Etsy Seller Interview with Rachel and Jesse of KOOSHOO

How KOOSHOO 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?

KOOSHOO is a line of consciously created hair accessories designed to be gentle on the hair and on the planet. Since creating an entirely new category in 2012 (the world’s first-ever plastic-free hair ties), we have offered stylish, functional pieces made from plants in an ethical way that respects the planet and the people who make them. We added our portfolio of products to ETSY in 2015, choosing to share our entire range with the incredible ETSY community. Our co-founder and creative director, Rachel, design all our products with three objectives:

Be the best-performing product in the category.
Be the best-looking product in the category.
Be the most responsibly made (for people and the planet) product in the category.

We then partner with our incredible suppliers, highly certified professional makers in southern India and Japan, to bring our products to life. Our mantra as an organization is style, quality, and performance without ethical compromise.

Favorite items

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

We aren’t in the business of making stuff for stuff’s sake, so every product we release, we believe, is the best of its kind. That said, here are three of our top sellers and what sets them apart.

Kooshoo Plastic-Free Flat Hair Ties; The product that started it all back in 2012, this much-refined version of the first plastic-free hair tie in the world, continues to be a best-seller for us. Hand-sewn to be 6x stronger than conventional hair ties, made from plants (not plastics), and beloved for its all-day, ultra-comfortable holding ability.

KOOSHOO Round Mini Hair Ties; They may be small, but they are mighty! Made in Japan with organic cotton and natural tree rubber, these little wonders are twice as strong as other mini hair ties on the market. And just like all of our hair ties, they are plastic-free, zero-waste, ethically made, stylish, available in hues you can use, and they work. Perfect for small intents and purposes: thin hair, baby braids, petite ponies, toddler tresses, kids’ cuts, TikTok trends Also available in a wrist-fitting Mondo size.

KOOSHOO Organic, Plastic-Free Scrunchies: As well as being the first 100% Fairtrade, plastic-free, and zero-waste scrunchies in the world, they also perform better than the scrunchies of yesteryear. Made of gentle and breathable, supersoft organic cotton on the outside, perfectly scrunched around the stretchy tree rubber, and organic cotton inner hair tie that made KOOSHOO famous, these beauties ensure an all-day, all-comfort hold.

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 earned our first sale pretty quickly on ETSY and have stayed relatively consistent with our monthly sales ever since. To attract customers, we stay active on social media by offering links to our ETSY store in our social posts; we’ve had good success with ads on ETSY; we work hard on our SEO language; and we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional products and customer service so that our reviews remain high.

Managing KOOSHOO 

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?

We’re a small team of five people that run all our global operations, including our very popular wholesale program. To be honest, ETSY pretty well runs itself for us. The positive aspect of this is that sales remain constant from month to month. The negative is that we haven’t seen a ton of month-over-month growth, and we chalk that up to just not giving the platform enough of our limited time and attention. We’re working to change that this year. At present, we don’t use any external ETSY tools to run our shop, but we’re certainly open to doing so if we can get a positive ROI for our efforts. We work with an incredible shipping and fulfillment partner in Idaho that ships all our eco-friendly hair accessory orders 100% plastic-free. They are linked to our Etsy store so that orders go out automatically within 24 hours.

The future of KOOSHOO  

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

We believe we’re the perfect ETSY partner—a small, consciously operated business of real people who care so passionately about what we do. It’s that same passion that brings customers to ETSY in the first place, and that’s why we’d love to grow our standing on the platform. We’re currently revamping all our listings, adding new products, and improving our product stories. We hope that those actions, combined with more external links, will help grow our ETSY reach this year and beyond.

Advice for new sellers

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

Be authentic, share your product story, and deliver exceptional customer service. ETSY is a much more human experience than a platform like Amazon, and it’s important that sellers exude the authenticity that ETSY customers are looking for. We all love a great product that comes with in-built stories, so share your story, and customers will support it.