Etsy Seller Interview with Linda of eleven44

How eleven44 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 Linda Morkos, and I am the founder, owner, and designer of eleven44. I started upcycling clothes in the early 2000s as a hobby, and somehow people liked the one-of-a-kind pieces I was making. At some point, I began making pants from organic cotton to go along with the pieces and eventually moved on from upcycling as I realized it would be impossible to scale. I moved from stitching everything myself to outsourcing the manufacturing when I moved to Bali in 2008. Upcycling began as a hobby, but it was an intentional act of repurposing and followed the fundamental principle of making things that had a lower impact on the planet because of the materials they were made from and how they were made. This foundational value has been and will remain the cornerstone of what I do.
Now my focus is on minimalist comfort basics, made only using textiles that in some way qualify as being more eco-friendly or low impact than conventional options (since nothing is perfect or truly sustainable since we still run the whole world on fossil fuels), and I try to use my line as a way of educating by way of modeling the superiority of a less-is-more lifestyle.
In the words of Vivienne Wesstwood, "buy less, choose well." I focus on creating timeless, classic, and quality pieces for a capsule wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe is a collection of clothing that is composed of interchangeable items only, to maximize the number of outfits that can be created. The aim is to have an outfit suitable for any occasion without owning excessive items of clothing.

Favorite items

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

My favorite items and best sellers are the bamboo kaftans. designed to be elegant, versatile, and comfortable—I live in mine! I began with an asymmetric off-the-shoulder version and have since expanded to include long sleeve versions, an oversized t-shirt style for men, and custom, exclusive prints.Many people have bought them, and we have hundreds of glowing reviews for this product.

Another favorite is our bamboo romper—just such a cool look, and again, so comfortable. People just love it and live in it!

An honorable mention goes to our high-waisted leggings with side pockets. Our GOTS-certified organic cotton is slightly thicker than the fabric most activewear brands use. I focus on support with a bit of compression. Our activewear pieces border on shapewear, as they are specially designed to hug and lift the female form. The quality of the textile and stitching is the best there can be, so these last a really long time and are a worthy investment. Again, we have many loyal customers who invest in our pieces, test drive them, and then come back for more colors over time.

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 have been on Etsy since 2010! So in those days, the platform was new, and shoppers could more easily find brands. I made my first sale within a few days. Now I rely on organic traffic and repeat customers (of which I have a lot), and we have thousands of 4 and 5-star reviews, which really helps. I tried paid promotions for a while but couldn't figure it out—I was spending thousands of dollars and making sales—the stats look great... until you realize there isn't much left after the ad spend and the cost of goods.So I turned them off and went back to organic. I also run a Shopify store, so I focus there more. Etsy was at one time a great source of income for me. Not as much any more, but I still keep it running as everything is set up, and it's still worth it for me.

Managing eleven44

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?

It’s just me and my assistant Putu who handle the packing and fulfillment of our sales. I am in charge of all creative aspects of eleven44, including design, styling, photoshoots, content management, production management, customer service, and social media.Google Drive is powerful; we use a lot of sheets to manage inventory, customers, and our production. I try to keep it as simple and cost-effective as possible. Adding lots of apps definitely adds up! We still do many things somewhat manually, but we have simple, hand-made systems in place that are very effective.
Of course, the actual production of the clothing is outsourced; we work with a small family tailoring studio that cuts and sews our clothing. Screen printing is also outsourced to a small cottage industry facility, which helps us continue to make unique, custom fabric for our shop.

The future of eleven44 

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
I would love to sell more products! Perhaps that means bringing in expert help from outside to handle SEO and hopefully create better traffic to my store.

Advice for new sellers

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

I guess if I were starting an Etsy shop now, I would focus first on market research before I started to produce anything! See what is in demand on the platform and what you can produce and sell with a nice margin. The benefit of hindsight, I guess, is that you can reverse engineer the process. If I knew then what I know now, I probably never would have gone into e-commerce! especially not manufacturing goodsI think if I started now, I might go for digital products, eliminating the need for manufacturing physical products, which also eliminates the need for shipping, which has risen in cost considerably since 2020! not to mention all the additional customs and taxes on both imports and exports. It's not as easy as it used to be to make it in e-commerce, but it's still possible.