Photo credit; Normanack on Flickr

While big businesses in Australia continue to be prone to failure, their smaller counterparts are doing well, starting out small and gaining a dedicated following of customers the old-fashioned way.

These small mum and pop shops sell anything from handcrafted goods to greeting cards to furniture, utilizing their online presence to sell their wares both locally and around the world.

“These businesses create niche products that may only tailor to the one per cent. But when you look at the world as your customer base, that one per cent is big business,” says Jason Chuck from Etsy Australia, which supports businesses in selling their handmade goods.

Figures from Etsy Australia show that 90% of sellers are women.

The online marketplace launched in Australia in 2005 and now has tens of thousands of sellers, with 60 per cent of orders going to international buyers.

Markets and online stores are allowing artistic Australians to start small and find their niche customer base before expanding.

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