← Crickets to Cha-Chings
Crickets to Cha-Chings
193. Will Emily Hit $500k in 2 Years on Etsy? Her Holiday POD Tips
00:23:40
Julie Berninger welcomes back Emily, a successful Etsy seller who has generated nearly $450,000 in revenue in her first two years. They discuss the dynamics of holiday sales, particularly during Q4, and share valuable tips for print on demand sellers....
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- [00:01]
A
Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Crickets to Cha Chings. I'm Julie Berninger and I'm here with Emily, who is a coach in our VIPE printables community. She also was a seller that I had back on maybe a couple months ago who dazzled everyone with the success she's had in her Print on Demand and Printables Etsy shops. So Emily, welcome back.
- [00:22]
B
Thank you for having me, Julie. I'm excited to be here.
- [00:25]
A
We're so excited. And not to wag the flashy number around because I'm sure you get that a lot. But to remind everyone, Emily was famous on the Internet for making almost $400,000 in her first two years on Etsy revenue. I think that's correct, right?
- [00:40]
B
Yeah. Now it's because we're in Q4 holiday season. It is a bit higher than that now, which is great. Um, and technically my two years will be January, so I'm not even there yet. Yeah.
- [00:52]
A
Oh my goodness. People are falling over in their chairs. So what, what are you at?
- [00:56]
B
Um, my print on demand store. I, I want to say together it's about 4:50 at this point. 450 or so. But Black Friday is coming up, other kind of big holiday shopping days, so hopefully that will go up.
- [01:13]
A
Oh my goodness. Well, that's. Congratulations, that's great. And of course, you know, print on demand, it's not take home. There's the fact that you have to pay for the actual print provider to send the product to the customer. But still pretty cool. So you said it's around one third profit that goes to you for the print on demand side, correct?
- [01:31]
B
Yeah, my profit margin is about 30%. So yeah, that would be, I think my pod shop almost two years, I'm at about 4:15 revenue. So yeah, about 30% of that has been take home.
- [01:45]
A
Okay, well, I think that's pretty, pretty good. Particularly I think many people listening have been on Etsy for a while and they probably haven't come close to those numbers yet. So we're going to get into the secret sauce of how you would think about it as a print on demand seller heading into Q4 in the holiday season. Black Friday. This is like the, the big leagues probably in the print on demand space. I know when we had Cody McGuffey from Ever beyond, he mentioned that holiday sales double for Etsy sellers. So in the printable space, sometimes we don't always see that. Maybe, maybe they do for some people depending on what they sell. But in the print on demand space, which is A huge gifting platform. I'm guessing it does. Is that what you experienced last year?
- [02:25]
B
Yeah. So last year I really started focusing on giftable products several months into my shop. And then I would say, you know, on average, I might have 15 sales a day. Last year, maybe 20. And then black Friday till about early December, it was more like in the triple digit orders per day. So what I made from January to the end of September, um, I just about doubled that from October to December. Um, which as a brand new seller last year was mind blowing. Um, and I really, I had heard Q4. Q4, Q4, but I didn't truly understand what that meant. And then I was like, oh, wow, there's a lot of power in selling these giftable products because people are buying gifts for the holidays. So it, it really blew my mind. So I'm excited for this year. It's going well, but I'm excited to see kind of how Black Friday goes and beyond.
- [03:23]
A
Cool. Well, at first when we were recording this, I was thinking, okay, it seems a little bit far away from where you're at now. But then when you're telling me this, I'm like, oh, she's gonna hit it. So we're rooting you, we're rooting you on. So excited to see if you hit that. Okay, so let's get into the meat of today's episode. Let's talk about Black Friday and holiday tips specifically for print on demand sellers. So we'll kick it off. What's your first one?
