How TheAncientHome 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?
The Ancient Home is the leading brand of classic home decor worldwide. We democratize art and classic designs to ultimately provide a touch of beauty, personality, and history to contemporary interiors. The concept arose from a love of the arts. Our obsession is offering the best product and service for our customers, helping people achieve the "wow" factor for their dream home. Part of the production is done in-house, and part is outsourced. This gives us more headroom to grow and improve not only our product range but also the number of employees to service our customers. All our production is extremely curated.
Favorite items
What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?
We do not have any particular favorite products. We love them all! However, the winged victory goddess sculptures and the horse statues are loved by everyone. They are universal and loved by most people. We are very much into sculpture. Everything in 3D adds complexity to art. 3D objects are not only more difficult to replicate or copy, but they are also more difficult to manufacture. 3D printers are very far from creating quality objects at an affordable price, and they usually print only plastic, which is bad for the environment. Example of a winged victory sculpture:
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?
It took us several months after our website went live. On Etsy, it must have taken a couple of weeks. Etsy does the marketing for us, therefore it was much faster. Nevertheless, SEO is still an important factor in getting known inside Etsy. This is why we are an old Allura customer. We run ads for both Etsy and our website, but still, most of our sales are organic.
Managing TheAncientHome
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 both manage the company, but we have a whole team behind us. As soon as we could afford it, we hired people to help us with operations and marketing, even if it meant there wasn’t any profit. We are strong believers that it’s impossible to offer quality service without people around us. To fulfill orders, we use proprietary software and every available technology. Our warehouse is fully barcoded. It is a very expensive solution, but we ship internationally, and our logistics needs are very complex.
The future of TheAncientHome
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
We are continuously monitoring our stats within Etsy to make sure our KPIs are in check. We have been star sellers since the rating system started and plan to keep it this way. Our product range is always expanding and adapting to the tastes of buyers. We plan to grow our range of cold-cast bronze sculptures in 2023. This new year, we also plan to revise our SEO sitewide.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
Perseverance. Payback time in business is extremely long. Ecommerce is not so different from traditional businesses. Think long-term, reinvest in the business, and you will grow and succeed.
TheAncientHome
The leading brand of classic home decor
