Start selling on MakerMade — Seller Handbook

Opening a shop on MakerMade takes an afternoon, not a weekend. This guide walks the same checklist you’ll see on your seller dashboard — three required steps that make your shop sellable, and five optional ones that make it worth browsing.

Before you start

You’ll need a MakerMade account (open a shop here) and, eventually, photos of your work. That’s it. There are no listing fees and no charge to open a shop, so nothing is ticking while you set things up.

Already selling on Etsy? You can move your whole shop over instead of starting from scratch. And if someone told you your shop is already on MakerMade, see Claim your store.

The three required steps

Your dashboard checklist tracks these. Until all three are done, buyers can’t complete a purchase from you — so do them first.

1. Set your ship-from address

In your Seller Studio, under Shipping. This is the address labels and rate quotes are calculated from. It needs a street, city, state, and ZIP — a city alone isn’t enough to quote postage.

2. Create a shipping profile

A shipping profile is a reusable answer to “what does shipping cost?” that you attach to listings. You can charge a flat rate you choose, or use calculated shipping, where the buyer sees a live carrier rate at checkout.

One thing to know: calculated profiles need a package weight. A listing on a calculated profile with no weight can’t be quoted at checkout, and the checklist will flag it as unfinished until you fix it. More in Shipping, made simple.

3. Publish your first listing

One active listing makes your shop real. Don’t agonize — your best-photographed, most representative piece is the right first listing. The guides on photos and listings cover how to make it earn its keep.

The five worth-it steps

These are optional in the checklist, but each one measurably helps:

Set up payouts. Connect your bank through Stripe so money from sales can actually reach you. Takes about five minutes — see Getting paid. You can sell before this is done; your balance is simply held until you connect.
Add a logo and banner. Shops without them get a plain color stripe. Fine, but anonymous. Your storefront is your booth — dress it.
Write your story. The About section is where buyers decide you’re a real person making real things. Where you work, how you started, what you care about. Two honest paragraphs beat six polished ones.
Post your policies. Processing time, returns, custom orders. Clear policies prevent the misunderstandings that turn into refunds.
Add your location. “Asheville, NC” builds more trust than a blank.

Publishing and vacation mode

Your shop has a single published switch. On, and your storefront and listings appear in browse, search, and your storefront page. Off, and the public can’t see them — but you still can, so you can prepare everything in private and flip the switch when it’s ready. The same switch works as vacation mode later: unpublish when you need a break, and nothing is lost.

What it costs

Nothing to open, nothing to list. When something sells, MakerMade takes a small commission (4% on the Free plan) plus payment processing at cost. The full math, with no asterisks, is in Getting paid.

When you’re stuck

Message us — Contact in the footer reaches a human. And the rest of this handbook is short on purpose: each chapter is the answer to the next thing that’s probably in your way.