Etsy Seller Interview with Melissa of Park Hopper Supply

How Park Hopper Supply 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?

Hi! I’m Melissa, and I run the shops ParkHopperSupply, TheMarylandShop, MelissaJoyCreative, SVGbyMelissaJoy and co-own three other shops with friends! I’m actually about to open another shop jointly with my husband (yes, he runs his own shops too!) Etsy has really been a life changer for me. But let’s rewind…

Five years ago, I was REALLY burnt out from my current job and I was looking for an escape. I was good at what I was doing, but I needed flexibility and creativity. I also hated the feeling of someone else making money off my time and I really hated leaving the house to work. (hello, who doesn’t want to work in PJs?!) I had a design degree, so I put it to work making things that I wanted and that I would also sell. I began with drop shipped items that I would design and have someone else make and shop, and then expanded to creating items myself.

It was a great segue into later running multiple shops and doing it full time. It also felt safer than diving right in and spending tons of money on equipment.

I started with ParkHopperSupply and then once established I started the super niche shop TheMarylandShop, more so for fun than to get a lot of sales. And then the two shops under my name MelissaJoyCreative and SVGbyMelissaJoy came after with the intent to sell products for other sellers like me. Then, I teamed up with a few friends to separately launch additional shops. And well, here we are!

Favorite items

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

My favorite items are probably my customized watch bands because they each are individually made and customized per the customer’s request. And I just really like my engraved products!

However, across all my shops, my craftable products sell the most and I like that. I like that I can help other people be crafty and enjoy making something with their hands. Like SVGs for example - I like that I can help others craft away and take a break from the pressures of the world without having to learn expensive design software to do so. They can just download the design and use it on their machine that they’re versed in and make their craft or gift flawlessly.

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 sale was the day I opened my first shop (the main reason to have an anticipated launch and advertise before you’re open is to knock those initial sales out of the way and try and get some early reviews to boost your shop), and I mainly sell via Etsy SEO and Pinterest. I do utilize Instagram and Tiktok but the payoff is nowhere near the simple fact of having good Etsy SEO. 

I felt the ball finally rolling around six months, where I was getting a few sales a week and then sometime around eight months, I never had a day without sales yet across all my shops again. That feels really good as a seller. It makes the unreliability of a small shop a little bit more reliable.

Managing Park Hopper Supply

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?

It is only me! Fulltime! I’ve even grown from Etsy to my own sites, eBay, Amazon Handmade, Amazon Merch, Teepublic, Redbubble and more! It’s a rinse and repeat cycle for me - once I got one design down, I made another and grew from there. Once I had one platform down, I grew onto another. 

I use a lot to manage my shop! From a variety of social media platforms and schedulers, (Later, Repurpose io, IFTTT) to programs like Marmalead, Etsy on Sale and eRank to get the perfect listing rankings. I use Photoshop to make my designs and create most of the graphics for my shop. Google Sheets for accounting (I’m old school). Trello for project management… and more! 

I actually made this list a long time ago for newbies that wanted help finding apps and programs to help them run their shop with my website, etc. Since all my products are digital, I don’t need to worry about shipping.

I still utilize my drop shipper for some products, but I’m on a strict schedule of fulfilling orders from my home workshop weekly. 

I prefer long workdays over multiple short ones, so I have two long in workshop days a week, and one day where I do all the maintenance things, like designs, accounting, emails, ordering, restocks, scheduling social media - staring into the sky and wondering why I give myself so much to do in a day! My favorite days are after vacation and the holidays where I have a seasonal helper to catch up - those days are so fun.

The future of Park Hopper Supply

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

I feel like I just got my shop to a place where I can manage it full time and everything runs smoothly. I think my next goal is to get to a spot where I can hire my holiday office help part time throughout the WHOLE year. I’m not sure if I’ll get there by marketing more, investing more in advertising, opening another shop or creating more products - but that’s my next goal. I just haven’t really established the steps to get me there yet.

Advice for new sellers

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

LEARN. Man, my first two years could've been SO much more profitable if I would’ve learned a bit before I just jumped in. I also wish I didn’t take ANYONE'S advice and didn’t consider everyone else’s wins as my loss.

Social media is kind of hard for new shop owners. You see everyone else doing so well, but you don’t realize that you’re comparing their highlight reel to your behind the scenes.

Also, sell stuff that's actually - well - good. Don’t make something just to make money off of it. You should like your products, or your products should be likable. I don’t love all the products in my shop because they’re not super “me”, but someone does! You are not always your target market and that’s okay, but your target market should get a high quality product in the end.

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

Question:

How much is your monthly revenue?

Answer:

Average of 22k gross/ 8k net

Question:

What is your average profit margin?

Answer:

30-92% making the least on apparel - the most on digital items.

Question:

What is your shop’s conversion rate?

Answer:

Average of 9.25% - my SVG shop, however, is a whopping 22%!