Etsy Seller Interview with Melanie of FlyFishWyoming

How FlyFishWyoming 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?

I have been a freelance graphic designer with my own business for over 15 years. It has been a wonderful way to be able to work in my field while living in a rural area and being flexible while my kids are growing up. I was searching for a way to incorporate my talents with my passion, which is fly fishing, and also my love of our great state of Wyoming. I sat on the idea for quite a while, fearful and worried that no one would ever buy anything. In 2019, we finally decided to go for it. We launched Fly Fish Wyoming in July of 2019 with a variety of apparel items, mainly tees, sweatshirts, and hats that I designed and had screen printed or embroidered locally.

We were cruising along pretty well, and then COVID hit. Booo. We had many vendor shows scheduled and products for them. Of course, they were all canceled. It was scary, and we didn’t quite know what we were going to do or where the world was going. I figured we needed to pivot from in-person vendor shows to get our name out to figure out how to get more sales online. I had already set up a Shopify store, and one day I ran across an Etsy integration app for it. It was a bit of a steep learning curve, but their support was great, and I finally got everything up and running. Essentially, our Shopify store "talks" to our Etsy storefront. All the product listings on Shopify also get mirrored on Etsy, as well as inventory and orders. It’s a pretty slick system. Once an order is fulfilled on the Shopify side, it pushes that information back over to Etsy with the tracking number and marks it as fulfilled. Honestly, integrating with Etsy has probably been my most valuable business decision in this journey. We get a ton of traffic and sales from Etsy.

Favorite items

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

Our store initially sold just apparel. Fairly recently, I started printing many of our products with screen print transfers, heat-pressed patches on hats, and sublimation on many other items such as tin mugs, license plates, coasters, tumblers, and flasks. My favorite items are listed below. I never thought they would be so popular, and I am not sure why other than they are very unique, and somehow people connect with the meaning behind them. I screenshot and save all the reviews that rave about them to read when, some days, I wonder if I’m doing it right.

My thread bracelets! I wish I had kept track of how many of these I have actually made over the years, as we have several wholesale locations too. I’m guessing at this point it’s somewhere close to 5,000. I have the trout pattern line, which mimics the colors of each fish species. I have five right now: rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, cutthroat trout, and golden trout. They have beads on them that also mimic their spots. I feel like these are very unique, and people really connect with them for themselves or as gifts to others.

I also developed a "Wyoming" line that is very popular too! We have the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush (our state flower), Mountain Lupine, Sagebrush and Pine, Wildflowers, Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic, and many others. I am always making these, it feels like, from car trips to sitting in the stands watching my kids play baseball while watching movies... I am constantly humbled that these have done so well!

Trout pattern candles! These were also one of those products that I thought I’d just give a try and see if they sold. I love creating and have a bit of a short attention span, which drives me to want to try new things constantly. I thought candles seemed like a fun thing to try. I didn’t realize how complicated they really are! I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the process. Because they are layered, they are much harder to pour than single-pour candles without cracking or frosting. There was much trial and error on these! I almost gave up at one point. These also mimic the colors of each trout in the wax color layers, and then the actual pattern or spots of the fish are screen printed on whiskey rocks. So when you are done with the candle, you can clean it out and use it as a glass! And no, they don’t smell like fish! (I get this question a lot, and eww.) They all have outdoorsy, earthy scents.

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?

We started this on March 26, 2020 (in the thick of it, lol!) and the first sale was on 4/28/20. I really don’t do a lot at the moment other than run some Etsy ads periodically.

Managing FlyFishWyoming

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 husband and I started the company. I am the main one who does the website, product development, production, product photography, social media, etc. My husband helps with the financial side of things with bookkeeping, taxes, and generally doing my heavy lifting. He helps run products to our warehouse and does a great job at packaging and tagging!

We have a local company, Bighorn Design, do all of our order fulfillment. It was something we decided early on would be the best use of our time as things picked up to not have to do that part of things daily. They do a great job and take a huge burden off our plates, as when the weather warms and the mountains open up, we are gone a lot. They ship every day but Saturday, so it just made sense. They have a warehouse that holds all of our inventory.

Other tools and apps we use:
CedCommerce is the Etsy app we use with our Shopify store.
Klaviyo: We use this for our email marketing and SMS marketing.
ShippingEasy: Our fulfillment company uses this to print all shipping labels.
Shopify is our stand-alone e-commerce shop.
Quickbooks: accounting and bookkeeping
Adobe Creative Suite: I extensively use the Adobe Creative Suite for designs, photography, and social graphics.
Orderspace: I use this for wholesale ordering.
Production: I have a variety of heat presses for apparel, hat patches, and mugs, along with a sublimation printer.

The future of FlyFishWyoming

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

We would love to just keep growing each year. We have thankfully increased our revenue steadily each year. We are currently in many wholesale locations around our state and even some out-of-state, but we would love to increase this as well. At some point, I would love to get a warehouse for product storage, shipping, and production to get everything in one space and have a larger area to do the production.

Advice for new sellers

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

Just to be patient. Constantly try to learn new things to help your sales, improve your products, and be open to changing things in order to grow. Also, don’t take some not-so-great reviews personally if you’ve done what you can to improve. I have spent time agonizing over some of mine that I could not control (shipping speeds, people who don’t read the descriptions, etc.). There are going to be people that you can literally not make happy. Do what you can to make it right, but otherwise, let those go. Focus on the positive ones; print them out if you have to, and read them when you need a boost. People are so kind and have left so many heartwarming reviews and comments on my products.

Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: This varies so much depending on the products, who does the production, etc.This varies so much depending on the products, who does the production, etc.

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: All-time 3.1%