Etsy Seller Interview with Emma of Casper’s Weird Nest

How Casper’s Weird Nest 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?

Hello, I’m Emma, owner of Casper’s Weird Nest on Etsy, primarily selling digital cut files. I started selling during lockdown 2020, as a way to earn some money as I had just graduated university and was having difficulty finding a job (for obvious reasons!). 

My shop is named for my rabbit, Casper, who created a magpie-esque nest inside a bush, replete with old blankets, scraps of carpet and various other trinkets that caught his fancy. The original idea was just to earn enough pocket money to keep him and his bun-wife (Georgina) in treats, while I job hunted.

I wound up selling digital cut files almost by accident. I actually started out selling digital birthday and wedding invitations, but was having little success. Then the Black Lives Matter movement started. Being a bit of an introvert, I didn’t fancy joining the throngs of people protesting on the streets, so I looked for other ways to contribute. That is how I discovered digital cut files. At the time, they were all the rage on Etsy, people were using them to decorate T-shirts, hoodies, all sorts of things to take to protests. 

So, I created an ‘essential’ bundle of BLM slogans, priced at just enough to cover the Etsy fees (and gave it away for free on social media wherever I could). The files were pretty janky, as I didn’t really know what I was doing yet. But to my surprise, it sold really well - better than anything else I’d made so far. So after that, digital cut files seemed the natural way to go!

Favorite items

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

I have a cute little bandana pattern, which really took off and was my top selling product for over a year. It was one of the first products I actually made a profit on, and the first time I realized I could make real money on Etsy. That product has currently brought in over £2000, which is insane!

I love making patterns in general- experimenting with colors and themes. This is one of my more recent bundles I’m quite proud of. The color scheme is really soothing.

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?  

My first sale was from my mum, so I’m not sure that really counts! My second sale (first ‘proper’ sale) didn’t come for several weeks, but after that the sales came rolling in. Unfortunately, I was making just a few pennies per sale (the BLM bundle), so I assumed for a long time it was just a fluke, and no-one would actually spend real money on something I’d made. 

It wasn’t until over a month after opening my shop that I started getting sales on other products. Honestly, even now, I’m still surprised that people buy my products!

Almost all of my customers come from Etsy or search engines. I do have a small social media presence, but it brings in less than 5% of my total traffic. So, search optimization is of vital importance to me. Etsy tweaks how the search works every year or so, so it’s important to keep up to date.

I also get a lot of repeat customers. I run a few sales and coupons, which keep people coming back.  I also get a lot of requests for custom designs. I love going above and beyond for those customers, as they are always very appreciative and often become regular customers.

Managing Casper’s Weird Nest

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’m a one-man show. I usually write a list at the start of the week of things I want to get done (new products, refreshing old ones, events and sales, etc.) It’s important to set yourself goals and deadlines when you’re a one person team, as there’s no one else to hold you accountable!

When I was starting out, I tried a lot of different tools. I wanted to keep my startup costs low and expand as I earned it, so I mostly used free equivalents of industry standard design programs to begin with. I’ve since migrated to Adobe products, which are a bit more slick, but the free programs do get the job done (shoutout GIMP and Inkscape!). Don’t worry about not having top shelf software to begin with, many of the skills they teach you are transferable, and you can always upgrade later once you can afford to.

Luckily, being an entirely digital shop, Etsy handles fulfillment for me. Though customers will often ask for minor tweaks or customizations, which I usually email to them free of charge. I also offer a few self-customizable products (invitations, business cards etc.). A lot of sellers use Corjil, or equivalent applications as they are designed specifically for that use and are pretty user friendly for the customer (though do charge a subscription fee). Since I don’t sell enough of these customizable products to justify a Corjil subscription, I’m using Adobe Acrobat Pro, which is slightly cheaper and allows you to create customizable PDF files using the ‘form’ function.

A couple of other useful tools: Best-hashtags.com and equivalent websites serve you the most popular hashtags for a topic over different social media platforms, handy for social media promotion. eRank is also a super handy tool for checking you’re making the best use of your keywords and images. Karencheck is a cheeky website for viewing a customer's previous product ratings - some people are never happy! I also use Excel for keeping track of my costs and profit, so everything is neat and tidy come tax day.

The future of Casper’s Weird Nest

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

I consider my shop, like most things in my life, a continual work-in-progress. It still sports the logo I bashed out in 5 minutes as a temporary placeholder when I first started selling. It’s pretty rough-and-ready, I had no experience with graphic design (or any design!) prior to starting the shop, so I still feel pretty amateur compared to other digital sellers. 

But I’m constantly improving, the things I’m making now are leagues better than when I first started out and my stats are always on the rise. I think that’s a large part of the appeal of Etsy - you don’t have to be perfectly polished and put-together right out of the gate. You’re buying from and supporting an individual rather than a faceless corporation.

So, I’m still trying out new things, and perfecting old ones. At some point, I’d like my shop to bring in enough money that I can work part time, though that’s probably way off yet!

Advice for new sellers

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

Experiment! Try out different products and see what sells best, and equally importantly: what you enjoy doing! If Etsy is something you would like to do full time one day, you don’t want to wedge yourself into a niche you don’t enjoy.

It’s also important to keep track of time. You may find yourself spending 10 hours on something that barely sells, while a product you knock up in half an hour sells like hot cakes. Finding a good balance between these things (time, profit and enjoyment) is the key to building a successful shop.

Read up on copyright laws, and Etsy’s policy on it. I see so many sellers get copyright infringement notices, and even their entire shop shut down, without even realizing they’re doing anything wrong. You will probably see other shops selling copyrighted stuff (Disney is a big one!), but most of them just haven’t been caught yet, or may have an agreement with the copyright owner.

Keep track of your sales, costs, etc. to make it easier when you come to file your taxes. Etsy provides spreadsheets which do most of this for you, but they’re not always in the format HMRC (or equivalent) wants. So get on top of it early, especially with a digital shop as you may end up making 100+ sales per day- a nightmare when it comes to tax day! 

Hone your customer service. Reviews are super important, especially when you are first starting out. Your first few reviews could make or break you.

According to Etsy policy, sellers aren’t actually obliged to offer refunds on digital products, unless there’s something wrong with it. But you’ll inevitably run into people who ordered your product by mistake, or didn’t quite understand what they were buying (no matter how clear you make it!). I’ll usually refund anyone who asks, since there’s no real loss (no material costs, etc.) and it’s usually a very small amount of money (less than £1) to keep the peace. Ultimately, it’s up to your discretion but whatever the customer throws at you, make sure you are polite and professional!

Utilize the tools and information that is available to you. Etsy wants you to succeed, they make money off every sale you make, so read all the materials they provide. And feel free to ask questions- there are plenty of forums for Etsy sellers, so get stuck in!

And on a cheesy final note: Don’t feel intimidated, every single seller was new to Etsy once - they started out exactly where you are. Get excited! As long as you keep learning, keep experimenting and keep at it, there’s no reason you can’t succeed in your goals. It won't be fast or easy, but it will be worth it!