- [03:48]
B
So my first one would be is that you don't have to to sell holiday specific items. So one misconception I think out there is that you have to design Christmas T shirts or Christmas themed ornaments or Christmas sweatshirts. And one of the things that I found last year and that many other sellers find is that when people go on to buy a gift, they're not necessarily looking for something that's red and green and Christmas themed. Some people are. But in general, a lot of times people, our customers are looking for gifts to give someone that might resonate with them about their favorite, favorite hobby or their favorite sport or their favorite or their career. Or maybe it's a gift for a co worker or a grandparent. And a lot of times they're not necessarily wanting something Christmas themed because they want to use it year round, or it's something that they want them to be able to have and remember either put up in their house or wear or whatever that might look like. So I think one thing that is helpful for Newer sellers to know is that you don't have to spend a lot of time creating holiday themed items, but you can really build your shop throughout the year and build kind of these evergreen products that can be given as gifts, whether it's apparel or whether it's, you know, a candle or it's a journal or a mug. But then at this time of the year, people are just buying in higher quantities. So that was really comforting for me last year because I did not do, I don't do a ton of like holiday specific things in my POD shop. And so knowing that people just buy gifts that connect with the person they're giving it to as opposed to the holiday itself.
- [05:29]
A
Okay, got it. And that makes a lot of sense to me. When I'm shopping on Etsy, I don't always want to buy someone something that's red and green or specifically for Christmas because I know the second they open it, it's going to go into their basement storage for the next year. Exception to that rule. Someone like my mom, that she is really on top of her Christmas game. So I've bought her Christmas things in the past. I wonder if people see like the grandma gifts actually can be holiday themed but you wouldn't give your like brother, husband something holiday themed. I don't know.
- [06:00]
B
Right, right. So it really just depends on the person. Also, a lot of times people are buying Christmas themed items more in advance. So more like in earlier November, mid November, because if they're going to use it for Christmas, they want to have it for Christmas. So it kind of just depends what, what kind of customer you're targeting and what your market is. But I would say you don't have to do Christmas themed items or Hanukkah themed items or you know, Thanksgiving themed items. You can do kind of these broader evergreen items if that fits your shop better.
- [06:31]
A
Okay, what's the next tip?
- [06:34]
B
So the next tip would be you don't have to sell apparel if you don't want to Also only the only reason I say that is because a lot of times apparel, T shirts, sweatshirts are hard for people to give as gifts for the holidays if they don't know someone's size, if they don't know what kind of style they prefer. So I would encourage POD sellers to look at incorporating some items that are more gift friendly. I would say something like an ornament is a great item. And I will say pro tip is that ornaments actually sell year round, which I think a lot of times Etsy sellers are surprised to hear. But I have sold ornaments in June, in in April. People love to buy ornaments, to personalize, to give them as thank you gifts or different things throughout the year. So looking at things like ornaments or journals or even like pet products to create some of those that someone can then buy as a gift to give to someone else. And I think a lot of times apparel is great to sell on Etsy. There's a lot of opportunity. But when you're thinking of the gift market, it can be a little harder to give as a gift because of the sizing issues and those types of things.
- [07:43]
A
Okay, that makes tons of sense to me too. Another thing that we don't really think about. I know it almost feels like the advice we give in E printables regarding wall art. Just hey, maybe don't try to make something that needs to be good enough to hang in someone's living room or in their office or whatever. Let's try to pick some more lower easy to entry products in the one page printable design space for example first and then we can work our way up to wall art. Maybe it's the same thing in print on demand. It's like, okay, let's stay away from like the T shirts and sweatshirts because they need what. What clothing people choose is like a huge way where they communicate with the world and they may not want it to be selected by their random aunt or mother or something and it just and that person doesn't want to select it for them cause it makes them uncomfortable. So let's just skip that altogether. Let's design other items. So I'm just curious, in your own print on demand shop, what percentage of your sales have come from apparel versus non apparel?
