Etsy Seller Interview with Sadie of EmbersandRoots

How EmbersandRoots 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 virtually waving)! My name is Sadie, and my shop is Embers & Roots. I started making candles as a hobby about nine years ago. I loved burning candles, especially after doing a big clean of my house. I also enjoyed arts and crafts, so I decided to learn the craft to become a chandler. I had no intention of turning this into a business. It was purely for a hobby and for myself as an escape from my day job and life. After about a year, friends and family started asking if they could buy my candles for themselves and as gifts for others.

Making candles is costly and time-consuming, but I stuck at it and got better and better. I remember the following year, in the run up to Christmas, I had lots of friends and family asking for my candles as gifts, and it was then I thought... I wonder if I could sell these to other people. I opened my Etsy shop in May 2017 after looking at ways to sell handmade goods online. I sat down and created a name and a niche for candles, mainly for the wedding market, before branching out and expanding my product range.

Favorite items

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

My favourite products are my Christmas products. I have always loved Christmas, and when I started my business, I quickly learned that Christmas is candle season! I enjoyed every minute of selecting my festive fragrances, testing each product, designing the labels, and deciding how each one would be packaged and sent out, always asking myself, Would these bring joy if gifted? I never get bored of my Christmas collections. Our Christmas candles usually sell well. I think it is because they are designed and marketed for a specific occasion, making them easier to find and easier to gift.

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?

It wasn’t long before I made my first sale. I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but I do remember making a sale and being really shocked and nervous about sending my product out into the big wide world. It was different back in 2017, when Etsy wasn’t as popular for sellers as it is now, and so competition was less and it was easier to be seen. After I found my feet, I did pay for some advertising each month until Etsy made the advertising compulsory. Etsy advertising is the main way customers are brought to my shop, as are repeat customers. I have a lot of customers that come back each year. mainly for the gingerbread and winter spice candles.

Managing EmbersandRoots

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 was originally just me. We built it up enough that it is now me and my partner... My dad also comes to help on a Thursday! It’s a true family business; we all muck in when we need to. I am quite the control freak, so I do struggle to hand anything over; therefore, we pack everything ourselves. Because of our personalisation service and the size of our product range, it is difficult to consider us a fulfilment company. We currently use a company called Shipstation to manage our shipping. It works for us at the moment. Our business is seasonal, which a lot of direct courier services don’t like. They want you to send a certain number of packages each week (or each day! ), which doesn’t work well for a small, seasonal business like ours. We mainly use the Etsy app to run our store, which helps us respond quickly to customers.

The future of EmbersandRoots 

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

Over the last two years, our visibility on Etsy has gradually decreased. We want to bring this back up, and it is something we will focus on next year. The competition is much higher now than when we first started.

Advice for new sellers

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

Start off small and gradually add to your shop as you grow. Managing listings is time-consuming, and if you add 100 products in one go and get it wrong, that’s 100 you have to go back through (I have made this mistake on more than one occasion). Get one listing perfect, and then go from there.

Be yourself; don’t compare yourself to other shops on Etsy. There is no point in being just like another shop on Etsy; try to make yourself stand out in your own way.

Try to get your pricing right from the start. If you’re unsure, there are plenty of business resources out there to help. Don’t price yourself low to try to get sales. It isn’t sustainable. You will be a busy fool.

Get some good photographs!