Etsy Seller Interview with Sue of KraftyNinjaHobbyShop

How KraftyNinjaHobbyShop 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 Sue. I started my "shop" in 2014, sharing a booth with a friend and going to small fairs, festivals, and conventions all across Canada. We worked together in person until 2020 when conventions suddenly ended, and with no timeline of when things would get back to normal, it was time to take the plunge. With that, I decided to start my online journey with Krafty Ninja’s Hobby Shop on Etsy. I started by moving some of my popular products online to Etsy, along with some nerdy face masks, which quickly became extremely popular due to the rise of the pandemic.

Over the course of the next few months, I worked on shifting away from face masks and moving back to focusing on my regular product line. I started making custom puzzle cubes one evening after joking with friends while playing Portal that a companion cube puzzle would be fun and add a challenge, and that, as they say, is history. I created my templates and made everything by hand, cutting and placing every piece individually. Slowly over the years, improving the process to be more streamlined along with learning more about how puzzle cubes work, brands, and manufacturers for blanks.

From that first companion puzzle cube, I now carry three cube sizes and dozens of colors, finishes, options, and designs. My favorite now is the custom cube. Where customers can send me any six images and have a fully customizable puzzle. Since launching online in 2020, I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of individuals making custom birthday, anniversary, holiday, and general-purpose gifts, as well as small and large companies making bulk custom cubes for events, giveaways, and product launches.

Favorite items

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

While I love all the products I make for different reasons, my absolute favorites are the custom photo puzzle cubes. The 3x3s hold a special place in my heart as the ones that started it all, but I love making all the sizes. The solid color cubes, whether they are sparkly or grayscale, are fun and exciting to make, but the photo cubes add that little extra challenge that keeps me on my toes!

Each photo cube is unique, and I get to work with some incredible images and ideas to create some of the most amazing cubes! I never know what the next cube will be (and yes, I’ve done some spicy ones over the years),) and each order brings something new. The custom cube is one of my best sellers, and I think it's because of its unique and fully customizable elements. They make a fun and quirky gift for any puzzle lover, and by adding a clear stand, the cube can be displayed anywhere!

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 sales came pretty quickly, within a few days of starting my online shop. I think jumping in with masks at just the right time helped jumpstart everything. I keep the momentum going by focusing on optimizing my search engine optimization on Etsy. While I wish my social media skills were better and more consistent, I do my best to gain momentum on TikTok and Instagram.

Managing KraftyNinjaHobbyShop

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?

The shop is completely run by me. I answer all messages, make everything by hand, and ship it out from my studio in Ontario, Canada. I do occasionally hire some helping hands for large projects or very busy crunch times, but for the most part, it's just little old me!

I have created a weekly flow between sample proofs, making products, and shipment dates. Working with customer images, I make sure images for custom cubes are organized by name and order number to keep everything streamlined. Privacy is a high priority with client images, and I ensure all images are kept secure and deleted in a timely manner after delivery. I work in an assembly line model, breaking projects up by templating, printing, laminating, cutting, labeling, and finally packaging. Everything is done in batches to create an orderly and managed assembly flow.

Some of the tools I can't live without are:

Production Tools: I’ll start here with my Silhouette Cameo and Omtech laser cutter. These have helped speed up and multi-task production in the studio. On production days, I’ll have a number of machines going all at once, and my studio can be a hectic little room, but there is a method to my madness, and everything runs on my schedule.

Printing: I print almost everything on my Xerox Phaser laser printer. It's a workhorse that has been with me almost since the beginning, and I wouldn’t live without it.

Photoshop/Illustrator: For templating, I do all my work in Photoshop and Illustrator; these are an absolute necessity for my shop! With Photoshop, I have many of my repetitive tasks streamlined with batches and actions, which are an absolute time saver.

Mailing label printer: Adding a dedicated label printer for shipping labels was a game changer. Having that in my shop saved me countless hours of cutting and taping shipping labels!

For fulfillment, I use a combination of shipping methods depending on where the package is going. Some packages are sent through Canada Post, while others are routed through the USPS using a fulfillment center to help keep costs down. Packages are shipped out twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, but I ramp up to daily shipments during the holiday rush.

The future of KraftyNinjaHobbyShop

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

I’m looking to continue growing and adding new options and products to both Etsy and my stand-alone site. My long-term goal is to grow my own website alongside Etsy sales to diversify my online reach. I also plan to continue attending conventions and selling in person at events, adding more locations and events throughout the year and across the country.

Advice for new sellers

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

Some advice I would give to a new Etsy shop would be to find a product or service you love making because you could be making lots of it all day, every day. I personally don't recommend focusing on only chasing trends, as they can be fickle and leave you hanging once the trend moves on. Find your niche and passion, and your ideal customer will find you.

Be prepared to do everything for your shop. You will be the creator, the fabricator, the photographer, the customer service representative, the marketer, the facility manager, the SEO technician, the fulfillment manager, and so much more until your shop grows enough to hire help. A few main things to focus on once you have your items down are photos, listing tags, and fulfillment. A great item can be sabotaged by a poor or dark photo. If product photography is not your strong suit, I recommend watching tutorials online, taking a photography class, or hiring a photographer. The product photo is the first thing your customer will see and should showcase your product in the best possible light.

Tags and titles are just as important as they’re the first thing Etsy’s algorithm sees, and optimizing tags will ensure customers can find you. Use online resources and SEO helpers to get your products the best algorithm results.

Before going live, make sure you have the fulfillment down. How will your item get to the client? What packaging, boxes, envelopes, and padding will you need? Make some mock packages to get full sizes and weights to really know what your shipping costs will be, as they can easily sneak up on you and cut into your margins. If the item is fragile, I would even recommend doing a few mock shipments to friends or family to make sure the packaging holds up to the shipping process. Taking the time to nail this can save major headaches when fixing broken or damaged items due to improper packaging.

In the end, selling on Etsy is a process; success won't be instant, and steady growth is much more valuable than a single viral hit. Focus on making every customer’s interaction with your shop the best it can be, and use every challenge as an opportunity to learn, grow, and optimize your shop along the way.