Etsy Seller Interview with Kent and Mariette of SmartScreenStencils

How SmartScreenStencils 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?

We’re Kent and Mariette, a husband-and-wife team who founded Smart Screen Stencils. We create reusable adhesive silk screen stencils with either a ready-made design or a custom design. Our silk screen stencils can be used on pretty much any type of smooth to semi-smooth surface, such as fabric, wood, glass, clay, polymer clay, porcelain, metal, resin, and the list goes on.

Our story started before I, Mariette, even met my now husband, Kent. He was a master stained glass artist in the States, where we eventually met. When we moved back to Europe (Croatia), my husband expanded his skillset to include custom decorative sandblasting. He discovered these special films that you can customize to create truly intricate designs, patterns, and even portraits to be able to sandblast onto glass windows, bottles, and decor pieces as well as onto stone and tiles. He needed someone to edit the images to be able to turn them into the sandblasting films, which is where I stepped in and learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. We got the machinery to develop the sandblasting films, learned the ropes, and got to work. A while later, we figured out that we could use the same tools and skills we had now acquired to create custom reusable silk screen stencils as well. And so, we started Smart Screen Stencils as a side hustle and opened up our Etsy shop in 2019.

Favorite items

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

Our favorite item that we sell is also our top seller: our custom SilkScreen stencil. For this item, our customers send us their own design, which we turn into a custom-made silkscreen stencil. We ask our customers to send us the design before placing the order and specifying the size they’d like it to be, so we can double-check that we can make it happen. It’s quite intriguing and inspiring to see what people come up with, and it's satisfying to be able to help them achieve their creative goals.

Because our stencils are so versatile and can be used on such a wide variety of surfaces, we get all sorts of customers who need them for different types of projects. Some are novices to stenciling, and it’s very satisfying to be able to encourage them to create something special; others are skilled artists who wish to expand on their craft and knowledge. For example, we’ve helped a customer create custom t-shirts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their family business (she had never used a stencil before), and another (return) customer creates custom etched glasses as a participation prize for a yearly marathon she helps to organize, yet another creates custom polymer clay jewelry, and lately there’s been quite a bit of interest from pottery artists who create custom pieces ranging from mugs and plates to pet urns. The reason why our custom silk screen stencils sell so well is that people can come to us with their own unique design that fits perfectly for their specific projects. Very often, it’s not something you can find easily; it’s unique and personal.

It’s quite amazing to see how many different types of crafts these stencils get used for, and it’s a thrill every time we get to see our customers’ finished projects. Sometimes they send us pictures, sometimes even videos. Other times posts pop up in our Instagram feed, as a lot of our return customers are artists with their own Etsy shops. We often like to share these on our social media, giving them a big shout-out, as we believe in supporting other small businesses.

As a side effect, seeing all these amazing makers use their custom stencils gives me a good excuse to try out new crafts myself. We’ve done fused glass in the past, but by now we’ve tested out stenciling on wood, polymer clay, fabric (screen printing both tote bags and t-shirts), glass etching, card making, glass painting, and stenciling onto canvas to create custom art for our daughter’s room, and I’ve just signed up for a beginner’s pottery class next month.

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 created our Etsy account on October 24th, 2019, and, if I remember correctly, we put up our first listings about a week later. We had our first sale on November 4, 2019. It was quite fast, but I think that’s because we were mainly listing Christmas-themed stencils, and it was just good timing. I remember how we had a bunch of sales right up until Christmas, and then they died off. Back then, I was running the shop front and Kent was making the stencils. I actually didn’t learn how to make the silk screen stencils until somewhere in 2020, as it seemed too complicated to me and I was afraid I would mess it up. But since sales were down, I had plenty of time to learn how to develop the stencils. It was a bit of a learning curve, but it’s easy now. Everything has a learning curve, from making stencils to running a successful Etsy shop. Once I got the hang of developing stencils, I went back to our shop and started researching what our customers wanted and what niches we could grow into. Knowing what your customer wants really helps in creating compelling items to sell and gaining return customers.

At the same time, we don’t forget about new potential buyers. I love helping new customers who tell us about what they wish to create but have never used a silk screen stencil before. By simply asking for help, they’re already on their way to creating that custom item that they’ve dreamed of, and we’re happy to help and guide them. What’s great about the stencils is the fact that you don’t have to be good at calligraphy to create a high-quality wood sign, and you don’t have to have years of practice sketching and drawing to create unique patterns on your hand-made jewelry or even commission an outside retailer to print your logo onto shirts. You can create whatever you want with a little imagination, the right tools and instructions, and a bit of practice.

The same principles apply to running an Etsy shop. You have to use your imagination, always keep learning, use the right tools (the Etsy Seller Handbook, good photography, stats, keywords, strategic marketing, and Adobe Illustrator in our case), don’t be afraid to ask for help, and always keep learning. For example, I just finished an SEO program specifically for Etsy shops. Even though we’ve been on Etsy for quite a few years and we get decent traffic, I feel like it’s only now that we’re getting more strategic about optimizing our SEO and strategically working on increasing our conversion rate.

