Etsy Seller Interview with Iman of The Wayfarer Shoppe

How The Wayfarer Shoppe 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?

Hi, my name is Iman and I’m the owner of The Wayfarer Shoppe. 

Over 6 years ago, I had no idea what presets were and no clue what Lightroom was. I always loved photography and I was under the impression that Photoshop was the best photo editing tool out there and that editing each and every photo separately was standard practice. And, for someone who takes thousands of photos on trips, it was starting to get overwhelming.

Then, in college, I was introduced to Lightroom – a much more efficient way to edit photos, especially in bulk. Over the years, I’ve refined my presets to transform photos in a beautiful and cohesive way to bring out the best in each image and I wanted to help others do the same.

My presets help those who are looking to develop a cohesive IG feed, whether for personal joy or for their own businesses, save them valuable time spent editing, and take the guesswork out of it for those with little to no experience. 

I started my Etsy shop at the end of February 2020 and have since expanded my products from presets to high-quality aesthetic themed bundles for iPhones and Macs.

Favorite items

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

Some of my favorite products are also my bestsellers, which are currently my Summer Travel Preset Bundle, iOS App Icons Bundle, and All-In-One Preset Bundle.  

My customers and I love these bundles because they provide so many different options to choose from at an affordable price. With the preset bundles, my customers have access to several, or all, of my preset collections, allowing them to transform their photos with whichever edits they’re in the mood for.

As for my icon bundle, I love seeing my customers’ creativity come to life with how they design their iPhone home screens – whether by sticking to my pre-designed collection color palettes, or mixing and matching colors from different collections to achieve a completely unique home screen.

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?  

Within 2 days of opening my Etsy shop, I received my first order which was extremely lucky and super motivating. However, it took about 6 months (and lots of trial and error) before I started seeing consistent orders. 

I attract customers by doing Etsy SEO and Keyword research so that my products rank well in the algorithm, optimizing my listing descriptions and images to be of high-quality, and running Etsy Ads everyday.

I also take my customer service and any feedback received very seriously to ensure that I’m always improving the product experience for both current and future customers. 

Managing The Wayfarer Shoppe

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 currently run my shop all on my own, with the exception of social media (Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram), which I’ve hired a small agency to run for me. 

I use Google Drive and Dropbox to store all of my products (I keep my “working” files in Google Drive and my finalized customer files in Dropbox), the Etsy Seller App for managing customer inquiries, Airtable for social media management, and the Adobe Creative Cloud for product creation (mainly Illustrator and Lightroom with the occasional use of Photoshop and After Effects). 

Since I only sell digital products, Etsy handles the fulfillment process automatically and customers have access to their files immediately after payment.

The future of The Wayfarer Shoppe

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

While I’m always keeping an eye on the latest trends and products, right now my current goals are to raise brand awareness so that I can establish connection and trust with new customers, as well as driving traffic to my own website, as I believe it’s important to have multiple streams of income.

Advice for new sellers

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

While optimizing your SEO/Keywords, making sure your listing images are high-quality, building your product offerings, providing excellent customer service, and being passionate about what you’re doing are all very important, the best advice I can give is to stay committed and trust the process.

Don’t give up if you’re not seeing results right away because success doesn’t happen overnight.

Be patient and remember why you started.