Etsy Seller Interview with Sarah & Torben of smalartshop

How smalartshop 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! We are Sarah and Torben, the people behind Smalart. We sell lots of different stationery items like stickers, prints, washi tape, and notepads on Etsy. And we're also selling cute accessories such as enamel pins, keychains, and tote bags, but we still do our best to make the store more diverse. We launched Smalart at the beginning of 2020, during our full-time employment. At that time, Sarah fell in love with small businesses on Etsy and started her sticker and pin collection. And, despite our love of creating art, we haven't actually thought about starting a small business.

We never planned to sell our art online. But when COVID happened, the two of us worked at home, and with the extra time we now had, it just made sense to try it. Even when it's been scary to go this way, and, to be honest, sometimes it still is. We started to learn how to draw digitally on Procreate and to make stickers at home, which was our first product. We had to learn and do a lot of research about product types, materials, and taxes, and we are always testing new things like using a cutting machine or a heat press. It was quite overwhelming most of the time, but we're so happy we took this big step.

In 2021, Sarah lost her job and decided that this was what she wanted to focus on instead, even though we are still freelancers and are mostly doing video and audio productions. Relying on the shop as our source of income was hard, but we still felt a bit insecure about our work and didn't know if our brand really could make it. Financially, we are still in the beginning and can't rely on our shop, but this year we started doing much more social media and conventions to get ourselves seen more. Right now, our shop brings us so much joy that we would love to be full-time artists one day and be able to focus entirely on our brand. We just love to design things that make other people smile. We know that there will always be new challenges, but over time we just knew that this was the one thing we really wanted to do full-time.

Favorite items

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

Our favorite items are the ones we were able to create with our first Kickstarter campaign. We always wanted to produce more enamel pins, but the cost was just too much for us to pay upfront. So we decided to crowdfund this Yokai pin collection. We were worried that no one would support us with this project. That's why we are so happy with how well they were received. We can't believe the support we had with this campaign and are still speechless about all the sweet messages that arrived.

Speaking of pins, we also love these little whales we made a few months ago. These are one of our first pin designs, and we're super happy with how they came out.

We are currently experimenting with vinyl and our new heat press. These tote bags are one of the products we've created. We only sold them at conventions at first, but they were so well received that we decided to add them to the shop as well.

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?

We had our first sale within the first two weeks, but the hard thing was getting consistent sales. The best thing you can do to attract potential customers is use social media. We're trying to be very active on Instagram and TikTok. Even though not every post is widely seen and it takes a lot of work and time to build a community, it's worthwhile with time. We have already met such sweet people online and are always so grateful for every comment and interaction we get. We also try to utilize different sources of income, like our own website, Patreon, Kickstarter, and conventions.

Managing smalartshop

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?

We manage it by ourselves. From designing to producing or outsourcing products, building and updating our shop and brand, packing and shipping items, and doing marketing. Therefore, we use a lot of different apps to achieve and manage our brand. For our shop photos, we use a Canon camera and edit everything in Lightroom afterward for a consistent look throughout the shop. When adding a new product and creating a new listing on Etsy, we research popular keywords and tags with websites like eRank. To stay organized and keep everything on track, we are using Notion. It's the perfect tool for monthly or weekly schedules and task organization. Lastly, we often have the Etsy app open to ensure we don't miss a message from a customer, so we always see new orders coming in.

The future of smalartshop

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

We're consistently expanding our products and want to continue to do so in the future. We are currently remodeling our Patreon page. On our Patreon, you can sign up for monthly goodies such as digital wallpapers or stationery mail, depending on your tier. We're also adding an enamel pin tier, which is a big step for us. Our Patreon page isn't that big yet, but we just love pins and can't wait to add them to our monthly goodies. We also added our first tote bags to our shop and are working on our first little clothing line with shirts and sweaters.

Advice for new sellers

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

Opening a shop and putting your art out there can be scary and financially risky, but it's so worth it to be able to invest in your passion. Even though we've had our shop for a few years now, we still don't always know what we're doing. We're trying out countless products and designs. Not everything sells well, although it might be popular on social media. But we are always hoping for the best. It's all part of a learning process that takes a lot of time, but don't be discouraged by this and stay consistent. Keep your shop updated and be active on social media frequently. As for Etsy itself, we recommend reading Etsy's Seller Handbook. You can find all the basics about the Etsy search, tags, titles, and descriptions. Also, do some market research! Check out other Etsy sellers in your niche and find out what potential sellers are looking for. Open your shop with different listings for the same product and see how well they perform.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: Our monthly revenue changes quite heavily depending on the month and shop updates. We currently make about 400–700 Euros a month but hope to reach 1k soon.

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: The conversion rate in our etsy shop and website is always about 1%.