Etsy Seller Interview with Numbi of HausofKongossa

How HausofKongossa 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?

Haus of Kongossa is the brainchild of founder and creative director Numbi, an aesthetic mixologist who blends complex color stories, textures, and patterns with panache in an eclectic array of bespoke art. The brand is an artistic outlet for this multi-hyphenate and multi-culti iconoclast whose designs showcase her continent-hopping heritage—infusing Cameroonian influences with an eclectic NYC edge.

What does Kongossa mean?

Kongossa (Cone-Go-Sah) is pidgin English for ‘hot goss," the what’s what and word on the street. Our designs are conversation pieces— Whether it's Toghu textile print mugs, a colorful canvas adorning your walls, Afropolitan apparel, or a greeting card in leopard and gold, our creations are something to talk about. Tongues will wag.

I worked as a project manager at various marketing agencies for a very long time and always tried side ventures like being a fashion stylist, selling vintage clothes with my sister, or designing and selling press-on nails, which started as a hobby. All of those ventures were well received, but without dedicated time, it was hard to maintain them. I finally decided to take a break and focus on myself, and out of that, I birthed this idea to do art.

I’ve always been creative and used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator throughout my career, so a long time ago I created some button pins with these various characters' heads and imagined them being from some different universe, with each having unique names and hairstyles. I never really did anything with those. Fast forward to my newfound freedom and time to practice; I decided to flesh out those characters further, bringing them to life by turning them into bigger pieces of art. It’s been a fun ride.

Favorite items

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

I started off creating wall art, so that remains my first love, but to be honest, no, those do not sell as well for me. Once I took the same art ideas and translated them to other products like t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and various goods, the sales flowed in much more frequently, but I had to be cautious to limit that same variety and focus on marketing.

I think that the general art space has become saturated in recent years, particularly when it comes to art by black artists. This new-found diversity has been sort of a double-edged sword. People were very thirsty for art from that underrepresented faction, so it boosted the courage of a lot of artists like me to finally put out our work and actually be featured prominently in many spaces. But I’ll never complain about that. I was a bit late to the party working hard in Corporate America all this time, so I just have to work harder to be seen now that I know I stand a chance.

Here’s a mix of my favorites and bestsellers:

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 order was a little over a month in. I went live in October 2023, so I started out with a boost of holiday sales, which was definitely a smart time to launch for me.

Managing HausofKongossa

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?

I’m currently running the shop solo, doing everything from setting things up with my print vendor, creating size charts, designing homepage banners, to doing finances and advertising. 

Thankfully, my previous experience in creating and running major marketing campaigns and also managing large projects has definitely helped me better multitask and, more importantly, identify and use the right tools to lessen the load. 

I would be nowhere fast without Vela, which I use for bulk editing and managing my catalog before posting to Etsy. I use Allura to help me research the right keywords, see what’s trending on Etsy, refine my descriptions, and make sure I’m SEO-ready. I also use Canva for social media work and light designing things like banner ads, business cards, and fliers. 

The Future of HausofKongossa 

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

My short-term goal is to start embellishing some of my art on canvases to give it a tactile feel. And overall, I’d love to have occasional pop-up shops and some strategic collective of brick-and-mortar, not just in the U.S. but also in Cameroon. I’d also love to work with other artists and even fashion designers and companies to do limited collections/collaborations. 

Advice for new sellers

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

Take your time. It took me several months to create my work and then set up everything on Etsy. Definitely set a schedule and prioritize things in order of Musts and nice to haves. It’s better to do it right the first time rather than rushing and having too many issues to handle. It’ll never be perfect, but the fewer mistakes you have to retroactively fix, the more you can keep forging ahead! 

I would also advise you to make sure you’re using the right keywords not just in the tags area but also in product descriptions. In terms of getting traffic to your shop because there is a lot of competition, definitely try out Etsy Ads for a few months to have a better chance of showing up in results. And of course, running social media pages is an organic way to send traffic over (plus promoting select posts), so don’t be shy... I’m still working on that last part :)