Etsy Seller Interview with Isa of PopPigments

How PopPigments 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! My name is Isa, the owner, and artist behind Pop Pigments. Pop Pigments is a whole universe based on watercolors. On Etsy, we sell stationery as well as wall art prints, but our brand is very diversified, from prints to online painting classes for all and artisanal handmade watercolor paints that you can find on our website. Being based in Québec, Canada, the market here is quite unique because of the French-speaking population of the province. Our Etsy shop really started in 2017, and it was a new way to share my passion for nature and colors and reach new potential clients and markets. Every print you find in our Etsy shop is hand painted, then digitized, printed, and hand signed. We do it all in our small shop, so you can enjoy my very unique and colorful watercolor paintings at a fraction of the price. We curated the best materials so you can feel confident that you are buying a high-quality product. Ultra-premium matte paper is used for our prints, and the ink that we use is lightfast and moisture-resistant, so your artwork will stay beautiful over time.

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 in my shop are definitely the greeting card collection. With close to 40 different designs, they are everything I was hoping for with my art: colorful, fun, shareable, and affordable! There is a vast selection of designs to suit everyone’s needs. Whether you need a fun greeting card for a kid’s birthday, a get-well card for a friend, an anniversary, or any special occasion, animal lovers are loving them!

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 set up the shop back in 2017, and at that time, I was also setting up social media for my company. Etsy was the perfect solution to having a trustworthy and easy-to-access selling platform to direct clients to. My first sale came not long after the shop was set up; I already had a small following, and people were happy to be able to shop my art prints on Etsy! It was so convenient and easy to browse between categories.

Managing PopPigments

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?

Pop Pigments is basically a one-woman show. I try to run everything from my home with some help from Melvin, my brown labrador retriever. I occasionally get some help from my boyfriend with deliveries and shipping the orders when I get too overwhelmed. Oh, and my mom lives in another city, but she is the seamstress for some of our items, like our reusable paper towels. So I guess it is a family affair to some level 🙂

My favorite tools and apps are the ones I use every day: Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. They are my go-to for photo editing and label-making. I also use Photoshop to design the packaging, and all the editing for the prints and greeting cards is done with it.

Since I used to be a photographer, I was lucky to already know these tools and be able to work with them right away. Lightroom is a fantastic tool to batch edit pictures of my products before they go online.

Google G-suite: Most of my files are pretty heavy, so they are stored on Google Drive. I'd like to be able to access any of them from anywhere.

The future of PopPigments

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

I would like to find some time to update the shop with the same products that are listed on the website. Starting with our handmade watercolor paints. They have great success on our website, and I think it would be a great addition to the shop for any artsy international customers! Once all the online classes are translated into English, they will be added to our shop to complement the artisanal paint line. My dream is to create a "unique and fun watercolor universe" for the painting enthusiast!

Advice for new sellers

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

I guess my main advice would be to be prepared to do some work! Etsy is great to quickly set up an online shop for so many reasons, like the international customer base, but if you want results, you will need to do your homework first!

Take some time to understand how it works before putting all the listings up and having to edit them later to suit the algorithm. It will save you some headaches and, most of all, some precious time!