- [08:41]
B
So early on, early last year, probably January through the spring, I was heavily focused on apparel. I would say now typically I occasionally will publish new designs for T shirts or sweatshirts. I would say probably 98% of my sales are not apparel items. So I focus mostly on home decor, gift items, different things like that as opposed to T shirts and sweatshirts. I have also found, and again this is just my experience that customer service issues are less because I'm not having to manage sizing issues, printing issues, things like that.
- [09:23]
A
Okay, that's good. That's totally good to bring up. Okay, what's the next tip?
- [09:27]
B
So the third one would be personalization is key. So if you are a newer seller or you have the capacity time to do personalized items, that can be a huge, huge incentive for Etsy customers. So anything like any of the products that we've talked about today. You can add a personalized element to it, whether it's someone's name or a date or a photo. But many people are going on Etsy for specifically unique products for whoever they're buying for, whether it's themselves or someone else. So personalization can be a huge driving factor. You can also charge a little bit more if you're going to offer something personalized. It also just helps you stand out. So I would say if you are able to offer personalized items, that would be a huge driving force for making more sales to be able to make your product unique.
- [10:23]
A
So I just bought my sister a. Hope she's not listening. A sweatshirt from Etsy, which I had the same after I bought it and it came to my house. I actually regretted it because that's the same problem with apparel. I'm like, I don't know if she's actually going to want a sweatshirt with her dog's face on it with her dog's name on it like 12 times. You know, maybe she will, maybe she won't. It felt a bit extra once it finally came in the mail. But I did wonder, how is the person doing this? I think I know because I had to send them a picture. I chose. I selected the item, and then I had to message them in a picture of the dog or her dog and the dog's name. But I'm just curious, like on the receiving end, when you're the seller, could you just quickly explain how they're doing this so that someone could evaluate if they want to add personalization? What, what work that kind of means?
- [11:07]
B
Sure. So it definitely adds a few extra steps. So typically with an order that is not personalized, you have synced a product to say it's a sweatshirt, but it's not personalized. Synced a product from Printify over to your Etsy shop. When you get an order on Etsy, it bounces back to Printify and you can either have like, it automatically approve or you can approve it yourself. And that's it. When it's personalized, you get that order on Etsy. And on Printify, it will show up in kind of your other order section. And that's where you then have to go back to Canva or whatever your design tool is, do the personalization, download that file, then upload it to Printify, add it to your product, and attach it to that order. There are some softwares out there that do speed up this process. Some sites like hello Custom and other things that are using AI to try to speed up personalization. But typically you do just have to make that personalization file in Canva or kittl or whatever you're using, upload it to Printify and attach it to that order. So it does add a little bit of work you are able to kind of create. I mean, I have workflows like I kind of batch work on my personalized orders, so I knock them out really fast. And once you're kind of in a routine of doing that, it's a lot quicker and you find a good, you know, workflow for that. So I would say there's a lot of power in personalization if that's something that you have the capacity to do.
- [12:35]
A
Got it. Okay. And the next tip.
- [12:39]
B
So customer service is really key during Q4, I would say while your order numbers may be going up quite a bit, that also means sometimes more customer messages. So a few key tips that have helped me is to create a really clear shop announcement. So on the top of your shop, putting clearly there just any important information that customers need to know, especially during the holiday season. One thing that will be really important to tell them is if you're using a site like Printify, they release their holiday deadline dates by print provider. So I would go on there for a lot of them. It's around December 9th, December 10th, so I would make sure that in your shop announcement you have that deadline. I would make sure that if you're setting up one other tip as I set up an automatic reply starting from about Black Friday, the day before Black Friday, through that December 10th deadline that includes some of that key information because you will get a lot of messages. If I order this today, will I receive it by Christmas? If I order this, when will it get here, you know, where is my order, things like that. So I try to set up an automatic reply that has a lot of these frequently asked questions on them. And then that way it is very clear for the customers and also alleviate some of that customer service on your end as well. But that customer service piece is really key because that's how you get good reviews. That's how you build relationships with your customers. So I do try to invest a good amount of time in those messages, in kind of building relationships with those customers, but providing that very, very clear information up front. I would also say don't try to especially early on, you want every order you can get. However, what I have found is sometimes that will backfire. So if an order is past that deadline or it's a little bit tricky, you Know, just be transparent with the customer. I can't guarantee that this is going to arrive by Christmas, yada, yada yada. I think having that transparency is going to be most helpful as opposed to trying to get that order and just hoping it gets there on time. So that is all going to be a really key part of Q4 for any Etsy seller.
