Etsy Seller Interview with Abi of WishKnotsJewellery

How WishKnotsJewellery 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 Abigail Franklyn, owner and founder of Wish Knots Jewelry. I design, make, and sell simple and easy-to-wear jewelry. I have been making jewelry for 34 years, and it is a big passion of mine. I opened Wish Knots in January 2017, and I also have a bead store on Etsy called The Bead Garden, which I originally started in 2004, when my second son was a baby.

I love all jewelry-making techniques, including beading, wire work, macramé, knotting, and crochet. When I started my jewelry business, I knew I had to find a balance between making jewelry because I enjoyed the process and making it to sell. The intricate beading and wirework I love takes hours, and I knew I would not be able to charge a fair hourly rate for those pieces, at least not early on. I decided to design pieces that would be quicker to make and therefore could be made to order. They also needed to be budget-friendly and easy to wear. My first listings were simple wish bracelets and macramé bracelets, and over the last six years I have added more ranges, including gemstone Mala necklaces, Aura crystal necklaces, gemstone pendants, and threader earrings.

Favorite items

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

Quite often my favorite items are the newest ones, like these threader earrings. They are part of a new line and have sold quite well so far.

Another favorite of mine is the Angel Aura necklace. I like that it is a simple and clean design, and the nature of the Aura Quartz means that each pendant is unique. It is one of my biggest sellers.

My absolute favorite item in the shop at the moment is a limited edition pair of earrings with Garnets, iolite, and elephant charms. The reason I cannot make very many of these is because the Czech glass leaf bead at the bottom of the earrings is from my original Bead Garden stock from 2004, and I cannot get any more of these. I used them in a very popular beading kit called the Summer Garden Necklace and the kit sold out at every bead show I went to. I think it was because of these beautiful leaves.

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 was incredibly fortunate that I got my first sale within a couple of days of starting to stock the shop. In my first two weeks of business on Etsy, I had three sales, totaling £14. I know that isn’t a huge sum, but it proved to me that this could work if I put the effort in.

I would love to say that I attract thousands of customers via social media, but that would be a lie. I need to be more consistent with my social media, but that doesn’t come naturally to me, and I feel that lets my business down. It's something I need to improve.

I think the thing that I have excelled at is customer service, and that has made a big difference. I get a lot of repeat customers. Nobody is perfect, and mistakes happen. I always try to fix it, and I try to be helpful and communicate. I haven’t always been able to please everyone, but I know I have always tried.

Managing WishKnotsJewellery

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?

I run my Etsy businesses on my own from my home office in Hampshire, U.K. I don’t use a lot of tools and apps. I have tried eRank and Marmalead, and they are excellent tools, but I couldn’t get to grips with them quickly enough, and I started to feel unproductive, so I gave up.

My favorite online tools are Canva for creating graphics and social media posts, Later for scheduling social media posts, and Trello for planning projects and managing my workflow. I have used Shopify for my website for five years, and it's quite easy to use. I would like to spend some time improving my website's SEO at some point.

I prefer to do most of my planning with a pen and paper, and I love a good diary or planner. I have found that the Moleskine Weekly Notebook XL is the one that works best for me. It has plenty of room for notes and planning, along with weekly diary pages and a monthly and yearly planner at the front.

All of my jewelry is made to order. I ship worldwide and offer both tracked and untracked services. I also offer free worldwide shipping on all orders over $30. I have a business account with Royal Mail and use their Click and Drop service for shipping. It is very convenient to process postage in house and not have to queue at the Post Office, and all order information, including customs information, is sent automatically to my Click and Drop dashboard.

The future of WishKnotsJewellery 

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

I didn’t set any financial or sales goals for 2023. Instead, my goals include things like learning email marketing and how to manage social media like an actual social person. I want to improve the things I have lost focus on, like my website. I also want to increase my product range, so I plan to set a listing goal quite soon. I like to be quite flexible in my goal setting, and many of my goals are short-term. I try not to worry too much about not hitting my targets, as there are many things in my life that I have no control over, especially at the moment. It’s important to be able to adapt and change plans when necessary.

Advice for new sellers

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

List as regularly as you can. Working on your shop is like giving it a little shake to wake it up, and it reminds the Etsy algorithm that you’re still there.

Always treat customers as you wish to be treated, even when you are in a bad mood. Customer service is incredibly important. Make it your aim to build a good relationship with your customers. That being said, don’t contact customers unnecessarily; wait until they contact you and reply as soon as you can. Be prepared that you will occasionally lose money fixing your mistakes, but it is worth it.

Good photography is extremely important, but it can take time to learn. Etsy ran an extremely helpful workshop on product photography recently, which really helped me. Lastly, don’t give up. It’s very easy to be discouraged, but you can be successful if you keep learning and keep going.