Etsy Seller Interview with Alice of Aliceincosplayland

How Aliceincosplayland got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

Hi, I'm Alice, and I am the owner of Alice in Cosplay. My shop mainly focuses on downloadable sewing patterns for costumes, cosplays, and fancy dresses in general. I started selling on Etsy when I first moved to the UK. I had a lot of free time, and as I have always loved crafting, I thought it would be a good idea to try and sell some crafts while I was looking for a job. When I started, it was a disaster. I was trying to sell handcrafted dolls, but they were very time-consuming and expensive, so I did not sell many.

I had almost given up on the idea of Etsy when I decided to shift my business and try something I have always loved: cosplay. I am very passionate about making costumes, and I have made lots of them in the past. I was looking for a planner to organize all my crazy materials, projects, and everything I use to get dressed as my favorite characters, but I couldn't find it. Then I had a brilliant idea. Maybe someone else was looking for a cosplay planner. I made the planner for myself and made it as professional looking as possible, and as the shop was still open, I uploaded my planner to the shop. I genuinely posted this "first" listing because I wanted to help fellow cosplayers, and I never expected it to succeed. During the next few months, I started to see sales coming. I uploaded a couple more files, this time patterns that I had used for previous cosplays, and again, patterns I couldn't find anywhere else online. I am quite decent with computers, and I love designing things, so I used my skills in Illustrator to make the files into PDFs.

For years, there were only a few files in my shop, no more than five or six. There were a few flops, but in general, most of them got very good receptions. Eventually, I got a job and had less time to create new files, but the shop kept growing. People liked them, and they were asking for more, so I did continue to post new files, but still very sporadically. My job kept me busy, but it was also making me very unhappy. With the pandemic, I was even busier; as I worked in education, I was considered a key worker, and I often felt unsafe and overworked. Without noticing it, the shop had grown so much that it was already matching half of my salary on a job I didn't love anymore. I wondered if I can make this much without trying, what can I do if I put all my soul into it? So, after lots of thinking and talking with my partner, who has been the most supportive person ever, he encouraged me to pursue my dream. I quit my job and became a full-time creator.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

All my listings have a special meaning for me; after all, I curate the characters I create and turn them into patterns. The process starts with making the costume from scratch, then you have to take photos, draw, and write files. It is a very time-consuming process that often takes months.

The Cosplay Planner is without a doubt one of my favorite items.

Not only was it the first successful item I released, but I just genuinely find it very useful in my everyday life. Through the years, I have upgraded it several times, and I do try to keep it fresh by adding new pages and improving existing ones. It is still one of my best sellers today.

Another item I love is my turtleneck bodysuit.

Again, it is one of my early projects, but it has proved to be very useful many times and is also a best seller. There aren't many basic patterns available in physical shops, so I think that is why it is so successful.

My all-time best seller is perhaps the Multilength Cloak.

I honestly don't think this is my best pattern, but I guess its simplicity and usefulness are what make it stand out. It is a great starting point for new sewers.

My Summer Dandelion ensemble is perhaps one of my most complex builds.

I put a lot of effort into this cosplay, and it has many, many pieces. It took me several months to finish it, but it was totally worth it from a satisfactory point of view. Also, this was the last costume I made before I decided to quit my job and be a full-time creator; it was simply fun to make. It may not be a best seller as it is a very complex build, but it has a special place in my heart.

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?

I believe my first sale took about two months to arrive. In my first six months on Etsy, I sold only two items. After I posted my first successful item, the cosplay planner, I got rid of all the other listings that weren't working, and I only kept the cosplay planner and the cosplay patterns. By the end of the year, I had made 42 sales with only 2 listings in the shop, one of which was only released in November. In my second full year, I managed to get 250 sales with only 8 items and very little promotion. Last year was my fifth anniversary and my first year as a full-time creator. I doubled my listings and sales from previous years and made over 5000 sales in a year with only 40 items, 20 of which were new. And the shop just keeps growing.

Most of my sales are purely organic and come directly from Etsy searches. However, I do promote my patterns on social media and have started a YouTube channel where I explain how to assemble the patterns step by step. People find it very useful, and I am rapidly growing on the platform, which in turn sends people to my shop to get the patterns I used in the videos.

Managing Aliceincosplayland

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

The beauty of my shop is that I only sell digital items, so I do not need to worry about shipping and fulfillment. Considering how difficult it was when I was first making dolls, being able to do everything online is a blessing. My costumes and patterns take a lot of effort to make, but once they are done, they can live in the shop forever without me having to worry about them. I still need to answer questions and provide customer service, but in general, they are low maintenance. I run my shop entirely on my own. Sometimes it is a bit overwhelming as there is a lot of admin to do and you always need to bring something new to the shop to keep the customers' interest. Social media in particular is exhausting, as there is very little reach no matter how much effort you put into it. Other than Adobe Suite, where I create banners, videos, etc., I don't use any other fancy apps. I try to keep my content fresh and genuine and will post on YouTube and Instagram whenever the next thing is ready. I, however, try to keep it all educational, and I always offer lots of free content and tips to anyone who wants to follow me.

The future of Aliceincosplayland

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

I have already reached my goal, which was to be able to have a basic salary that allows me to live comfortably without worrying too much. I guess the next step is to keep growing so I can delegate some tasks to other people and free up some time for myself. Ultimately, I just want to keep helping people with my patterns and teaching them more about the wonderful hobbies of sewing, cosplay, and dressing up in general.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

Don't give up. It is hard at first, but you will only know if it works if you keep going. Make the very best you can do; fill in all the information you can and more; and improve your listings and products as many times as you need to make them work. A good photo is a window to your shop, so make sure you get the best ones. It takes time to succeed, but if your product is good, it will eventually work. However, be realistic, as it can take years to be successful, and when it is, there is always a lot of work to do! So make sure you are ready for that too.

Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: £1500-£2000. Higher on seasonal peaks

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: Very difficult to estimate as they are digital items. I would say about 80% profit considering monthly expenses vs earnings.

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: Currently at 2.4%