I used to focus on social media to guide people to our shop, but we find that it’s actually Etsy that drives most of the traffic because people are searching for specific items rather than just scrolling through their feeds to pass time. So if you’re just starting an Etsy shop, I would really recommend you focus on your SEO and optimizing the use of keywords to use in your title, description, and tags. Think about what your customer is looking for and how your product can meet that need.

Managing SmartScreenStencils

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?

By now, it’s mainly just me who’s running the shop. My husband has taken a step back, but he’s my trusted advisor and consultant, and I often run new ideas by him. He has a mind for business, while I easily get distracted by "something shiny". 

Obviously, I use the Etsy Sellers App, but I muted any notification sound, and I’ve recently set up a strict rule for myself that I will not look at any messages after 4 p.m.Most of our customers live in different time zones, so if I read a message, I feel the need to instantly reply to it. I’ve set up the auto-reply to inform people that we will reply as soon as we’re back in the office, which is what I do. Mornings are reserved for replying to messages and e-mails, creating proof images for custom stencil requests, and making stencils for orders (in that order). I run a post office run 2-3 times a week and always ship with a tracking number. Because we’re based in Croatia, Europe, we don’t have the option to get shipping labels through Etsy, but that’s okay. I hand-write each address and usually try to time the post office runs to coincide with when I take our daughter to training. I fulfill the orders through the app, add on the tracking number, and send a follow-up message later to let customers know that their order is on its way, inform them about any promos we’re running, and send detailed user instructions once again (in case they missed them in the listing description).

We also use Aweber to grow our customer base and email list. We send out a welcome series and a discount code for returning customers. We intend to start sending more consistent e-mails out on a monthly basis, both to get more feedback from customers to improve our products and our shop and to inspire customers to try something new and give them ideas for future projects. Finally, we use simple Google Spreadsheets to stay on top of our cost and income balances and to keep track of inventory.

The future of SmartScreenStencils

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

Right now, I’m working on our SEO and updating our current listings to both increase our conversion rate and clarify what our stencils can be used for. Next would be to create better videos to accompany our listings and to start consistently sending out monthly e-mails to our subscribers. We also have a blog that has sadly been neglected due to other priorities, but we will get it back on track and post more how-to videos and project videos on our Youtube channel as well.

Our goal for the future is to significantly increase our revenue and create sub-niches within our shop. On the back end, I’d like to get more structured in my workflow and create more time to spend with our family.

Advice for new sellers

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

Start before you are ready; don’t wait to post your listing because you’re unsure you’ve written the title and description right or used the right keywords and tags, etc. If you have an item you are proud of ready to sell, then upload those 10 photos, create a video, write a descriptive title, and come up with the best compelling description you can. Then list it!

You can always update those photos, the title, the tags, the description, etc. after you’ve listed it, and you probably should, because nobody gets it "perfect" on their first try. But if you don’t put it out there, then how are you ever going to get feedback?

One caveat to this advice: don’t list it unless you know your numbers! We did this in the beginning and based our prices off what other shops were selling similar items for. To be competitive, we set our prices on the lower edge of the scale. Luckily, we didn’t lose money per se, but we didn’t make much either.

Now, I keep track of our sales and costs in a monthly spreadsheet. I jot down for each sale: the date of the sale, the order number, the item description, the size, what type of stencil it is (we have two types), the amount, and the sales price. Next to that, I list the material cost, shipping cost, packaging cost, state sales tax, Etsy processing fee, Etsy transaction fee, Etsy listing fee (we’ve set it up so that Etsy automatically renews the listing), Etsy shipping fee, and Etsy Offsite Adds fee. I use a simple Google Sheets spreadsheet for this and can then clearly see what the profit is on each order and the profit percentage. Plus, I set it up to calculate the total of each of the costs (material, shipping, packaging, Etsy fees) so I can estimate how much money I need to budget for the next month to cover this.

It’s not perfect, but you have to know your costs so you can price your item and make a profit. And if you think your item will then be priced too high, try listing it anyway and make sure you convey why your item is worth it, but also see how you can cut costs if you wish to keep making and selling this type of item.

Finally, read the Etsy Seller Handbook. There’s a lot of information in there that took me a long time to learn because I didn’t read it, to begin with. And keep in mind that if you join an Etsy sellers support group on social media, there are a lot of people out there who haven’t read it yet. So be careful with whose advice you take.

Etsy is an easy-to-use online selling platform for handmade items that lets you set up shop in no time. It’s known as THE place for shoppers to go when they want to buy something handmade and unique while supporting small businesses worldwide. The Seller Handbook teaches you how Etsy works and how to make it work for you, so you too can have great success selling on Etsy.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: It varies depending on the time of year. 

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: Roughly 50-55%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 0.6% - there are a lot of listings that need to get updated, these have really low conversion rates. Remember Etsy calculates the average of all of your listings.Our consistent year-long top seller (custom silk screen stencil listing) on the other hand has a conversion rate of 3.3% and our listing with our current highest conversion rate is at 9.9%