How Compoco 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?

We’re Tal and Shani, sisters and designers with a common passion for beautiful design.

Our dream of working together and creating a brand of our own came true about 6 years ago. Starting small with pin buttons and then enamel pins, and slowly developing and adding stationary products. Our store on Etsy grew and developed along with our brand. When our pins got popular, we decided on our next and biggest step, and started developing stationery and paper goods.

It was very important for us to add unique content and value to our products with an uncompromising design. In every new product, we focus on a subject that we find interesting.

We start the process by cracking an innovative concept and move on to the long process of working on the fine details.

One of the leading principals is focusing on a subject that will give inspiration to anyone using our products.

Every single product is created with great attention to detail.

Since both of us are perfectionists, the process of creating a new product line can take as long as a year. We have a backlog of designs that were put aside, waiting for the right time to emerge and be better developed. The processes can be slow, but that guarantees we bring a product to the market that we’re sure is perfect and we can stand behind it after toiling on every tiny detail to perfection.

In our view, the love and attention to detail show in every aspect of the product, from the design to the quality. Eventually, our customers get a perfect product, and the reviews speak for themselves.

Favorite items

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

We love all our products and have some winning collections like the good luck cat.

Good luck black cat collection box

The Good Luck Cat started as one of the first enamel pins we designed, and after cracking the concept, it developed into a complete collection. We wanted to address the issue of black cat misconceptions—the ones that stay the longest at the shelters—and turn them into good luck charms—and by that, change the perception of them in countries where they are shunned and considered bad luck.

Our black cat collection captured a lot of people's hearts and is our best seller. Of course, every new collection added to our store benefits from the fact that we are constantly learning and developing. The design leans on our past experience with other products and conclusions from previous collections.

Our 2 new collections, the fireflies and yoga cats, are also very successful, and we love the products that perfectly combine a harmonic variety of patterns and colors.

Born to shine collection
 Yoga Cats collection

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?

The first pin was sold after a few days of opening the store, and sales had a slow upslope, increasing with every product variety introduction. In our Etsy store, we get both new incidentals that come through organic search and clients that know us and our products and return for repeat purchases. We use advertising on external platforms like Pinterest and social media, mainly to advance our own private site.

Managing Compoco

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?

The management of our store is done by both of us. Each takes care of a specific aspect of the store's activity. Naturally, like in any business, we have different aspects of the business that are not product design related, like marketing, sales, photography, and others. Each time we add a new product, we try to upgrade the existing listings and add new features developed by Etsy, like adding videos to products. We have hundreds of products in the store, so this is a lengthy process, along with our other tasks.

The future of Compoco

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

Today, we sell to multiple stores and museums in the United States and around the world, as well as to private customers all over the world, and we strive to release more products that will inspire and bring joy to people, as well as to be a leading global brand known all over the world. 

Advice for new sellers

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

Start small, step by step. You have to understand that things take time. It’s important to invest in every list and product you put on Etsy from the beginning, maybe even invest in one list and then duplicate what you can from it to the rest if they are of the same type. In the beginning, we could not imagine the current size of our store and the number of products. It’s not that we didn’t plan ahead; we were just the best we could at what we knew how to do and worked hard to learn the rest.

It all started as a side hobby that grew into a full-fledged business.