Etsy Seller Interview with Anita of ollieandmaxsoapco

How ollieandmaxsoapco 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?

My name is Anita, and I’m the owner of Ollie + Max. I create vegan, mostly natural bath and body products and cosmetics. I started my shop in 2010. At the time, I was a mom of two small boys, and like most parents, I was quite concerned about the ingredients I was using on my boys. I worked full time as a school speech therapist, and after the boys went to bed, I started my journey into creating natural products to use for my family. I started with natural melt and pour soaps, and although that was fun, I knew I wanted to get behind the chemistry of soap making and make some cold process soap. An obsession was born! I soon decided to look into starting an Etsy shop to sell off all the extra soap I made, and that was the start of my business. The early years were spent creating formulas, researching ingredient vendors that matched our desire to stay vegan and cruelty-free, and coming up with new products. We also use as many organic and locally sourced ingredients as we can. The creation of my products usually comes from a need within my household—whether it's soap, lip balm, facial care (we no longer sell that but I continue to make it for us) or lotion, it's born from a desire to replace what I bought in a store with what I could make in my little basement shop.

Favorite items

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

I love our soap and lip balms, but the lip balms are my all-time favorite. I’m a lip balm junkie and love that I can have dozens of lip balms all over my house in so many flavors! The lip balms have always been a staple item in my shop—we have customers from 2011 still coming back to buy more. My newest obsession is our cosmetics; it's a new line started during the pandemic (lots of time on my hands to play around) and I love the eyeshadows. Surprisingly, the line took off right away and is doing well. I think more and more people are looking for cosmetics with fewer dirty fillers and more clean ingredients.

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 feel very lucky with my shop—my first sale was in March of 2011, and I had just set up my shop right after the holidays. It was a very exciting day! Sales just slowly picked up from there and, initially, I was getting 2-3 a month, but by the end of the first year I was making 10-15 sales a month. Within 3 years, I ended up quitting my day job and running my Etsy shop full time. When I started Etsy, there was no way to advertise on Etsy, so most of my marketing was done through Facebook. I currently don’t do much marketing at all, except for Etsy ads and the occasional Instagram post. I’ve curated a large following of regular customers, and I think word of mouth has helped. I also offer my products wholesale and have accounts all over the US, which helps bring customers back to my shop.

Managing ollieandmaxsoapco

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 am mostly a one-woman show. I create and design all of our products and do all of the shipping. I do occasionally pull my teenage boys into the business, especially during busy seasons or with large wholesale orders.

I use Lightroom and PicMonkey to help edit photos. These are both great tools to have — I use Lightroom on my phone when I’m out and about and have time to edit, but really like PicMonkey on my desktop for most of my editing.

I use G Suite and Google Drive for all of our files and for communicating with customers.

We ship through USPS for almost all packages and have daily pick-ups scheduled, and will use Fedex or UPS for larger orders.

The future of ollieandmaxsoapco 

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

My goal for my shop is to increase our wholesale presence. I’m working on marketing campaigns geared towards that goal. Our retail Etsy shop has always done well on its own. We also have our own website that does really well, and I put a lot of focus into growing that site.

Advice for new sellers

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

Etsy has changed and grown a lot since I started ,and although the competition is greater, the most important aspects of starting your shop will continue to be to have great photos and understand SEO. And put yourself out there—there is great free advertising on social media—be active and have fun with it.