Etsy Seller Interview with Philip of MapsAndTravelPrints

How MapsAndTravelPrints 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’d just returned to the UK after 10 years abroad, and I was having trouble finding a job. My good friend James showed me his Etsy shop, Pink Polar Bear Art. I was only vaguely aware of Etsy at that time, but I thought, I have time on my hands; why not? I started creating text-based art for kids on PowerPoint. The shop failed, so I started another, selling saucy LBGT+ products. That failed too, so I stepped back and took a dispassionate look at what was selling and what was not, and I hit on scandi-style, graphic road maps. I had a rummage down the back of the internet, found a piece of free software, and set about creating as many maps as I could prior to reopening the shop, which I called Mapsta. In the beginning, I offered off-the-shelf and custom ‘postcode map’ designs. Over time, I moved into bespoke vintage maps based on public domain images from the web. I take each design and recreate it from scratch to give it a bit of glamour. Recently, I started restoring vintage travel prints as well, and that’s when I renamed the shop MapsAndTravelPrints. It does what it says on the tin.

Favorite items

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

Some of my favorites have never sold at all! I learned early on that customers mostly go for maps and posters of places that have meaning for them, no matter how beautiful the artwork in question is. That being the case, I started producing and restoring maps of ‘destination’ cities and countries like Rome, Las Vegas, and Paris. My best sellers, however, have always been maps of slightly smaller cities in the UK, especially in Wales and the North East. The same goes for the travel prints, especially the London Underground range and Norman Wilkinson’s stunning paintings commissioned by UK railway companies in the 1910s and 1920s. Roger Broder’s gorgeous Art Deco travel posters of France and Italy also sell well. Over time, I’ve had to abandon the bespoke offer as it’s simply too labor-intensive. I’d recommend bespoke, to begin with; it’s great for reviews, which the Etsy algorithms love. My top 5 sellers are a great mix of the ranges and styles I sell.

And finally, one of my all-time favorites has never sold, not once!

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 made my first sale a fortnight after I opened my first shop. In those days, I rarely sold more than five a month. I rely on Etsy’s onsite and offsite marketing to generate traffic. 75% of my views are provided by Etsy. People grumble about the cost, but it’s worth it. I get far more bang for my buck than I did when I advertised on Facebook, which was always a total waste of money.

Managing MapsAndTravelPrints

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 a one-man band. I create in Photoshop and print on heavy Epson photopaper on a high-spec Epson inkjet printer. If people ask for anything bigger than A2, I call my friends in the north, DS Creative in Sheffield. I can’t praise them highly enough; they’re a fantastic resource and very friendly to boot. Everything else I print and ship myself. I buy my postage through Etsy; it’s so much cleaner, and you get a tracking number.

The future of MapsAndTravelPrints

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

I’d like to get back to where I was in 2020 and 2021, but not if it means another pandemic.

Advice for new sellers

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

1. Find out which shops do it best in your chosen area and do it cheaper or better.
2. Don’t fret about being original; original don’t sell on Etsy.
3. Don’t try to be clever or esoteric. I once worked on (but never opened) a shop selling dictionary print-style scenes from Shakespeare with the characters played by cats and dogs. I doubt I’d have sold even one.
4. Go wide/mainstream. My LGBT+ shop failed because there aren’t enough LGBT+ people in the UK to buy enough products to make the shop worthwhile. Too niche a market. If I’d have broken the US, it might have been a different story.
5. Try to invest in the best equipment; it always pays off in time.
6. Always get a tracking number, or you’ll never be a star seller.

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

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 46%