianeclancy.dmpmc.net and others to get ideas of what to say.

How do I decide these policies? I spoke several times with them while doing my own policies since I sell things from several shops – I had no idea how to make a set of policies for The Arcade. I ended up saying some broad policies and noting that each item includes the details.  For instance, I am the one to contact for problems with items from Etsy, because I ship them.  Zazzle and CafePress ship and are in charge of problems and returns – I have no direct contact with those customers.  You can see from my own policies how I juggled these differences. They can get changed later … but it is easier for you if you do them once.

Tomorrow I will finish sharing how to set up your Arcade shop … so please come back and read the rest!  I hope you like this vibrant,  colorful painting! Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: The Arcade,   Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting