How ThatCraftyStitchUK 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! My name is Sam, and my Etsy shop sells beginner knit and craft kits, as well as craft supplies. My mission is to spark creativity in the masses and make knitting and crafting as accessible as possible, while also spreading the joy and mindfulness of crafting.
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 in my shop are the "Beginner Scarf Kit" and the "Knot A Knitter Knitting Kit." These are my most beginner-friendly kits, and they’re both really satisfying to pack. I love to see which colors my customers have chosen! Both of these kits are very popular, but I believe the Beginner Scarf Kit is the most popular because customers recognize the value in the kit, which includes 300 grams of yarn, knitting needles, a tapestry needle, instructions, and videos!
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 opened my shop in September 2019. I had been signed off with stress from my retail management job and knew I needed a change of career and wanted to do something for myself. I had always wanted to run my own business, so I took the leap and found a part-time job and opened my Etsy store. It was called "Bababumpkin" originally, and I sold fabric nursery decor, bunting, wall hangings, personalized prints, and things like that. My first sale came from my brother, whom I had paid (forced) to order something (which is obviously not what you should do), but it got me started.After this, it was a very slow trickle of sales, maybe only two or three a month. Then in March 2020, I started selling fabric masks, as many others did, and to be honest, that and lockdown were the catalysts for my Etsy shop; more people were at home either working or isolating, and there was lots more online traffic at the time. Every time there was a lockdown, my shop would go through the roof. When lockdowns ended, my shop went quiet; it was in the hands of the government. I decided I needed to pivot in late 2020. I wanted to scale my business and create products that would withstand whatever was going on in the world.
In October 2020, I rebranded to That Crafty Stitch and started to build my product line as it looks today. I slowly deactivated my old listings every time I listed something new. To attract customers to my shop, I focus mainly on SEO, making sure that my titles, tags, descriptions, and materials all reflect the search terms my customers are looking for. I also include as many "infomercials" as possible in my images, as not all customers look at the listing descriptions, so by including the key information in the images, they are more informed when making their decision. This also reduces the number of customer questions I receive, which is nice! Whenever I get asked the same question more than once, I update my images to include this information for future customers.
Managing ThatCraftyStitchUK
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?
At the moment, it is only me managing my Etsy shop, which means my focus is on productivity and the scalability of my product range to ensure I can grow the business and be as profitable as possible. I plan to take on a staff member in October this year, when we hit peak trading again.
The only website I occasionally use to help me run my Etsy shop is E-Rank to measure my shop's efficiency regarding SEO and customer feedback, of course, but otherwise I have found that my previous retail experience and instinct have served me well in making business decisions. Shipping has been a huge challenge over the last few months with the amount of industrial action taking place. I upgraded all orders over £20 to be "signed for" by Royal Mail to allow tracking, but switched to the Evri courier service in November as the delays were becoming too significant and unreliable. I would consider outsourcing some fulfillment to a distribution center in the future, but only for my best-selling kits because I have so many variations.
The future of ThatCraftyStitchUK
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
I hit 200 listings last year and saw a big jump in sales, so I want to continue to grow the number of listings I have in the shop to 400 in the next year. I would like a large number of these to be digital listings to increase my passive income going forward, again focusing on scalability.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
Honestly, the best advice I have is to "play by the rules," familiarize yourself with the Etsy Seller Handbook, and put some focus on whatever Etsy is pushing at the time. For example, when Etsy launched Star Seller, I looked at the metrics, reviewed my own performance, and made the relevant changes to achieve Star Seller each month since launch. Etsy likes to see sellers who react to their focus, and your ranking will improve naturally off the back of that.
Another piece of advice I would give is to do as much A/B testing as possible when you’re working out what your customer wants. You can list the same item twice with different titles, images, keywords, etc. and see which one sells better. Then keep on refining your listings until you have it cracked! Keep your listings on manual renewal while you’re working on this, as you’ll see which ones are renewing through sales and which ones are not performing. You can then amend them and try again.
Finally, be active in your shop; update listings, move your layout around, update your banners, whatever you like. Etsy likes to see active sellers as they’re seen as more reliable. The same way an employer wouldn’t trust an employee who doesn’t often turn up, Etsy trusts sellers who turn up and rewards you with better rankings!
Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.
Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: It can vary from £1.5k - £10k during peak times
Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: My profit margin is 60% on average
Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: My average conversion rate for 2022 was 2.4%
ThatCraftyStitchUK
Beginner Knits and Craft Kits
