Etsy Seller Interview with Phyllis of psphyllissews

How psphyllissews 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 shop is called P.S. Phyllis sews as a play on the initials of my name, Phyllis Smith. I used to create a newsletter for my piano studio called p.s. Practice. I started my shop after I moved to Houston, TX. This was the first move after four other moves where I couldn’t get my daughter settled in school. She was now a college student, and our home was an empty nest. I called myself the "invisible woman" as I tried to figure out what my next passion was beyond my day job. In 2011, I made a New Year's resolution to start a shop on Etsy. In the middle of February, I saw that resolution, and it pushed me to open the shop in an hour! I have been sewing forever, but in recent years I have been pairing older fabrics with newer fabrics to make tote bags. When we lived in Arizona, I learned to quilt, so my passion for quilting was and still is expressed in my zippered pouches. I tend to use older donated fabric for the linings and newer, totally fun fabric for the outside. Over the years, I have expanded on the kinds of pouches I offer, usually at the request of a customer. The other big section of my shop is bins, which are made from furniture store sample fabrics. Instead of throwing them away, I sew two of them together to make bins.

I am always on the lookout for new quilt shops to find unique and fun fabrics! I have to like the fabric before I buy it, but I also have to keep a good stock of cat and dog fabrics on hand because those pouches usually sell quickly. One of the things I learned about running an Etsy shop was shipping quickly for customers. So, every listing in my shop is already made and can be shipped in a day! I had a customer ask me about adding an option for a key holder, which is a D-ring and a wristlet handle. so that is an option with all my pouches. I have the best customers who are repeat buyers. So many of them over the years have written the greatest reviews, which tend to show up on a day when I am uplifted by their kind and enthusiastic words!

Favorite items

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

Cell phone pouches are usually the most popular. I section my products by size or type of pouch, holiday items, small quilts, and bins.

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?

Ok! I am not the best example of how to get going! I only had one sale the first year. A sweet Etsy shop owner in Japan ordered a pouch from me, and I ordered a cute crocheted item from hers. She sent a beautiful package, and I learned a really important lesson! You want to make your items arrive with as much fanfare as you can! I thought about my favorite brick-and-mortar shop and how they package my purchases. Then, I started sending my items wrapped in tissue paper, along with a free item, a postcard with a personal note from me, and a coupon code for their next order. Customers have remarked that it feels like Christmas when their purchase arrives!

In the last 2 years, I have become a caregiver for a family member in addition to my full-time job. The first year was rough, as I had to put the shop on vacation at least twice while we worked through some more difficult issues. This year has been better. In some ways, I can see how the Star Seller program has helped. The best way I find to reach my customers is through social media (currently, it’s just Instagram and Pinterest) and a monthly e-newsletter. Customers would tell me that they wanted to see what was new in the shop first.I will probably go back to Facebook, but I confess to reluctance after my account was hacked and Facebook shut me down (that’s how bad the hack was!) The real truth is that social media takes work and time that I don’t have.

Managing psphyllissews

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 the only person for whom P.S. Phyllis sews. Several times I have thought about getting someone to help me with posting new items so I could spend the majority of my time on the creation of new products. So far, I haven’t found that person. I read about how other shops buy ads, but I decided right away to listen to my customers and contact anyone who favorites any item in my shop as a means of promotion. I didn’t embrace shipping through Etsy right away. I had to see the savings, and then I was sold. Creating the shipping profiles was the next best step and just makes everything easier!

The future of psphyllissews

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

I will be retiring from my full-time job in approximately 2 years, and that will open the door for exploring different products and running a higher shop inventory. I have so many different kinds of products that I want to bring to the store, but the biggest enemy is time. One of my retirement projects is to learn watercolor painting, and if that becomes the fun that I have enjoyed so far, I might need to open a second shop just for watercolor painting!

Advice for new sellers

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

Etsy is an amazing marketplace! I encourage other creators I meet at craft shows or through friends, friends of friends, family of friends, etc. to think about starting an Etsy shop! The platform is easy to start, manage, and grow. There are amazing resources in the Seller Handbook, and the weekly emails from Etsy are great at helping me look ahead and be prepared for running my shop! The other advice is to use the shipping tools with Etsy! This was the best next step for me in running my shop!

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: $200 to $300. November was great at $500. My numbers were definitely better before caregiving and COVID.

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: This one is harder to pull off because of the varying costs of the fabrics used for the products. Sewing and quilting products generally have a lower profit margin as compared to digital products.

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: Overall, the conversion rate is 3.9%, according to the stats from Etsy.