How MainelyWild 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?
Hey, I’m Ryan, and I’m the proud owner of MainelyWild. My girlfriend (now wife) moved over to Maine from the UK nearly 3 years ag,o and whilst we were chatting and walking around our land one day we realised how useful many of our plants/trees right here on our doorstep are. We live in the woods deep in Downeast Maine and are surrounded by the intoxicating scent of balsam fir, so every day smells like Christmas! We use birch bark as a firestarter or to create crafts, use ferns to make art…each plant or tree we looked up seemed to have value to it, and not just to us. All of our products are wild grown, completely natural and untreated, and lovingly harvested with care.
Favorite items
What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?
Our favorite has to be the balsam fir. We absolutely love Christmas and to be able to gift someone a real, live Christmas tree is something really special. We started off offering a 12 inch sapling and now offer a larger tree and a very cute mini balsam in a terracotta pot - its the perfect stocking stuffer and perfect for the desk at work. They are super hardy and will grow to fully sized trees, even my wife can keep them alive (and that says a lot!)
Our very first product (and sale) was fir needles for pot pourri/herbal teas, and it has consistently been our best seller since we first opened, we now have many more fir products and even a tincture too!
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?
Our first sale came through only 2-3 days or so after opening, it was truly a surprise! We love that we have a large percentage of repeat customers each year. We have a large focus on retention and offer a discount as a thank you and include a handwritten thank you note too. We have recently started delving in to Pinterest thanks to Alura but still are not entirely sure what we’re doing, it’s all a learning process.
Managing MainelyWild
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?
MainelyWild is generally a one-man band, but in business and in life, my wife is always here to support and help when things get busy. Harvesting our products from the land can be very therapeutic, although not so much in the depths of winter.
When we first started out, I found that my background in photography was very beneficial; even if my product was very similar to others, I was fairly confident it would look better, which in turn draws in more customers. Now, with the advancement of AI, anyone can potentially be a professional photographer, but I feel it’s a double-edged sword in that it has made some people lazy and too reliant on it. Once your eye is trained on it, you can spot AI-generated photos/descriptions, etc., a mile off.
Massive fan of Photoroom and am excited to see how this technology progresses over the coming years. I love that it can be done simply and easily straight from my phone so I can be ‘working’ anywhere.
Pirate Ship is my absolute go-to for shipping; I would never use anyone else. We learned early on that there had to be a trick to it somewhere; otherwise, our prices would have to be extortionate just to cover our shipping fees. They are simple to use, have transparent pricing, excellent savings, and their support is immediate when needed. Any tool that can save time and/or money is definitely a consideration for me and an invaluable tool going forward. We only recently jumped on board with Alura and promptly received a seriously in-depth analysis of our shop; it was truly valuable and eye-opening. To receive something that a real person had clearly put time and effort into was a very unexpected and pleasant surprise, and in a world where generic ‘insert name here’ mass emails are the norm, I was reminded how important the personal touch is. Suffice to say we signed up and have begun implementing the suggested improvements.
Shipping and fulfillment can be chaotic in this household due to the seasonal nature of MainelyWild - I recall one weekend where we were shipping out over 100lbs of balsam fir; the place was a mess but smelled amazing! We open up pre-orders for our fir boughs (for wreath making) in September so we have a rough idea of what we will be sending out come November time; it helps to keep things more manageable. We bulk buy boxes, reuse packing paper where possible (that stuff doesn’t come cheap), and absolutely love my thermal label printerI was about ready to throw my old printer out the window when I found out they existed and have not looked back!
The future of MainelyWild
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
The vast majority of our business is done from September to December; we are hoping to make business more steady year-round. We have recently launched some of our own designs in gift wrap (using photos from the land) and greeting cards using some of our fern/cedar art.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
Just get it done; don’t overthink it. You just have to start with one product. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with ideas; I have a notebook full! We have many products that are similar; for example balsam fir - we have needles, pick your own needles, fir boughs of different weights, tinctures, etc. Once you have done the research on that one initial listing with regard to SEO keywords, etc., then you can add other similar products with great ease. Don’t rely entirely on any one piece of software/AI to do your title, keywords, description, etc.; it’s a tool there to assist—make it your own.
Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.
Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: Tricky as so much of our business is done in Q4. Some months currently is only a few hundred dollars, our best month was November 2024 with over $2200 in revenue.
Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 80+%
Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 2.7%
