Etsy Seller Interview with Natasha of tishpins

How tishpins 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?

I’m Natasha, owner of tishpins on Etsy! My background is in art, graphic design, and customer service. I design and create pop culture-inspired enamel pins and accessories, as well as home items and clothing. With a massive passion for art, I decided to take to social media to post my digital drawings, from which I got great feedback. I'm also a collector and have been collecting enamel pins since I bought my first set in Disney World when I was 9! Strangely, these two hobbies came together, and tishpins were created. Inspired by other amazing pin artists on social media, I took to designing my first enamel pin, and I have not stopped since. My main goal for tishpins is to create beautiful, high-quality pins that my customers will want displayed in their awesome collections!

Favorite items

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

Enamel pins are definitely my favorite items to sell. One of my favorite items in the store is the Fable-inspired pin set, which is also very well liked by customers, has lovely reviews, and is one of my best sellers.

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?

After expanding to Etsy and getting the word out on social media, it didn’t take long to start making sales. Social media is a main key to bringing customers to your store, but unlike my website, Etsy is a marketplace and brings in a fair percentage of my sales just from the search engine.

Managing tishpins

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?

It’s just me! I use Alura for research and marketing; I also use Royal Mail or USPS for shipping. The Royal Mail business services and Alura both integrate seamlessly with Etsy and are simple to use; these tools allow me to focus solely on Tishpins. 

The future of tishpins

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

With a few conventions lined up, I love meeting my customers in person and would love to be able to do this more often; hopefully this will be the year. Also, I would love to do a collaboration with another artist; that would be so much fun!

Advice for new sellers

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

My advice for a new store would be "design, quality, service."
Design: Make your items stand out; there are a lot of repeated items on Etsy. Be loud and interesting, and most of all, different.
Quality: Keep your customers coming back time after time with high-quality items.
Service: Be understanding with all of your customers; you wouldn’t have a business without them!

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

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 2023: 4%