Etsy Seller Interview with Nina & Helena of woodsomeshop

How woodsomeshop 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?

Hi! We’re Helena and Nina, founders of woodsome. As sisters, we spend a lot of time together working on our common desire to create a place where we can live out our creative minds and balance our hectic everyday lives. This was when our Etsy shop, woodsomeshop, went live, a pun on "wood and awesome". It all started while walking on the beach in Sardegna, Italy, where we collected driftwood to build something out of it. We started with jewellery hangers for necklaces. Starting with our Instagram account, we met many other handcraft shops, and more and more ideas developed. Wood can be well combined with macramé and dried flowers, so we informed ourselves about different materials and suppliers, taught ourselves new techniques with tutorials, worked on new articles, and just watched what sells well. At the beginning, our friends were our best customers and supporters; we always asked them to order it through the shop so we could get some traffic on the account, and it worked pretty well!

Favorite items

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

One of our favourite items are the self-engraved clips for pacifiers. We have the cutest designs and animals on them, and it is always fun to create some new ones. They are also selling very well, which makes them even more fun. It‘s an item that reaches both other small businesses and private individuals.

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 about half a year until we received orders regularly. Once the item is sold and the customer is happy with it, it goes on sale, and it will be listed higher in the search ad, so even more people will buy it. Sometimes you just need that first customer for your new item to start selling; just don‘t lose hope if it takes a few weeks! Attractive photos are the easiest way to attract customers. Instagram (ads) is also a very good platform to make new people aware of your shop. We could do way more to attract people, but we simply don‘t have the time for it since we both have full-time jobs and are happy with the number of orders per week.

Managing woodsomeshop

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?

Actually, it is only us, yes. We produce and shoot all the articles ourselves, edit the pictures, do customer service, pack the orders, and ship them. The whole magic happens in the living room of our small apartments.

The future of woodsomeshop

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

We want to keep the quality high, and customer satisfaction is a high priority for us. Quality over quantity, with attention to details That is what handmade and wood stand for. A few new items will also be added from time to time.

We will soon have a big, wooded office where we can be more productive and professional. We would love to create a creative space in Munich one day where we can offer a wide range of creative workshops and a small shop for gifts and accessories. It would be great to create a space for peripherals to spend quality time.

Advice for new sellers

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

Our advice is: Just start. Take time to stage the articles nicely (beautiful pictures, interesting and informative texts, unified appearance of the page). Tell family, friends, and acquaintances about it, and thus generate the first purchases via Etsy. Do it with love; people will notice it. From there on, it will run by itself.