Etsy Seller Interview with Kiva of DekaliDesigns

How DekaliDesigns 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?

Hey there, my name is Kiva Bottero. I sell posters, cards, and other home decor items in my shop, Dekali Designs. Dekali Designs launched on Etsy in 2019. I’d been publishing books and running websites for a number of years prior to launching the shop; over that time, I’d done quite a bit of graphic design. It’s something I enjoy doing, so I figured, why not make some printed designs and offer them for sale? I mainly use Photoshop to create my designs. If the design requires an illustration, I have an illustrator make it, and then I create the final product. I then send the files to a printing house to print off the designs, which are then shipped to a warehouse for packaging and storage.

Favorite items

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

I particularly like the Yoga Poses Poster, Rustic Recipe Box and Cards, and Jungle Elephant Colouring Poster. I like the Yoga Poses Poster because yoga is a really important part of my life, and I wanted to share something helpful with people who are learning yoga or want to maintain a regular yoga practice at home. People find it quite useful, and they also like that it’s stylish and fits with their home decor. That was one of my aims in creating it—I designed it to look like something people would want to put up on their wall rather than just being a purely functional study aid that they’d be more likely to take down after awhile.

The Rustic Recipe Box and Cards is another favourite of mine because it’s something that keeps you organised but also adds a nice touch to your kitchen. The product also includes a free cooking course that I created with a chef from my vegetarian cooking blog, Table Matters. That was fun to make, as I learned a lot about cooking while doing it.

I like the Jungle Elephant Colouring Poster because colouring is a nice activity that, in a lot of ways, is even better when done in a group. At 35x52” in size, this poster is huge, so multiple people can work on it at the same time. My kids are too young to really be into colouring, but some day I can see them having fun colouring this big poster altogether!

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 can’t remember how long it took to make my first sale, but it was pretty quick—maybe a couple of days. To attract customers to my Etsy shop, I’ve only ever used Etsy advertising. I find that engaging customers who are already on the platform makes the most sense. Since people searching on Etsy are ready to buy, they’ll convert at the highest rate out of any possible advertising or promotional option.

Managing DekaliDesigns

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?

It’s only me running the shop, but I save time by using the inventory management tool Veeqo to handle my orders. I keep my inventory stocked in warehouses, which results in fast shipping for customers and saves me time having to ship them myself.

The future of DekaliDesigns

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

I’m going to continue creating new products whenever I get the chance. I’d also like to convert some of my books into printables and put them for sale in my shop.

Advice for new sellers

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

Pay attention to customer feedback. Your customer reviews will be your greatest asset when it comes to improving your products. For those who haven’t sold anything yet, show your creation to friends and family to solicit their feedback.

It’s easy to get attached to your creations. And the longer you work on them, the more attached you can become. It’s good to resist the need to keep what you’ve already created and see all the work you’ve done as expendable. Always be ready and open to making changes or even tossing everything out and starting anew.

I like to keep this quote in mind: “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” In general, perfection is unattainable, but when creating products for sale, there’s the additional issue that your idea of perfection will likely not be the same as your customer’s.

So it’s best to work smart and not overthink things. Take your product to a point where you’re mostly content with it. Then just get it out the door and be ready to iterate on it in the next version.