Etsy Seller Interview with Modestas of ItemsBox

How ItemsBox 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'm Modestas Svidras, owner and founder of ITEMSBOX on Etsy. ItemsBox offers high-quality, custom-sized boxes with or without printing and other products made of recycled corrugated cardboard, such as cardboard sets of small towns, castles, and letters. In addition, I have recently started making and selling amber game dice (Dungeons and Dragons D20 dice).

First of all, I would like to say that trading on an online platform was one of my dreams. I love my home country, Lithuania, very much, but the thought that the sold product can appear thousands of kilometres away inspired me a lot to work towards this dream. The name of the Etsy store, born unexpectedly in my mind, was like a prompter from the beginning, where it would lead me. I didn't have any specific products when I started this shop on Etsy, but my desire to try them was endless. Firstly, I named it just sitting at my permanent job and looking at a box of various things—that's how ITEMSBOX came out. Then, I offered one of my friends, who makes various amber jewellery, to cooperate, and he agreed. My wife and I used to go to the storehouse to choose the most beautiful amber jewellery made by my friend that we had never seen before. After bringing home the biggest bag of jewellery, everyone in the household got busy: my wife took photos of them, I carefully measured them and placed all the characteristics of the jewellery on the Etsy platform listings, and our 1.5-year-old daughter looked at them with crazy interest and clearly wanted to try on them all. Amber is the gold of Lithuania; it can be found on the shores of the Baltic Sea after strong winds and storms. I live 30 minutes by bike from the Baltic Sea, and I like to look for it myself. Back in ancient times, this stone was characterised by healing and other magical properties, but it didn't take long to see it for ourselves—those amber jewellery really spread extraordinary calmness. There was lots of joy after the first purchase, but with it came responsibility. Some amber jewellery was expensive, so how to pack it properly in mind to withstand such a long journey for the customer? We used cardboard boxes to pack the jewellery and bubble wrap to fill em. Over time, I noticed that the boxes we used were simply too big for some jewellery, and the abundance of bubble wrap filling in did not add any aesthetics or ecology. It was possible to purchase smaller cardboard boxes, which fit smaller jewellery perfectly. But there was a condition to buy these boxes in very large quantities, which turned out to be too big an investment for such a beginner. And this is where it all started...

I realised that this is a niche and, at the same time, an area where I can fully reveal myself. All this required faith and a much larger investment than buying smaller boxes from the factory. In addition, I have to mention that I was just recently married, and as a young family, there were a lot of needs and wishes, or maybe we simply lacked something for our comfortable lives. So this investment seemed a bit of a challenge for our family, and not everything went smoothly at the beginning. But with the endless support of my wife, to my surprise, everything worked out in a few months, and the biggest layers of improvement opened up: various cardboard house villages, castles, and other products appeared next to the box's production. All good or not-so-good cardboard products ended up in my daughter's hands (who had already grown a little) with a glue or paint brush, or were often gifted to her kindergarten. She obviously liked the new activity; it opened up her unlimited creative imagination. Over time, the amber jewellery easily left our home. But I still felt something related to amber.

Favorite items

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

One of my favourite items is a twelve-house cardboard set that I created myself. I can't explain why. Maybe because it was my first serious creation made of cardboard, or maybe because my whole family was involved in the process of creating it and the sentiments are still there. By the way, I have created other sets of cardboard houses, but this kit is the most expensive.

Another item that is my favourite is the D20 amber dice. About 7 years ago, when I was selling standard amber dice in my shop, I had an idea to make some different ones. I searched for information about what different kinds of dice there are in the world. The D20 looked so attractive to me, and I just imagined how great it would be made of amber. This year, I took on this project for myself. With great persistence, patience, and a long technological process, I finally found a way to make it happen.

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 exactly remember, but maybe a week or two later, I got my first custom order for boxes on Etsy. And like the first pancake, it was a little bit burnt, so I won't hide—I was in such an unmotivated mood. But when I got this order feedback, I felt very grateful to the customer, and it redeemed all my disappointment. To be honest, I didn't do too much to attract clients because this activity gained momentum so naturally that in 2020 I had to decide on a new step, and it became my full-time job. Once I took this step, I simply posted on my personal Facebook profile about my new life changes. Nowadays, I run sales, discount codes for carts, and Etsy ads.

Managing ItemsBox

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?

Photography, photo processing, generator of creative ideas, accounting, and preparation of shipments—this is about my wife. I personally contact customers, take orders, design drawings, make prototypes, and test them. This year I opened a company and hired an additional employee who performs all production processes.

Adobe Photoshop: for photo editing
Autocad: for projections, drawing design
Google Drive: For backup files

The future of ItemsBox

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

Perhaps the main goal at this moment is to update the store and expand the range of products in it. Although there were always thoughts on that matter, but for several years my workshop has been reoriented to more local activities, and the lack of time appeared for everything else. Now  I have an employee in production, so I see the green light for materialization of  all those thoughts,  but I would be grateful  if  you  wish me luck. As for the past, I still had been feeling some affinity for amber.  So one of the most desired goals is to get back amber and  make something unique and original out of it. I am very happy that a small step has just been taken and I can already offer a new product that I make myself – it is D20 amber game dice.  Ironic, but now when I have my own little cardboard workshop, it was very  simple to make a good package which fits it perfectly. 

Advice for new sellers

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

The best things come slowly, and the journey does not seem so long, maybe sometimes very tiring or even unprofitable, focusing not on the result but on the whole process. Make this process as pleasant as possible for yourself; fill it with as many joyful moments as possible to make it really fun. And if you find yourself at a point where you can't get through, you just want to give up, put your hands down, and give up for a while, because this is not the end of everything but a necessary pause before something new begins. And never listen to others, but do whatever looks best to you!