Etsy Seller Interview with Rachel of RachelAntoniaDesigns

How RachelAntoniaDesigns 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?

Rachel Antonia Designs started in 2017, but I didn’t put my first products up on Etsy until 2018. It opened with three fruit-themed journals and three different greeting card designs and has since morphed into the witchy, spooky, ghost-filled online shop that it is today. I am an artist and I have a degree in interior design, so I knew right away I wanted my art to be functional, which meant choosing cards, journals, and eventually the gorgeous mugs, stickers, and recipe cards you see in the shop now. In 2020, I added in hand-painted items like wooden mushrooms, wood slice ornaments, and terracotta pots as a way to create more one-of-a-kind pieces, and in 2022, we started collaborating with other makers and artists in the Connecticut area.

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 rotate often, but currently I love the glass mushroom and the glass ghost mug. I really wanted to create a witchy, spooky version of what I see in stores like Anthropologie, so I took the time to draw specific illustrations and source thick, good-quality mugs with good color payoff. Etsy is a machine that has grabbed tight hold of a few of my other items, so comparatively, these don’t sell as well. But they are without a doubt the most complemented, and I always sell out of one design or the other at my in-person events. They’re just too cool.

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 Etsy sales probably came within a couple months and came from family or friends that wanted to support me. It took two full years to get consistent sales and traffic. So please don’t a. worry that you’re not selling as well as everyone else or b. Think of Etsy as a quick way to earn money, like all those self-help blogs say. I attract customers to my shop by being active on Instagram with posts, reels, and stories, as well as on TikTok, and I do in-person events.

Managing RachelAntoniaDesigns

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?

My shop is me, myself, and I, and it is a lot of work. I do custom illustration work, sell apparel, and I’m the marketing and bookkeeper for my business. (She does it all.) So part of the reason my shop is sustainable is because I have reasonable processing times for each item and because, while I design all the items in my shop, I partner with incredible people in the industry who know their stuff. I don’t print my stickers or cards at home, and I don’t sublimate mugs myself. I work with other companies to create the best products with my designs. So we make them in batches, and I ship them out when they’re ordered.

The future of RachelAntoniaDesigns 

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

As an artist, I really work on what pieces I want to create and then what I can do with them. There are probably 20 illustrations I’m dying to work with and add to the shop as mugs, cards, or stickers. For 2023, my goal is to add art prints to the shop, do a round of wood slice keychains and some other witchy ornaments this year, and have 1-2 collaborations with other artists in the works. We’ll see what happens.

Advice for new sellers

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

Honestly, you know yourself better than anyone else, so do what you think is best. But if you’re in this article looking for advice, I repeat all the time, "Try a lot of different things." You may find one thing works, and that’s amazing, but then you will get stuck thinking that’s all you can ever do. You may discover (as I did) that you needed to try five different products from three different companies and change your entire shop theme to feel more in line with what you and your audience desired. If it’s not working, try something else. If it is working, try something new for fun. Just keep growing in all different directions, because you have no idea where you’ll end up.