How FoxandRainbow 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 started my shop in 2017 after the birth of my rainbow baby. At this point in my life, I’d been a card maker for some time and had fallen in love with electronic cutting machines while watching craft shows throughout my pregnancy. After the birth of my daughter, I discovered heat transfer vinyl and used my machine to make my daughter some vests inspired by the fact that she was a little rainbow. I put them on my card-making page, and they were loved, so the idea for Fox and Rainbow was born.

Being at home with two babies under two and being on maternity leave meant it was a great time to get the business off the ground. I don’t make many rainbow baby items now, but I still mainly create printed apparel based on our household and lifestyle. I now have a small studio space in our garden, which I work from instead of the kitchen table, and I work with wholesale companies to secure all of my clothing blanks and vinyl.

Favorite items

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

My favorite items in my shop are my sleepover sets. I love that they bring joy to so many teens and tweens, and they love the cohesiveness that they bring to a party. These are also my best-selling products, and I need to sell just 7 more of them to hit the 1,000 mark. I’m not going to lie—I love that they also bring in a steadier amount of income for me.

Sleepover Shirts and Eye Masks, Children's Matching Coloured Sleepover Sets, Slumber Party Sleep Masks and Tops, Sleepover Party Accessories

I also love my sibling's set of T-shirts. My children have had them every year since 2017, and I love that they truly span genders and ages!

Sibling Set T Shirts For Cheeky Trouble Makers, Matching Holiday T Shirts, Brother/Sister Sets, Mummy and Me Outfit,

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 don’t know the answer to this, as my shop has been open for so long now!

Getting customers in my shop right now, though, is via a lot of work on social media, referrals from others having sleepover parties, and Etsy SEO. I’m on Facebook, I regularly post reels on Instagram, and I’ve just started a Youtube channel for the behind-the-scenes moments too, in the hope that I can get more eyes on the business. 

I also have a tiny email list that I am working on building up so that I can direct those who read it into my shop by introducing them to my latest products and shop updates first.

Managing FoxandRainbow

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 myself at Fox and Rainbow, with the kids stepping in occasionally to help with things like modeling t-shirts for photos, putting address labels on envelopes, and giving me their design input. My husband is also a great emotional support for talking things through, and we have a family happy dance song that he started back when the cha-chings started coming in.

All of my orders are made in-house as well, and with a 5-day turnaround time, to make things easier, I bulk cut the designs that I can, have a ready-available supply of things like eyelashes ready for sleep masks, and use fonts that aren’t too complicated to weed.

I’m quite a messy maker, though, and I like to say it's organized chaos, as I still know where things are in the studio. It’s a really small space, but I have one area dedicated to packing, one area for making, and another area for all of my needed blanks. I also have a separate garage where I keep the rest of the blank clothing until it is needed.  Luckily, we only live 200 meters away from the post office as well, so I can post daily if needed, which is great for business.

The future of FoxandRainbow 

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

At the moment, my main goal is to hit my next big milestone of 5000 sales, which isn’t too far away as I’ve just passed 4800. I’d like to have hit it by the end of June 2023, though this may need to be adjusted in this current climate. Alongside that, my big goal is to hit £35,000 in turnover in a 12-month period for the first time. I am quite a goal-oriented person, and I have just hit my goal of selling 1000 of my original sleepover squad designs, which feels incredible.

Advice for new sellers

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

Be consistent. Even if that means setting aside 10 minutes every day to work on your shop. Just 10 minutes every day where you set a timer and concentrate purely on your shop helps you get a lot done. Use it to write your 13 tags for a listing, to fill out your title so that it reads as a customer would shop, or to fill in all of the relevant attributes so that you can be found more easily in a search!

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

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 60%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 3.4%

Alura Team
Alura Team

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