- [14:48]
A
Did you say December 9th is the date?
- [14:50]
B
It's. It depends on the print partner through Printify, but it is, it's around like December 9th, December 10th.
- [14:56]
A
Whoa.
- [14:57]
B
I think, I think that's their conservative date. I think it's early, but they're when they are getting so many orders and compared to normal, it is taking them a little bit longer, you know, an extra day or two to get orders out. So I think that's to be safe. But yeah, I would really try to advertise that and stick to that so that there's no issues on the customer end so that they're not upset or frustrated.
- [15:26]
A
So did you make most of the money until December 9 then, or do people still order anyways and you just tell them it's not going to come and they're just like, well, we'll roll the dice. Like what? How does that actually play out as a seller?
- [15:37]
B
That's a really interesting question. So Printify, actually for some sellers, they assign you a partner through Printify who meets with you regularly to kind of talk about your sales and things like that. So I met with mine recently and he showed me an interesting chart and he said sales really start to go up about November 2, November 3, and they peak all the way to Cyber Monday and from Cyber Monday they still stay really high till about that early December period, but they're still high. And then they start to come down probably about 10 days before Christmas, but people will still order because, you know, like my family, we're seeing some family after Christmas or we're seeing people for the new year, so it really depends. A lot of people are ordering gifts that they want to get here early January to give to. To people after the fact. So you do still get quite a few orders. I would say the peak though is definitely Black Friday probably until that December 9th period.
- [16:36]
A
Got it. Okay, good to know. And you got the hookup with the special rep, I guess, your vip when you're making so much money with. For them.
- [16:43]
B
Yeah, they, it's been incredibly helpful. They provide a lot of great information about like products and allow you to make requests for certain things. Last year I requested a product and now they have it. So it's definitely been a great experience and I, I don't know what their threshold is for that. It's like after so many sales, they'll offer you to meet with this person. Um, and he's been a great resource and I've really enjoyed kind of learning some of the backend things and those charts and what to expect because that's helpful for you planning ahead too.
- [17:16]
A
Cool.
- [17:17]
B
Yeah.
- [17:17]
A
Do you have another tip for us?
- [17:19]
B
I would say my last tip would be there's a lot of pressure to prep for Q4 and I think one of, of the best ways to prep for Q4 is to truly be investing in your shop all year. So typically at Q4, you know you are going to make more sales, but it's typically going to be on products that are already selling or if you're a newer seller, you know, things that are trending or in demand, but really pouring into your shop throughout the year and spending time doing the research, posting the listings, trying things out throughout those first nine months of the year is going to be really helpful because that's going to help help show you what is likely going to be successful during the holidays. So I think a lot of times there's this pressure to like post all these listings before October, post all these listings before November, which is really helpful. But it's also, you don't have to approach it that way. And I very much take kind of the long and slow approach of just doing weekly work in my shop, testing new things and I think that's going to be the best way. So if this is your first Q4, this is a great opportunity to see what is working well with customers. And then going into January is thinking about the full year and just testing things. I would also say as a, as a add on to that to not lose sight of January because January tends to slow down quite a bit and a lot of times Etsy sellers will get nervous about that. That's just the natural flow of, you know, consumerism, people buying things. A lot of people spend a lot of money in December and then they do no spend January or they cut back quite a bit. But also thinking about what other holidays are up post. Christmas, what's coming up, you have Valentine's Day, you have other holidays, the spring is a huge mini Q4 with Mother's Day, Father's Day, end of the school year, things like that. So it is not too early to start thinking about some of that. I'm already planning for those events and I've kind of been thinking about what do I want to post for for those different events coming up. So this is a year round, you know, slow and steady wins the race. Just take your time, research design list and then also don't lose sight of January coming up after this.
