Susan stunned as her online selling platform reaches £1 million in sales

The British Craft House was launched in 2019 by entrepreneur and Royal Navy veteran Susan Bonnar.

Her idea was to create a platform that sold handmade items exclusively by handpicked British artisans.

Three years on she has almost 500 sellers, with items from fine jewellery to handmade cards, who have collectively brought in more than £1m in sales.

Susan puts all of the commission taken on sales back into marketing the website and creating paid adverts that all shops are included in.

She has also just enrolled in a Master’s degree in marketing to ensure that the business’ marketing efforts are the best they can be.

Susan, from Lee-on-the-Solent said: “If someone would have told me three years ago that we’d be hitting £1m in sales with almost 500 sellers on the platform, I wouldn’t have believed them.

"I had set a target to have 500 by the end of the year, but we’ll reach that this month - and that’s having turned away hundreds more sellers whose products aren’t quite aligned with The British Craft House’s ethos.”

British Craft House sellers have to apply to sell their products on the website, with Susan vetting every application to ensure that each product is up to the highest standards and that people aren’t selling cheap products from wholesalers and reselling them as handmade - which many other online platforms allow people to do.

Susan added: ‘The majority of customers will return time and again to repurchase products or purchase products from other sellers.

"It goes to show how high quality the products are and that’s all down to the application process.

"We strive to only provide the highest quality of products.’

One of Susan’s sellers has sold over 2,500 items in two years and made more than £53K through selling their wares as a hobby, on top of their full-time job.

Others use The British Craft House as their main point of sales, saving themselves time and money on building their own websites.

To find out more, visit www.thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk