How ciaffi 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, we are Mariana and Paula, sisters, and we live in Olivos, a city on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. We have been on Etsy for quite some time, since 2006, and have had several shops.
At present, we have two stores. One of hand knitted accessories is called Branda, and Ciaffi, where we sell notebooks, mini stationery sets, digital images, and eventually vintage toys. Ciaffi started selling digital images, but when we started, the whole procedure was more complicated because it could not be done directly from the platform, and we had to send them via e-mail. Later, we liked to take advantage of those images to make notebooks. And so it was that we started making notebooks with plain white sheets. Little by little, we were improving the products, and we even included more measurements and the type of paper, and we improved the store to get the one we have now.
Favorite items
What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?
One of our favorite products in the first place are the notebooks, especially those of A5 size. We got some postcards to make the covers that have a velvety surface, and we managed to improve the impressions. We love looking for old images, especially old botanical images. They may not be the most brilliant or commercial, but it is a delight to see those hand-drawn drawings of the first scientific studies of botany.
Also, the notebooks with the covers of old travel posters are cheerful and inviting.
The covers reproduce works of art because it is a way of having beauty at hand.
Those that refer to Audrey Hepburn say she was a beautiful actress, very elegant, but her simplicity and her sense of humor were surprising. It's always nice to see her.
On the other hand, there are sets of small envelopes. We have searched a lot for the paper to produce the envelopes, and now we have found special papers that help us produce an ever-better-quality product. The botanical sets, the natural history sets, the nature art sets, the marble sets, the 1960s prints, and the old maps are very beautiful. We are very happy with the result obtained, and we see that the customers have been enthusiastic about the new proposals.
With the idea of recycling and taking advantage of the paper we have at home, we created used paper notebooks. It is not a notebook to write in, but an offer of different papers, united in a notebook, for artists or scrapbooking lovers.
We are always looking for new proposals, and we believe that this is what keeps us current.
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?
At first, we were anxious, and it took a while to make the first sale. I think about a month. Those were other times, and the way we promoted ourselves was very different. Now, it is very important to always publish on social networks, and we do our bit everywhere.
But the most important thing is how the product is published. A good title, a good description, and photos are essential to being able to sell online.
Managing ciaffi
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?
Being two people, we divided the tasks. The production and everything that refers to the shipment we do together. Then, Paula is in charge of the publications in the store, and Mariana is in charge of publishing on the different social media platforms. To verify the publications on Etsy, we use Alura. It's the best app we've found so far, and it really works. It is a great help to be able to check each product publication and see what is failing. As for shipments, we do them twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, and we ship via DHL because it guarantees fast and safe deliveries.
The future of ciaffi
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
We'll probably work more on digital images, and we'd also like to go deeper with vintage toys. It's something we have in store, but it's not developed enough.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
Someone who wants to open a shop on Etsy has to be clear that selling online is not easy; it takes a lot of time, patience, self-criticism, and a lot of work.
ciaffi
Spiral Bound Notebooks and Mini Stationery Sets
