How digidoggo 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?
My name is Liza, and I am the founder and owner of Digi Doggo. My journey started in April 2020, when I and my partner decided to get a French Bulldog puppy, whom we named Dante. As a true dog mom, I felt the need to get him everything, from toys to clothing and beds. Later I had the pleasure of contacting one of the pet artists, and he created a beautiful digital vector illustration of Dante, and I was so impressed. And here I thought: should I try to draw Dante myself? Slowly, I opened an Instagram page for @digi_doggo and got my first fur customers to draw.
I saw a demand for and interest in my drawings, and the next thing I thought of was to open an Etsy shop. I only had three listings at that time, and I was mainly bringing my customers to my Etsy store from my Instagram. Then I started to learn Etsy a bit more—adding good titles, keywords, and descriptions—and I noticed that more sales were coming in. Etsy gave me good motivation and passion to not give up and continue growing my business, as I could see that customers loved and bought my drawings. I did not want to end up selling only digital illustrations, and here were all these ideas.
Many of my friends, family, and customers were suggesting something new—from framed printed portraits to keyrings and mugs. Every month I had a new product idea, so my life got very exciting—improving and practicing my drawings, fulfilling orders, and making those product ideas come to life. We currently have over 150 listings on Etsy and over 15 different types of products that can be personalized with a hand-drawn pet portrait, and we are not stopping on that!
Favorite items
What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?
I have three top-selling items in my Etsy store: a personalized pet portrait dog harness, an outline pet digital portrait, and a dog portrait treat box.
Customers absolutely love their dog’s illustrated face printed all over the step-in harness and personalized with the name—just that one-of-a-kind dog walking accessory that every pet parent needs! We have recently added matching collars and leads to our bespoke harness designs.
My outline Pet drawings got a "Bestseller" icon on Etsy; customers use them to print out, to make their own crafts with the Cricut, and many to personalize their wedding favors. Over 1,000 customers have already ordered these and are coming back for more!
Dog Portrait Treat Boxes are very popular too; this Christmas, they were selling so well, customers bought many as gifts, and we had dog walkers and doggy daycare companies ordering in bulk for their customers!
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 earned my first sale on Etsy quite quickly as I referred my customer from Instagram to make a purchase, and that’s when I heard this ca-ching! For the first time, I heard sound:) There are numerous methods for attracting more customers and increasing the visibility of your products on Etsy: I run 10% or 15% sales for about a week once a month; this is the way to get good traffic to your store. Etsy is very good at bringing customers to your store organically; my task is to set those listings right and make my shop look nice and polished. I also try to consistently add new listings to my Etsy shop and not leave old ones behind; I edit them when needed, adding fresh photographs, editing descriptions, and adding tags and titles for more visibility. Using other social media platforms is crucial to driving traffic to the Etsy shop. I use Pinterest and upload pins daily; my daily posts and reels on Instagram help too.
My biggest and favorite tool right now is TikTok. I post on TikTok daily and have noticed very good growth in comparison to Instagram. Talking about my Pet Portrait Treat Boxes, which became best sellers on Etsy thanks to TikTok.I randomly posted a short video on how I make the box (they didn't sell at the time), and it received 1.8 million views, 43 thousand likes, and 3 thousand saves, and my Etsy was inundated with orders!
Managing digidoggo
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 just me! I am my own social media manager, artist, admin, and order packer! Sometimes it's quite challenging to stay on track and keep up with everything, but overall I manage quite well! The only person to whom I pay is my accountant; it is very important to have one, and my advice is to get one as soon as you can. There are many tools that I use, and they help me greatly:
- subscription platforms such as Placeit and Mediamodifier to present my illustrations professionally on physical products.
- Adobe Stock is used to creating harness patterns and some other images if needed.
- Procreate—the most needed app where I draw all my illustrations
- Affinity Designer helps me format my files into SVGs and also create beautiful product mockups.
- Unfold is a phone app that helps create beautiful stories for Instagram.
- Suxov: editing photos with ready-made beautiful presets
- eRank helps me navigate around Etsy while improving my SEO.
- Alura is my best tool to get the right tags for my products.
- Pandle: This is where I do my bookkeeping.
- I built my website on Shopify and use extension apps to keep it running smoothly.
I do all the shipping and fulfillment myself. I occasionally walk to the post office to drop off packages, but I usually book collection from home.
The future of digidoggo
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
My goal is to expand and bring more products to my store, both digital and physical. I want to make sure that every pet owner will find something they need. as there are also so many dog breeds! For example, I am currently working on dog breed tags and aim to create tags for all dog breeds. As my business is growing, I also need to think about having some help and hiring someone at some point, as well as expanding my space and renting out a business unit.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
Focus on organic growth, value your repeat customers, and constantly improve the visibility of your store, as the visual part is very important. Take some time to learn Etsy’s SEO tools and how to make your listings stand out in search. Alura is a great tool here, and you can always take examples from other Etsy sellers and make comparisons between your and their listings. And lastly, do not expect to get instant sales and growth; it took me nearly 3 years to go full-time (that might have been quicker, but I was combining my full-time job with my small business, then cutting hours shortly).
Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.
Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 4.3%
digidoggo
CUSTOM ILLUSTRATIONS AND GIFTS FOR DOGS AND HUMANS
