Etsy Seller Interview with Christina of Bunsietae

How Bunsietae 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 Christina, also known as Bunsietae, and I’m a 26-year-old graphic designer and illustrator from Germany. Creating has been a passion of mine ever since I was a child. No matter where I was, as long as I had a pen and something to draw on, I was doodling whatever came to mind. When I was little, I often did small drawings or craft projects and then "sold" them to my family members, so you could say I’ve also been loving the business aspect of creating art since the beginning.

While I studied communication design, I noticed a rise in artists opening up their own small businesses. It started with me watching studio vlogs on Youtube that focused on stationery shops, being excited for them when they announced their first sales, and watching their businesses and passion thrive. That’s when my dream of running my own little shop started to take form.

I invested in an iPad for digital art and bought my first silhouette cutting machine. Soon after that, I created my own sticker designs in my tiny bedroom at my parents’ place. However, I quickly felt the urge to dabble in other things besides stickers. I made notepads and came up with washi tape designs and illustrations to turn into keychains.

While everything started with homemade products, I was fortunate enough to rather quickly gather the funds to have some of my products professionally manufactured. Some of my products are being made locally by German manufacturers; others are being made overseas by manufacturers I found by doing a lot of research and asking around in the stationery community.

Favorite items

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

My favourite items by far are my washi tapes. I was a washi tape collector long before I opened my shop, so having my own illustrations made into tapes is still absolutely unbelievable to me. Manufacturing washi tapes is one of the bigger investments I’m making while running the shop, so they also hold a high monetary value for me.

Whenever I release a new washi tape design, it sells very well. I think the fact that many people love collecting them plays a big part in the sales numbers.

On the flip side, ordering washi tape is often connected to a high MOQ (minimum order quantity), so while sales are doing well at launch, they tend to get slower and slower, resulting in an overstock of older designs. Nothing bad, in my opinion, but it is something to consider!

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?

Around half a year before opening my Etsy shop, I started to take Instagram and social media in general very seriously. I shared the process of opening a small business, coming up with designs, learning and failing at new things, and quickly gathered a bit of a following. So I had a few people anticipating the opening of my shop. Because of this, I had my first sales basically right after opening. Etsy’s algorithm is still quite good at showing you products to the right people, but in my opinion, it’s best to showcase what you’re doing on social media. TikTok and Instagram work very well for me, even though engagement has slowed down.

Managing Bunsietae

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?

I manage my shop all by myself. I love doing research and trying my hand at new things, which has helped me a lot with running the business. Next to Etsy, I also use Shopify as a second selling point. For scheduling social media content, I tried a few planning apps but finally stuck with Flick.

When it comes to fulfilling orders, my mom is a huge help. With lots of care and love, she takes care of order packing and making everything ready so I only have to slap on the shipping label. Any time I need a second opinion on design or business-related things, I always turn to her. I might be the one to do most of the administrative and design work, but I still consider my mom a huge part of this shop and basically my business partner.

The future of Bunsietae 

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

My biggest goal is to make my shop my full-time job. In Germany, there are a lot of laws and restrictions when it comes to (small) businesses, so I’ve always used my "main job" for financial security and health care and my shop as my "part-time job". This also makes doing taxes a lot easier for me.

In recent months, there have been a few health-related issues that have made me minimise the work I put into my shop on the weekends to focus on recovering. Nonetheless, I’m holding strong to that wish of running the shop full time; it might just take me a bit longer to accomplish that.

Advice for new sellers

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

Take your time! I often see people rushing into opening a shop without building a product catalogue they really love or growing a bit of a following first.

I support the idea of taking risks and not overthinking everything, but if you’re serious about wanting to build something of your own, then I suggest taking your time. Find out what you like, try different things, go on social media, and share your journey.

Something people often forget: do your research on the legal requirements for opening a business in your country. Other countries might not be as strict as Germany, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Please don't get discouraged when things don’t go off right away. I was extremely lucky. The reality is that most businesses struggle in the beginning. It’s simply not as shown on social media. You usually only see the ones that go viral. Stay persistent, keep working on yourself and your products, and if it’s meant to happen, things will work out in the end.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?

Answer: Before I had to cut back on the time I invested in my shop, I had a monthly revenue ranging between 1000 and 2000 euros.Since switching to a more "passive income" approach, the revenue has dropped to 100–300 euros monthly, which isn’t a lot but keeps everything running in the background while I recover.

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: It ranges widely because my product catalogue consists of items with cheap material cost but high manual labour resulting in a high margin and the complete opposite. Sorry for such an unspecific answer!

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: Around 2%