Etsy Seller Interview with Rochelle and Melanie of PolkaDotPixieShop

How PolkaDotPixieShop 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 are Rochelle and Melanie: sisters, designers, writers, photographers, and travelers. We run the Polka Dot Pixie Shop on Etsy as a shop focused on Disney-inspired designs. While we sell primarily apparel in this shop, we also have other lines like decor, presets, planners, and accessories. 

Our shop came about because we could never really find the kind of Disney-inspired apparel we were looking for anywhere else. We didn’t want a generic Mickey head on a shirt for our vacation wear. Instead, we wanted something clever, maybe something that only true Disney fans would get, but not something with an over-cartoony graphic. Maybe something more unique. So we ran with it. 

We decided to start by drawing by hand and scanning designs into Photoshop. We learned Photoshop, learned Procreate, learned how to color, and finally got ipads so we could digitally draw too. There was A LOT of learning that needed to be done. From how to run a shop, list products, SEO, how to market, and how to do that while working day jobs. 

One of our main goals for our business was to not be working all day and be able to work from anywhere. So we didn’t want to create anything that required us to be home packaging items or mail them out. We also didn’t want loads of shop products cluttering up our homes. 

As a result, we created a business that doesn’t have stock on hand and includes a professional printer. We simply create designs, upload them to their platform, which is connected to ETSY through an API, and manage orders as they come in. That leaves us with the design and marketing, and the printer with the printing, packaging, and mailing. 

Favorite items

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

We love the designs in our shop that really speak to Disney fans. One of our bestselling designs when we opened was Blue Skies and Sunshine, which is a line in a song from Princess and the Frog, and so appropriate for a Disney park trip where you’re literally in the sun all day. We also loved that extra cheery, keep your chin up message!

Another favorite is our EPCOT World Showcase design. With some extra detailed drawings of the World Showcase monuments and Hello World with the Spaceship Earth on the front, this one works great for fans of EPCOT.

But some of our most notable designs are our holiday designs. We LOVE Halloween and Christmas and get so many ideas for apparel for those holidays that half our shop is just holiday wear. One of our more popular designs for Christmas is anything honoring Disney’s Jingle Cruise. We have a couple of for Christmas, one with a hippo, elephant, and giraffe, all our favorite wildlife giving cruisers a hard time.

And then just one last one, since we love the Muppets niche, even simple shirts like our Jolly and Joyous shirts find a crowd on Etsy. No bells and whistles, but such a happy shirt, and again, if you know the Muppets Christmas Carol, you know this song!

And then, of course, we have also been building our Disney Cruise apparel collection, and those are super popular 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?

So, our first sale was maybe a month after we opened. We had already had our Disney travel blog up and running about a year prior, so we had an email list and some established socials from that. They weren’t super established, but enough that we had a starting customer base to share products with. We created a Shopify store at the same time as our Etsy shop, too, so we had both getting us some notice.

Our marketing strategy is multi-pronged now, but it started fairly small. We primarily used our email list to share our weekly newsletter with a new design each week, used Instagram to post daily and request people tag us when they wear our shirts  and used Pinterest to do the same. Those are our main avenues, but perhaps the one that made the most difference was using ETSY to the max. The main reason we stay is because it has built-in marketing if you create your listings correctly and have good photos. We learned SEO and ran every listing through Etsy Rank to get a handle on which keywords we should use, how to title and write descriptions, and how important it is to fill in all those Etsy attributes. Believe it or not, SEO ( for our blog and shops) is our primary marketing strategy to get found.

https://www.instagram.com/polkadotpixieshop
https://www.pinterest.com/polkadotpixies/
https://www.pinterest.com/polkadotpixieshop/

Managing PolkaDotPixieShop

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?

Our business, Polka Dot Pixie Co., is run only by both of us—Rochelle and Melanie. We currently use Etsy to run our main shops for apparel—Polka Dot Pixie Shop; our décor shop—Polka Dot Pixie Ink; and our preset shop—Polka Dot Pixie Presets. 

We’re also adding some digital products like mockups and planners to the mix. All of it can be found on our website, polkadotpixieshop.com. Due to the way we’ve structured our business, we use professional printers—Printful and Printed Mint—which are both costly, but turn out a good product that gives us Print on Demand options at the volume we need. 

We regularly use Instagram, Pinterest, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Tailwind for scheduling, Photoshop and Procreate for Design, Lightroom for Photo Editing, Etsy Rank for cleaning up/auditing listings, both Canon and Olympus cameras ( DSLR and Mirrorless), and, of course, our phones. We’re constantly trying to minimize the work, so these tools are the best things we’ve found to really focus our efforts.

The future of PolkaDotPixieShop 

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

Truthfully, we love designing, so just more of that, and finding ways to creatively contribute to a fun and unique product people want. Still, we are in constant search of the ever elusive digital product since cost is nonexistent and it could be pure profit. Since all our designs are drawn by us and our copyright, we’re reluctant to branch into any sort of product where they could be downloaded. 

For us, each item is a piece of artwork that can take us from 1 day to months to complete, depending on what we’re trying to do with the design. So, we’re hoping to think up a good digital product that can help people with their Disney vacations, where it would be the same customer base.

Advice for new sellers

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

ETSY loves consistency. Much of our initial success was because we knew our brand and created solid branding ( a logo, a header, and it matched on all our socials) so people could find us. After that, we made sure to add at least one new design each week to Etsy. So every Friday we would technically be adding like 4 new things to the shop ( one design on a tee, tank, sweatshirt, and kid's shirt). Etsy enjoys regularly publishing new items on its website. So we made that plan going in, that we knew we were just going to be releasing something every week. And we did that for about 2 solid years. A lot of designs, a lot of listings. 

Also, don’t underestimate the importance of using the right keywords to describe your items, and using them in the title, description, and tags. Also, be ready for what it’s like to have a business because your days will be filled with customer service and marketing. It’s not for everyone, and it’s by no means easy. It requires a plan and the ability to learn and execute it. Etsy customers are the most demanding and expect a lot, so be sure to have your policies in place, all your shop FAQs written and be willing to say no.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: Between 10k-20k/ month

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: About 50%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 2%