Etsy Seller Interview with Beth of SnugHomeDecor

How SnugHomeDecor 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?

I’m Beth, owner of Snug Home Decor, an Etsy shop that sells macrame home decor and accessories that are all handmade by me in my home studio in Leeds, UK. I started learning how to macramé in early 2020, when, at the start of the pandemic, like many others, I found myself with more downtime on my hands and decided to buy a ‘make your own macramé wall hanging’ craft kit (I still have this hung up in my studio today!).

I quickly found macramé to be a great tool for mindfulness and meditation and started to learn more about it as a craft and how to master different knots. Whenever I created a new piece, I found my interests always came back to home decor products (probably because we were all spending a lot of time at home then!) like plant hangers and wall hangings. A few months later, a friend encouraged me to set up an Etsy shop and start selling my crafts, so after a lot of research and brainstorming, I got to work creating a collection of core home decor products, and Snug Home Decor was launched! Fast forward to today, and thousands of knots later, my little shop has grown to include not just macramé home decor but accessories too, as well as another new interest of mine, crystals.

Favorite items

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

My mini hangers are one of my favorite products and are also one of my best sellers right now. I love the simplicity of their design, which a lot of my customers comment on too. Their lower price point also makes them a great affordable present, and I often see these marked as a gift on customer orders.

Another favorite product is my spiral plant hanger. It’s a steady earner and is the first design I created for my shop, so it holds a special place in my heart. I even have a few prototypes of these hanging in my home!

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 made my first sale on Etsy within a week of my shop going live and had made over 60 sales by the end of my first month. I believe the key to this was my SEO. I conducted a lot of keyword and algorithm research before setting up my shop and made sure I was including keywords and phrases in my listings that Etsy shoppers were searching for. My main job is in digital marketing, so I did have a little bit of a head start on SEO tactics, but it’s easy to learn from scratch too.

Most of my shop traffic still comes from Etsy searches, both on the app and desktop, as well as from customers searching on external search engines such as Google, so my SEO is still very important to my success. I regularly test and tweak my listings and keywords to ensure they are optimized. For Etsy search, it’s also important to ensure your photography is eye-catching and professional-looking, especially for the first image that shows in search results, as this is what will make a customer click on your listing.

Managing SnugHomeDecor

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?

It’s just me running the shop, which makes me the head of design, product control, photography, logistics, customer service, and accounting, to name a few! I have the ‘Sell on Etsy’ app on my phone; this allows me to quickly respond to customer requests throughout the day, wherever I am, as well as be notified of new orders as soon as they come in. I also use Adobe Lightroom for photo editing. I use Royal Mail for fulfilling orders as they are usually reliable and it’s easy to purchase their shipping labels on Etsy’s sellers' platform. I pack orders myself and early on invested in a label printer for shipping and customs labels, which has saved me hours of time.

The future of SnugHomeDecor 

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

In the future, one of my goals is to expand my product line further. I like to keep an eye on home decor trends and use these to create new product ideas that will sell. I’d also like to create more one-of-a-kind wall-hanging series, as these are always fun to make! In terms of marketing, I want to diversify my traffic sources more over the next year by growing my following on social media and running more paid campaigns. But most importantly, as I also work full-time and don’t have the pressure of Etsy needing to pay the bills, my most important goal is to keep enjoying running my shop and using it as a way of channeling my creative side.

Advice for new sellers

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

My top piece of advice to new sellers would be to do your research before starting! Look at other sellers’ shops that you like both on and off Etsy, and learn how to do keyword research and how Etsy’s algorithm works. There are tons of guides online on these topics, and they are both key to getting found on Etsy.

High-quality photographs of your products are also important. You don’t necessarily need a professional camera to do this; smartphones have amazing cameras that will do the trick too. Make sure to not just take close-ups on plain backdrops but stylized and lifestyle shots too to help potential customers imagine using your product.

When your shop first launches, be prepared for a period of trial and error. Make only small batches of your products and see what sells well and what doesn’t. Better yet, if your products can be made to order, then definitely choose this as your production method, as it will save you both time and money.

Finally, customer service is key! People will often shop on Etsy for a more personal buying experience. Things like adding extra touches to your packaging, going the extra mile for a bespoke order, and being polite and empathetic (even when things go wrong) are vital for building up a returning customer base.