Etsy Seller Interview with Mary of TheGinghamLife

How TheGinghamLife 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 Mary Beth, and my Etsy shop is The Gingham Life. I began selling on Etsy in 2009, when my niece had a baby and I began making clothes for her baby girl.She told me that I should be selling my little dresses. I opened a shop called Monkey and Friends. I loved using vintage sewing patterns and was buying them in large lots. By 2010, I had amassed a fairly large number of vintage patterns and decided to start selling them. I opened a new shop in 2011 and started selling my collection. My new shop started doing well, and I shifted my focus from sewing to selling patterns.

Buying new or used stock is always a risk, as the patterns are not always complete. I can’t even tell you how many patterns over the years have been incomplete. I scour the internet and estate sales for desirable patterns. Since I started selling patterns, the number of pattern shops has exploded. In order to stay on top, keywords, beautiful images, and well-organized titles are essential.

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 vary from week to week as my inventory is constantly changing. When I sell vintage, I almost always have one of each item listed in my shop. I tend to like the 1960s for girls’ patterns and most children’s patterns. The older patterns with drawn images are more aesthetically pleasing to me than the modern patterns with photos.

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?

Good question! Well, it’s been quite a long time; however, I do remember my first sale. It was a promotional pattern from McCall’s for Quaker Oats! I opened The Gingham Life in September 2011 and had my first sale at the beginning of October. I’ve learned a lot about promoting myself, but I’m not good at saying, "Hey, look at me." Since I started selling on Etsy, I have gotten much better at promoting my shop, and therefore myself! I use social media, mainly Instagram, but some Facebook and Pinterest too. I also have a website that redirects to my Etsy shop, a Google My Business profile, and I advertise on vintagesewingpatterndirectory.com.

Managing TheGinghamLife

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 the buyer, photo editor, lister, and shipping clerk; did I miss anything? It’s all me; I have no assistant. My husband drives me to the post office three days a week, so I give him credit for that!
I use several apps and programs in order to run my shop efficiently. 

Paper and Spark Inventory Sheet
Using the inventory sheet by fellow Etsy seller Paper & Spark changed everything for me! I know where I stand every day! I also use the Seller Spreadsheet by Paper & Spark to track income and expenses. 

Photoshop
Vintage sewing patterns can be in pretty rough condition sometimes—actually, pretty often. I use Photoshop to make a cleaned-up image for the main image and to size my image scans to fit Etsy’s recommendations.

Flatbed Scanner
Since almost everything I sell is paper and smaller than legal size, using a flatbed scanner instead of a camera makes it much faster. My scanner has an option to have custom sizes. I have each brand measured and entered, so I don’t need to crop. It saves me an amazing amount of time. 

Google Photos and Google Drive
I use Google Drive and Google Photos for online storage of my accounting, important documents, contacts, and images. I can switch between a laptop and my desktop and still have all of my documents and images at my fingertips. 

Alura
I use several features offered by Alura.io. The first feature I used was the Listing Helper. I restructured many of my titles and tags after using the helper. I recently started using the email sender and a subscriber list of customers to be notified of sales and for a future newsletter.

The future of TheGinghamLife

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

In the future, I plan to have a standalone site for my patterns. I’ve considered it for awhile, but I’m not completely ready just yet. I am fine-tuning my SEO and reading about every aspect of marketing that I can find.

Advice for new sellers

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

My first piece of advice is to familiarize yourself with all of the Etsy rules BEFORE opening a shop. Next, practice photographing items. Make sure they are light and bright, the product is easy to see, and all of the items in the shop are cohesive in appearance. Last but definitely not least, learn how to place keywords in titles, tags, and descriptions.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: $1500- $2000

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 65%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 1.3%