Etsy Seller Interview with Edita of MONOFACESoORGANIC

How MONOFACESoORGANIC 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 Etsy shop is dedicated to dog owners with small babies. I have loved dogs since I can remember. I have strong empathy for them; I feel them. When I was a kid, I said I'd rescue all the homeless dogs when I grew up and had millions. MONOFACES was black and white at first. I am an architect by profession. I worked in that industry for a few years until the economy crashed in 2008. I lost my job. Fortunately, my knowledge of Russian (I am Lithuanian with a Ukrainian father) led to a job offer from Google.2009 was a difficult year. I lost my dad. I started painting in stencil style as a form of therapy and was inspired by an iconic Che Guevara painting. Portrait of singer Blondie was the first painting I did, followed by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Freddie Mercury, Amy Winehouse, and many other iconic people. While working at Google, I started doing personalized portraits for my colleagues; one of the commissions was for a dog portrait.

At first, it was my hobby. My contract at Google was coming to an end, and I wanted to make MONOFACES my business. I started doing print-on-demand on clothing, including personalized pet prints from the photos. This niche grew, and personalized clothing with pet prints became my best seller. From early September until the middle of December, I’d be so busy that I wouldn’t have time to buy Christmas presents for my family.

I enjoyed having a print-on-demand business because I could do it even when I was on vacation without having to carry stock with me. But at the same time, I wanted to create a sustainable handmade business for dog owners’ babies. My mom is retired, but she is a very active woman; she can sew. I thought it would be nice to have my mom involved in this business to keep her busy during the long winter days. I lived in Berlin at the time when I could get my Photoshop designs printed on organic cotton. Slowly, I started creating baby clothes, swaddles, blankets, loveys, bibs, and other products with various dog breed patterns, all made from organic cotton. That’s how MONOFACES ORGANIC was created.

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 are personalized baby swaddles, blankets, loveies, and clothes. Customers send me photos of their dogs or cats; I create prints and then sew baby products. I have the best customers because they are all dog lovers. They are looking for baby keepsakes to show love and appreciation for family pets, keep pets’ memories alive, and raise their babies to love and cherish animals. Moms and dads-to-be, friends, grandparents, sisters, brothers, and work colleagues buy personalized baby items as gifts. It’s nice to hear that our products last long and are handed down from sibling to sibling. We get lots of repeat customers, customers that come to our shop because they saw fellow dog lovers with our products. We get the best feedback and the cutest photos of babies with their pets and our 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?

I created my Etsy shop in 2010 but started selling on it in 2014. And I was selling paintings at the time. My first sale was a painting by Leonard Cohen. I think it’s not easy to sell art on Etsy due to the big competition. That was one of the reasons I started printing on demand and later making organic baby items for dog lovers. I was looking for something unique, very niche, with a very clear target audience.

The Etsy platform is constantly changing and I’ve seen some changes in selling since 2014! It used to be much easier to sell on Etsy. As long as you had good SEO, you were easily found by customers. Since Etsy introduced personalized search results to each buyer based on their search history and location it’s more difficult to sell.  A lot of my customers come through organic search (yay for having a niche product and little competition), and I do some social media. 

Managing MONOFACESoORGANIC

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 ask myself sometimes, "How do I manage my shop?" It’s me, my mom, and my newborn baby girl, Matilda, working as a model for my baby creations. I also work part-time for the Embassy. Being self-employed can be a lonely place. I have to have a social life and meet people too! I have around 4K followers on Instagram (monofaces), and I have Pinterest. Other than that, I don’t use any tools. I did use tools to research keywords in the past. My niche is very specific—a certain dog breed owner with a baby—so it’s easy to target them. Better marketing is on my agenda! Product design, customer service, marketing, photography, packaging, and fulfillment are all done by me.

The future of MONOFACESoORGANIC

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

Like every other Etsy seller, my goal is to gain more customers. I’d like to work less but sell more, outsource some parts of my business to other people, and have a better marketing strategy.

Advice for new sellers

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

Opening an Etsy shop can be overwhelming. I’ve learned to take one step at a time. From my experience, even if something seems daunting and impossible to do, you get there eventually if you are consistent and willful. If you don’t have a team working with you, your sales might fluctuate. Etsy is constantly making changes to the platform, and every time they do that, I experience a drop in sales. But I’ve learned to continue working and wait for the sales to pick up. Join communities, ask questions, build your shop, do marketing, don’t give up, and you’ll succeed.