Etsy Seller Interview with Rina of MoonHaresBeads

How MoonHaresBeads 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 am Rina Heine, the owner of Moon Hares Beads Shop on Etsy. We sell high-quality beads, mostly Bohemian but also some other types like polymer clay beads, tassels, and metallic jewelry components. The idea of MoonHaresBeads is to offer a wide range of materials that even a person with very little jewelry-making experience can use to create a great piece of jewelry. Bohemian beads are known as a material that is easy to work with, and they make great jewelry components. I am in love with certain types of these beads, and I have also been an ardent beading artist for many years. So I thought I should introduce these gorgeous beads and cabochons to customers who would like to create impressive jewelry quickly and easily.

I found Czech and American bead manufacturers and established business contacts with them. Presently, I work with the best manufacturers and wholesalers, but I am constantly looking for new products and opportunities. The bead world is small, but creativity has no limits, and there is always something new and exciting. Another part of our products consists of hand-painted glass cabochons that I make myself, as well as tassels and other handmade items. Some time ago, I could not find a cab for my own jewelry project, so I made it using the colors I needed. After that, I started making these cabochons for sale. They are one-of-a-kind, and this is exactly what one needs for a wearable art beading project. So I would say that our products have various origins, but all of them together can be described as a qualitative jewelry component pool to inspire people from beginners to experts to use their fantasies.

Favorite items

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

I love the neon glass beads that we offer in many colors. These beads are very easy to use; they have wonderful bright colors and great quality. I have a very good relationship with Estrella in the Czech Republic, and we order their beads on a regular basis. Some of the beads that we offer were manufactured by Estrella specially for us; others come from their regular stock. Neons are selling very well. I personally think that in the last few years people have been having more stress than before, and now they need more positive emotions to recover the balance—something like a rainbow, something for a good mood, and something that reminds one a bit of being a child when the sky is blue and the sun is orange.

Laser tattoo beads are my other favorites. These beads are very unusual and difficult to find. Because of their "hands-on" manufacturing method, there is a very limited quantity of these beads available in the market, and due to the unbelievable precision of the images, they alone can make a great jewelry piece. One needs just a couple of "winter trees" to make very special earrings that would definitely attract attention and, on the other hand, are suitable for any occasion. Amazingly, they can be a well-integrated part of casual wear as well as the centerpiece of an evening outfit.

I would also like to introduce another popular type of bead that we sell: bohemian fire polished donuts. They are available in various sizes, but the most popular are 6x9 or 6x8 mm. These beads are multifunctional and can be used for bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry items. They come in a great variety of colors and finishes, and every manufacturer provides some attributes that others do not have, like acid etching, glass blends, multiple coatings, etc. We have a nice collection of fire-polished donuts and constantly add new products to it.

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 registered the shop in 2020, but I posted my first items as late as May 2021. Before that, I was busy with some large bead embroidery projects and did nothing to fill the shop. I think it took me several weeks before I sold the first item in MoonHaresBeads shop. That was a neon bead variety set. Since that time, we have sold many thousands of neons. At once, in summer 2021, I had about 100 items in the shop, and they were not very well visible for Etsy users. Then I tried to improve the visibility of my goods, and at the same time, I added another hundred beads. That helped, and I was gradually receiving more orders.

Presently, I am working on the shop in general and on individual items, and I believe this will last for at least one more year. I have tried various styles of product presentation, and I think that I tried enough to realize that I have to improve the key words, unify the photo style, and do some more routine (and important!) things in my shop. On the other hand, we have about 2300 more high-end items in stock that are not online yet, and I am posting them one by one. New items attract regular customers’ attention and increase the chances that new customers see them and get interested. I believe that for a relatively new shop like mine, there are two principal ways to attract clients, or one combined way: to increase the number of high-quality items and to improve the item presentation (photos, descriptions, titles, key words). Certainly, price is also an important issue, and we try to keep the prices as low as possible. But as a retailer of European and American products (and in many cases, re-imported products), we cannot compete with the prices in shops specializing in Asian products. That means we should thoroughly introduce the genuine features of our goods to show our target customer group not only their unique designs but also their durability, environmental awareness of the manufacturers, individual approach, and other advantages.

Managing MoonHaresBeads

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?

Presently, I manage all issues concerning beads, correspondence with our suppliers and clients, logistic issues, and online product presentation. My husband, who is an accounting and tax specialist, handles financial issues.

I have not used a lot of tools and apps so far. I have tried various styles of photos and chose a type of picture in which the main object is sharp and bright and the background and the secondary objects that I use to fill and arrange the space behind the object are blurred and mostly dark. To achieve these effects, I use a Leica camera and Photoshop software.

My husband uses Agenda software for accounting and tax issues.

Otherwise, I do everything manually. I sign every main picture with "Moon Hare’s Beads" by hand, using an MS Surface pen. Our target buyers are people who learn to make jewelry as a hobby. Handmade hobby items are not as precise as mass-produced jewelry, but they are more personal; I would say they have the soul of their creators. That is why I have chosen to write the shop name by hand instead of using a fine designer font as a watermark. I believe that by doing it, I appeal to our potential customers.

I ship all our orders via German post, which is always tracked and reliable. Our customers are for the most part from Germany, and if I ship a usual order today, the customer will receive it tomorrow. It is very convenient because we try to get the orders to our customers as soon as possible. If someone has the inspiration to create something, he or she wants to do it now. We do not charge our customers for a shipping upgrade on large local orders; I believe that such things should be part of a good service.

All legal issues are handled by a legal company, which I contracted to make sure that we are on the right side of the law on our way to a perfect shop.

The future of MoonHaresBeads

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

I plan to improve and extend MoonHaresBeads shop. So far, I have no plan to start an external project because my nearest goal is to ensure a better structure and presentation of the products on Etsy. I would like to increase the number of products, improve their visibility to Etsy users, link the products to social networks, and keep these accounts active. Another idea is to introduce jewelry featuring the beads and other components that we sell to inspire our customers to create new creations. I have registered another shop on Etsy, TrueffelsSchaetze, where I am going to offer ready-made jewelry and deco items, including those featuring the beads we are selling in MoonHaresBeads. As soon as I consider it ready for our customers, I will link it to the MoonHaresBeads shop. I will add the links to each listing so the customers can go directly there and take a closer look at the ready-made jewelry items. Even if they do not intend to buy them, these items can inspire them to create their own jewelry. All this requires a lot of time and effort, but I love my job and am happy every moment I am working on these projects.

Advice for new sellers

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

Honestly, I do not think that I have enough experience so far to advise other people on how they should sell... I am relatively new to online commerce and learn something new every day. I would only say that the newcomer—and not only they—should not give up when they think that everything goes wrong. I guess many things go wrong at first, but it is normal. At the beginning, there are days and even weeks almost without sales; sometimes not a single person notices newly posted products, no matter how good they could be; sometimes a discount does not work to attract people; and so on. But I believe that the only way to win is to continue working and concentrating on each order or product. As they say, the road will be mastered by the walking one.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: As my next goal, I want to achieve a revenue of 10,000 euros from Etsy activities (both shops that are related to each other). It is possible, but it requires hard work. So far, I am miles away from this amount, but I am keeping it in mind for the future as a near and real goal.

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: I am trying to achieve 35%. But it is all relative and depends on fees, duties, and taxes that vary from month to month, so it is difficult to tell exactly. One should keep in mind that we sell a lot of re-imported products that decrease the profit margin, but I intend to go on with them because they make the shop unique and beautiful.

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: So far, not high (1.9%). To increase the conversion rate is one of my nearest goals.