Etsy Seller Interview with Anja and Brid of STUDIOSCHNITTREIF

How STUDIOSCHNITTREIF 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 are Anja and Brid from STUDIO SCHNITTREIF. Since 2012, we have been developing well-designed sewing patterns and easy-to-follow photo tutorials for beginners and those who have loved sewing for a long time. Since 2018, we have been a part of the Etsy family and love the creative community here. Our patterns are 100% self-made. From the initial idea, the design, the pattern construction, and the instructions and cover images, we have everything in our own hands and can thus offer a product that we really stand behind!

Favorite items

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

We love some sewing patterns in particular because they have been with us for so long, we have received positive feedback on them, we have put a lot of work into them, or just because the photoshooting was particularly fun. One of our first patterns was the dress Frau Fannie." It is now 9 years old and is still sewn over and over again. We are very proud of that. We put a lot of work into the blouse, FRAU YOKO, until it fit the way we wanted it to. It is still a top seller. The coat, FRAU LINDA, is loved by the customers. We get enthusiastic feedback again and again. And then there are always the latest patterns, which we are very curious to see if our customers like as much as we do. The latest one is the shirt FRAU LORI, which has been very well received so far!

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 already been active on other portals for a few years when we joined Etsy in 2018 and already had a small fanbase on social media. Many customers then followed us to Etsy. The first sale was, therefore, very quick. Over the years, we have gained many new customers and especially appreciate the international nature of Etsy. It's great to see how many countries our patterns are sewn in! Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are our channels to promote our sewing patterns and our shop.

Managing STUDIOSCHNITTREIF

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?

Many of our products are digital, i.e., ebooks; these are automatically available to customers on Etsy after purchase. That's great! Our paper patterns, on the other hand, are sent out the old-fashioned way: by hand. To create our invoices, we use the app billbee." This makes our bookkeeping much easier. For legal questions and legally compliant texts, we also use onwalt.de. It keeps us up-to-date on legal changes and makes it easy to implement them in the Etsy shop.

The future of STUDIOSCHNITTREIF

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

We would like to become even more international! We already offer all ebooks in French and partly in English. We would like to increase the proportion of non-German-speaking customers. In the long term, we could also imagine adding Spanish as a fourth language.

Advice for new sellers

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

Offer a product that you can really stand behind! Put a lot of energy into good photos and try to give your shop character and recognition value. Be friendly and attentive to your customers. Be active on social media, and don't get discouraged so quickly if things don't go as you want them to. Give your shop time to develop!