- [19:40]
A
And it's not too late to learn a new skill because January is the time that all of us like to buckle down and reach our goals and get going and we're very motivated. So you have an exciting announcement. It's not, it's still kind of in the works but it's bubbling up. What do you have on your plate right now, Emily?
- [19:56]
B
Yes, I am so excited that I am partnering with Julie and Cody and Gold City Ventures to launch a print on demand course. And we are working on it right now and really excited to bring this course to the market to be able to help aspiring Etsy sellers launch or optimize or scale their print on demand shops. We I think have a unique focus on the course and we're really going to focus on how to sell these giftable products that are so profitable on Etsy to be able to bring in a second income stream or to build your side hustle. So I am super excited about it and I can't wait for it to launch.
- [20:37]
A
I'm very excited and as Emily knows, I am the test reviewer of the course right now. I've been watching the videos and it's getting me very jazzed up. I have so many ideas, particularly regarding candles. I don't know why, but I have this idea that I could just get, I could like make the candle label so simply and really turn them out, which I think is one of the things that we cover in the course as well as a bunch of other things and some of Emily's secret sauce of how she became such almost making half a million dollars revenue in two years on Etsy. Her special way of doing things which is very unique and I think people will benefit from it. So cannot wait to roll that out. Everyone stay tuned. We will email out about it and we'll let you know when it's available for sale.
- [21:18]
B
Can't wait. I'm excited.
- [21:20]
A
So Emily, just curious before we sign off, have you bought any print on Demand or anything? Actually Etsy presence for people doesn't have to be print on demand.
- [21:27]
B
Oh, good question. Yes, I have my husband, I've gotten him a few like girl dad shirts or he's from Indiana so hats, things like that. I have purchased a few things for my mom, some handmade items and also Some pod. And then I do. I buy digital products all the time on Etsy. That's like something I'm always buying. So a little bit of everything. I love shopping on there. I really like supporting other small businesses too. So that makes it really fun.
- [21:58]
A
Me too. And I love mentioning this because we have a big sales period coming up with the holidays, Black Friday. So encouraging everyone listening. If you haven't thought about maybe you could do a little bit of your shopping on Etsy. Support other sellers, get it in early, give them time to ship it out to you. Some things that I recently bought that are cool. So I've been into the crochet thing.
- [22:18]
B
Yes.
- [22:19]
A
But I don't actually craft myself. And they were these cutest, almost like dress up crochet hats where they're like winter hats. But one of them, they have like braids on them. They're just cool. Like they're like kids hats with their braids. And then the other thing, I bought a lot of things like craft kits and things like that so that we can do activities as a family. So that's kind of. I'm in the craft mode right now when I'm shopping on it. And of course I got my husband an ornament. I got him a Santa that says Santa knows when you skip leg day because he's, he's very into the gym. And you know, every year we do like an ornament, we get each other an ornament. So it was just very perfect for him.
- [23:01]
B
I love that. Yes. Ornaments. I love all the personalized ornaments or just like the funny ornaments on Etsy. And also I've done a few like funny mugs. You can definitely find some good, you know, mugs are good gifts for like co workers or friends or whatever. There are some really funny, unique ones on Etsy.
- [23:20]
A
Yeah. Oh yeah, the ornament, when it came in, I'm like, this is probably print on demand because it wasn't three dimensional. It was just kind of like the flat circle ornament. I'm like, oh, someone did that.
- [23:28]
B
Yep.
- [23:29]
A
Hopefully we've inspired you to improve your Etsy shop, optimize it using Emily's tips and maybe even start a print on demand side hustle if you haven't yet. Thanks, Emily for coming today.
- [23:39]
B
Yeah, thanks for having me.