Etsy Seller Interview with Madison of SwiftDesignByMadison

How SwiftDesignByMadison 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?Swift Design by Madison is a design shop that swiftly brings you high-quality editable and printed invitations, party supplies, and other designs. From pre-designed invitations and templates to completely custom designs, I am determined to make sure you receive the perfect design that uniquely expresses you or your event. I provide my customers with the convenience and choice that everyone deserves by giving you options, such as whether I edit and print the design for you or you edit the design yourself and print it through our recommended printing partner, at home, or with a printing provider of your choice.

My husband and I moved across the country for him to go to dental school. I was starting to have major anxiety issues with my current job and felt stuck not having yet finished my bachelor's degree. So, together, we decided to have me quit my job, live off of student loans, and go back to school full time to finally finish. I was able to get accepted into an incredible school that had a fantastic online communications program.

 I have always loved design and, even at a young age, would tinker with computer programs to design different powerpoint presentations or cards to give to people. Early in my online schooling, I offered to design invitations for my siblings’ birthday parties coming up. I designed them completely in Microsoft Word. And the designs were a hit with my family and their guests. It was then that I realized that I could potentially make money doing this.

After discussing the possibility of opening an Etsy shop, the potential help it could bring to us living off of grad loans, and just allowing this to be a creative outlet during school and beyond, my husband was more than supportive of me moving forward with it. We ended up scraping up enough money from our tight budget to purchase Adobe Creative Cloud, and I began my YouTube education of learning how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in between my classes and homework. I studied other design shops that were successful on Etsy to figure out my system and to see what worked for them.

I have always loved party planning, so I knew I wanted to start my shop based on invitations and eventually add other party paper products. I didn’t have the money or space in our tiny 600 sq ft apartment for inventory, paper stock, or a professional printer, so I decided to start out by creating digital invitations that I could edit for customers and then send them final files for them to print at home or with a print provider of their choice.

Through the years, my shop has evolved to providing options where I edit and print for customers (still using a third party print shop that I have partnered with) and finding other tools to create templates for customers to edit themselves.

Favorite items

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

My vintage theme park invitation is one of my favorites I’ve created (and yes, mine is the original one). It’s one of my favorites because it brings a nostalgic feeling of retro amusement parks without screaming it in your face and can be used for many different themed events. For those reasons, this invitation is one of my best sellers.

My VIP Pass invitation is another favorite of mine (and again, yes, mine is the original one of this design). Unfortunately, many sellers like to copy my designs a little too closely. It can easily have that old Hollywood vibe or a more modern Hollywood feel. The versatility of this design and the different types of events this design has been used for (school dances, company parties, birthdays, retirement parties, etc.) is one of the things that makes it a bestseller in my shop.

My tropical "Havana Nights" invitation is also a best seller, especially during the summer months. Again, the versatility of the design and the different types of events it can be used for is what attracts customers to it. It also has a very attractive design with a fun yet mature look to all.

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?

At first, I asked a few family and friends if I could design something for them for an upcoming party they were having or a baby announcement for their new baby and have them purchase it on Etsy at a huge discount. This helped me to get sales numbers in my shop (it was about 5 discounted sales from family or friends). A week after opening my shop, I received my first sale from a customer I didn’t personally know. From then on, I didn’t ask family or friends.

I used to think that I had to be on every single social media platform. I wasted a lot of time trying to create a following on Instagram and Facebook. Over time, I realized I needed to just focus on the platform on which I was seeing success and where people look for party inspiration, which is Pinterest. I think as Etsy sellers, we feel like we need to do everything and be everywhere to be successful, and that can really burn the candle at both ends. It’s really about finding what works for you and then spending 80% of your time doing that. Since focusing my social media presence on the platform that works for me, I have received 150,000-500,000 views a month on Pinterest.

Most of my traffic comes directly from Etsy and their marketing and SEO. A big learning curve for me was getting my Etsy listing titles and tags down to be able to have Etsy drive traffic to my listings. I have only done Etsy ads twice in my 5 years of business, so I really make sure my listings are ones that Etsy can use in their marketing and SEO.

Managing SwiftDesignByMadison

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 am a one-woman show running my Etsy shop. As a busy mom of almost 3 kids, 3 and under, I really have to make sure my time is used wisely and efficiently. The tools I use to help me be effective are Adobe Illustrator, Vela, Tailwind, and Templett. For task management, I use Asana. When I was first getting started, I used a tool called Marmalead to help me learn more about effective listing titles and tags.

Most of my shop is now editable templates, so fulfillment is instant and automatic. When I do have a product to ship, I use my printing partner, Prints of Love, to print and ship it for me. As a partner, they allow me to use unbranded packaging with my shop name on the shipping label and receipt.

The future of SwiftDesignByMadison

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

My current goals for my shop are to create more matching items for products I already have and build my design shop on other platforms like Zazzle so I am exposed to more customers going to different websites.

Advice for new sellers

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

-There will always be items on your to-do list, always ways to improve your shop, always something to do. Be OK with that. Prioritize your time and move forward by doing what you can.

-There will always be other shops that are getting more sales than you that have started around the same time or later than you. Learn from other sellers and be weary of comparing. Comparison sucks up your time.

-If you want this to be a part-time job or side gig, make sure you don’t spend full-time hours on it. Set a time that you work and then stick to it (this includes answering messages). Working all the time is so much worse than having a balanced life.

-Continue building new skills to improve your products and listings. Always learning!

-Be flexible to adjust or change directions. Flexibility helps you learn and will help you find what sells.

-Be patient. With yourself and with your shop. Success takes many different forms, and it takes time. For me, success means having a passive part-time income doing something I love.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: $3500 - $6200 on Etsy monthly

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 86% profit margin on average

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 3.5% conversion rate