Etsy Seller Interview with Mrs. Gyongyi of EvercoverHelmetCover

How EvercoverHelmetCover 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?

I started my business in 2009, when we came up with this then-unique product idea with my husband. Let’s make covers for helmets! Many people didn’t understand what the point was, but Etsy was different. Customers here are open, positive, and fun-loving. They fully understood my product and became fans in a split second. I uploaded my first product on Etsy in 2011. I used other internet sales platforms earlier and had some bad experiences. My seamstress, Piri, suggested Etsy because she had sold a couple items here with some success and because she told me that the community was nice. It was to my great surprise to experience how much kinder, nicer, and more welcoming the customers were on Etsy. It felt like family from the first day, and that never changed. I could talk to the customers, Etsy customer service was approachable, and the surface was simple and easy to handle. I handled my own products, and the whole process was fun and simple.

Favorite items

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

My favorite products are custom-made helmet covers, no doubt. It is such fun to be part of a secret surprise for someone. It is awesome to come up with an idea together with my customer to make the helmet cover more vivid, more visible, more fun, and more unique. I just love the brainstorming and the excitement of the whole process. Our custom-made helmet covers are not just for fun, but they also help build the team spirit and serve as a useful tool in finding the group members on a busy ski slope. The pictures I receive of these events take me around the globe. I feel lucky because, although only indirectly, I’ve been to 79 countries around the world with my products.

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 felt like an eternity, but, in reality, it only took a couple of days to have my first customer. I started to receive a lot of great feedback, which gave me a ton of energy to upload more products. There were days when our shop had over a hundred customers thanks to ETSY ads. I just love this kind of advertising because it only takes a couple of minutes to set up and it makes it possible to advertise certain products in a really cost-effective way. I use seasonal ads, love the coupons for repeat customers, and I also enjoy the customized listings for my customers. Maybe this is what I love most about Etsy. I haven’t seen such an easy-to-handle custom product listing anywhere else.

Managing EvercoverHelmetCover

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?

Over the past decade, my one-girl show has turned into a company that employs my family and a couple of lovely people. I am lucky to choose who I want to work with, and I have built an awesome team over the years. My Etsy shop is run by a group of three. I manage the custom orders and design the helmet covers. I also take care of the pictures and manage the business. Eszter Hampl handles the orders and answers the general questions, and Anikó Bécsy-Nemes gives me support with the technical management of the shop. Anikó is in charge of updating the product pages, setting the keywords, categories, delivery times, and templates. These two ladies are a gift for me because I have no time for these tasks when I run the production process.

COVID made us realize that we cannot handle the orders from our beloved rented office on a daily basis because the office building management often restricts entry of couriers, and sometimes we couldn’t get in for weeks either due to quarantine restrictions. To prevent such issues, we decided to switch to fulfillment and trust storage, shipping, and delivery to an external company. It was the best decision ever, and they served our trust by hitting the ground with the wheels spinning. Our order process was up and running the same day without any delay, and we gained valuable time to come up with new product ideas, develop our products, and engage in quality communication with our beloved customers. Setting up fulfillment required a bigger inventory, but it was worth the effort.

The future of EvercoverHelmetCover 

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

The periods when we receive several hundred orders a day are thrilling but also quite stressful. Due to the nature of our product, we have peak times, and our sales are seasonal. Our goal is to build a product portfolio that offers something to our customers all year long, eventually smoothing out the seasonality of our sales. 

Advice for new sellers

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

One of my best business decisions was to register on Etsy. Although I have my own web shop and am developing a presence in brick-and-mortar shops as well, Etsy has always been a reliable point in our lives. The system at Etsy taught me my daily routine. Since positive customer reviews have always been my top priority, I had to learn that any question or inquiry needs to be answered regardless of whether it is the weekend or holiday time. I never left a problem unsolved. I had to react to any issue quickly and efficiently. A potential supply shortage or delivery difficulty taught me to communicate with my customers. Over the years, Etsy taught me order, discipline, and how to handle extreme workloads. We developed hand-in-hand: Etsy became a part of my success, and maybe my success contributed a little bit to the development of Etsy as well.

Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: 8000EUR

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 200%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 2.1%

We have had close to 12,000 sales since we started. Our shop generated 200k EUR in sales value from close to 7000 orders over the past 3 years. This is a true reflection of the fact that we put a lot of energy into the shop these years, and it paid off. We have a long way to go. We are still learning the system and the new functions. However, these years taught us that our efforts will bring results, and we also learned that if we do something, we must do it well, otherwise the whole thing is in vain.