Etsy Seller Interview with Carl of CarlBatterbee

How CarlBatterbee 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?

Hello! I’m Carl Batterbee, a freelance Cartoonist and illustrator living and working in Norwich, UK. Since leaving Art School in the 90's, circumstances lead me away from art and towards a career in teaching, and later Web Design. However, since becoming a family man and spending a lot of time drawing and reading picture books with my two children, I became inspired to pick up the (apple) pencil and start making a living from my artwork.

I opened my Etsy shop a few years ago and began to sell prints and greeting cards that feature my quirky style of cartoon illustration and excruciating puns! Although I also sell mugs and a few other products, I decided to start with cards and prints, as this seemed to involve a relatively small outlay to get started. I initially printed everything myself at home but started to use a local printer once this became too time-consuming. I would originally hand-draw all my illustrations and scan them into Photoshop to ink and colour, but I now work completely digitally, using Procreate on an iPad Pro. I was initially quite dubious about moving over to creating everything digitally, but now I love it, so there’s no going back.

Favorite items

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

I guess the favourite items listed in my shop are always the most recent ones that I add, like ‘A-Corny Birthday’, ‘Match Made in Heaven, and  ‘Cappy Birthday’. Because I’m constantly attempting to develop and improve my art and create new characters, I love it when the shop is freshened up with new listings. Of course, just because I like them doesn’t necessarily mean that they will sell well. I’ve kind of given up trying to predict which cards and prints will be big sellers. There have certainly been a lot of designs over the years that I’ve been convinced would fly off the shelf that weren’t so popular. and vice versa.

It’s definitely the case that listings that feature popular TV, film, or music characters always sell better than others, like the ‘Spruce Willis’ and ‘Music Icon Christmas cards (links below) and ‘Death in Paradise’ cards and prints (link below), and some cards like ‘Big Metal Fan’ and ‘Death Stare’ (links below) always seem to remain old favourites.

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?

To be honest, it was quite a slow start—probably only one or two orders a month to begin with! But if I’m honest, when I look back at the work I was selling when I first opened my Etsy shop, I don’t think it was of a high enough standard. It’s really only through sticking at it and constantly reassessing my artwork and the products I sell that sales have improved. I try to use Instagram and Twitter (@carlbatterbee) to attract customers to the shop, although not as regularly as I’d like. It’s important to market your shop, but I think it’s important to strike a balance so you’re not spending all your time on social media rather than working on new products and improving your shop.

Managing CarlBatterbee

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?

Yes, I’m a one-man band. It’s quite manageable on my own, although there are some very hectic times of the year. Christmas is a particularly busy period as I sell quite a large range of Christmas cards. People seem to love a terrible pun during the festive season. I’ve managed to streamline the selling process a lot now, though; for example, buying postage via Etsy and using Royal Mail Click and Collect saves a lot of time queuing at the Post Office.

The future of CarlBatterbee 

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

I’d like to start selling larger prints and maybe a few other products like stickers, badges, and pins, and maybe more mugs. But what I enjoy most is coming up with new ideas and new illustrations, so I’m happy to keep doing what I’m doing and spreading a bit of love and laughter. I figure we could all do with that at the moment!

Advice for new sellers

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

Stick with it! In my experience, it takes a lot of time to get established and start making sales. Don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t happen immediately; take a step back and honestly reassess your shop, look at where you can make improvements to your products, photos, descriptions, shop layout, etc., and then go again.