Etsy Seller Interview with Ros of FangirlStitches

How FangirlStitches 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 store is Fangirl Stitches. We design and sell contemporary cross-stitch patterns based on our favourite TV shows, movies, and books. They are all unofficial, parody fan works. I have been designing my own cross-stitch patterns for years. I started to design in the pixel style when I couldn’t find the characters and patterns I wanted to stitch. A few friends commented that I should try to sell them, so in October 2013, I opened up the Etsy store. The patterns on the site are all designed by me, my two brothers, and my sister-in-law. A couple of years after opening the Etsy store, I started selling in person at pop culture and craft markets and moved into sourcing cross stitch supplies and creating kits. But the patterns will always be the heart of the store.

Favorite items

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

I love our character alphabets; they give me the chance to design 26 individual characters rather than the 4 or 8 main characters from the show. Making the characters unique and easily identifiable is a creative challenge that I love, but it’s not always easy coming up with ones for Q, X, and Z! Some of them sell really well, others less so. It depends on the show or movie and how mainstream it is. Our best-selling pattern by far is the Pokémon Original Generation. Pokémon are always popular and never go out of style!

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?

My first sale came really quickly—within a week of opening the shop. Life has gotten very busy in the last few years, and I haven’t been working on the store much. COVID had a big impact on in-person events, which drove a lot of sales, and then I got a promotion at the day job, which meant more travel and less spare creative time. The benefit of digital patterns is that they manage themselves; people purchase and receive a download link to access their patterns; I don’t have to do anything. I rely on the occasional Facebook or Instagram post, the Etsy search function, repeat customers, and word of mouth.

Managing FangirlStitches

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?

My shop is mostly me. Two of my brothers and my sister-in-law design patterns and occasionally upload new ones to the store. The bulk of the work is done by me. I have a very complex Excel document to track sales, record income and expenses, manage pattern details and what is needed for kits, and monitor stock. That’s it. The patterns are all digital and form the bulk of our Etsy sales, and that all takes care of itself. I respond to messages and walk people through the process if they can’t find the digital link, but that’s pretty rare. If we do sell a kit or tool online, I package it up and drop it off at the post office. I use the Australia Post online process to pay and print parcel labels for bigger items or overseas sales, but mostly it’s a standard envelope with two stamps.

The future of FangirlStitches 

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

To keep it ticking over. At one stage, I had goals to earn enough online to reduce my hours at my day job, but that is no longer a goal. I do want to get more of the physical kits listed now that we are not doing in-person events, so I can move some stock.

Advice for new sellers

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

Do your research. There are a lot of online courses you can take specifically aimed at Etsy sellers. I did a number of them in the early days and learned a lot about managing social media, postage, search terms, etc. Also, if you’re in Australia, get an accountant. They have been invaluable at tax time for working out what I can claim, how to claim it, and making sure I’m meeting all my tax obligations.