Etsy Seller Interview with Marusa of CameosArtShop

How CameosArtShop 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?

My name is Marusa and I'm from Slovenia. I have a craft store on Etsy called Cameos Art Shop. I'm a jewelry designer. I'm selling my jewelry in several stores in Slovenia.

When I started to design my jewelry, I noticed that supplies in Slovenia were really expensive and the quality was not as good as I wanted it to be. I wanted really good-quality findings for my jewelry at an affordable price. I wanted findings and other craft supplies to be nickel and lead-free. My customers just had to wear really safe jewelry.

So this is how I started. First I bought craft supplies for myself, and then other jewelry designers from Slovenia and from Europe started to contact me to ask if I could share my craft supplies with them. I started to buy craft supplies for them, and then more buyers came along. Because of this, I opened my first craft shop in Maribor, Slovenia in 2012 and, later in 2014, my first online shop.

Today I'm here on Etsy to offer you my craft supplies and handmade cabochons. I love the Etsy community, and it is really a pleasure to be surrounded by such talented artists. I can't wait to bond and share our ideas and make some new friends.

Favorite items

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

It is difficult to decide which items would be. Each item is meticulously selected by me or was requested by my customers. Quite often, it happens that they ask me if I could provide them with an item I currently don’t have in my stock because they need it for their projects, and I often gladly fulfill their wishes and later add the item to my regular stock for other customers. I like how we trust each other and how we build friendships with my customers. My customers like handmade glass cabochons, which are really versatile and simple to use. All you need is a bit of glue and some jewelry findings to glue the cabochon to. I personally like gemstones and crystals. I simply adore them. I really like their healing potential and the positive energy they emit.

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?

Before my Etsy store, I had my own physical store in the city center, where I sold handmade items from multiple creators and some craft materials. About a year later, I opened a web shop with the craft supplies on Dawanda. Dawanda was a platform similar to Etsy but focused mostly on the German and European markets. I had my webshop there for about 4 years and had over 30,000 orders, during which I got to know many terrific creators and artists, who (some) are still my customers to this day. Later, I opened a web store on Etsy too, to expand my reach outside of Europe. Next to that, I also have my own website, cameos-art.shop, which also has a shop.

I needed 3 days to make my first sale on Etsy, but that's mostly because I already had a Dawanda store at that time and an active customer base from Dawanda.

I work on my Etsy store all the time; there is always something to do. I either try to improve my SEO, search for better performing tags,research interests, and compare markets to get a general idea of what will be most sold in the future. I take pictures of my stock, replace item images with better ones, add new items, change descriptions to better describe items,...

I am also active on Pinterest. I always ask what else the customer wants and what else I can do to present my items even better.

Managing CameosArtShop

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?

At the moment, it is just me. I love doing it and it is not difficult. Sometimes it is tough, because I have no one to rely on or to take over when I’m on vacation, but I like being in contact with my customers. It does not matter if they are regulars, first-time buyers, or only inquiring about items or have any other questions. I like the entire process. I do have some help with the packaging and fulfillment process, so from time to time I get some "helping hands" to make sure I get to prepare the packages in time and that the customer gets their orders as soon as possible.

For tag-research and keyword searching, I am using Marmalead. I also use Tailwind, which helps me with the scheduling and planning of Pinterest posts.

The future of CameosArtShop

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

I want my store to grow and to have a growing stock of different items. I want to keep growing in sales and satisfying customers. Satisfied customers are my goal and a way to rate my success. Satisfied customers are the ones who give me the energy to do what I like to do and to continue growing and learning about the process and to search for ways to improve.

Advice for new sellers

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

My advice would be to not quit. If what you do makes you happy and fulfills you, keep on doing it. It may not result in immediate sales, but believe me when I say that over time, more and more people will discover you and appreciate your work.

Every beginning is hard, but believe in yourself and work on your store. Keep learning, read about other sellers' experiences, read about their success stories and also the bad experiences they had when they started, try to find videos on youtube which may have answers to all your issues or useful tips. Always strive to have the best images possible, and always consider how you can improve your store: what else can you do? what else can be better? Put yourself in the customers' shoes and try to imagine what they would like to know, what is important to them, do you have all the important information easily accessible, etc.