Making It Online
Local artisans have harnessed the power of the online marketplace Etsy to build successful businesses, each in their own individualized way.
RACHEL CHAMBERS (below) started her Etsy business VINTAGE POD in 2010 to gain the flexibility she craves in a life that “encapsulates all the realms of the vintage world.”
Chambers works on her online store about thirty-forty hours a week, does alterations for a local vintage store, and works as a part-time nanny. She also works as an independent consultant for shop owners on Etsy, which was founded as a site for handmade goods in 2005 and has grown to 1.5 million sellers, according to a company report.
Most of those sellers – 86 percent – are women.
Meanwhile, even online juggernaut Amazon moved into the makers area last year when it released Handmade at Amazon, with more than 5,000 online sellers at the launch in October.
For Chambers, selling online through Etsy enables her to do all this while keeping her store the size and style she desires.
“I am very particular about my store. I want it to stay small. I want to be able to touch every item in my store,” she says. “I want customers to know that these items were well-loved and the person who had it had a heart behind it.”
Having a brick-and-mortar storefront does not appeal to Chambers, who puts her time in when and where she wants.
“I’m too much of a free spirit for that. Hiring someone is really a gamble, and I like to travel a lot,” Chambers says. “I often dream of moving to Paris, and I can run my business from anywhere in the world. That’s the beauty of Etsy. You can make it whatever you want.”
As Chambers uses Etsy as her primary source for her sales, MEGHAN CONNOR uses Etsy as just one of the avenues she travels with her handmade coastal chic business, THE CORAL ANCHOR.
The stay-at-home mom of two girls started making her creations as a hobby and has turned it into a thriving business.
“My mom bought us a craft fair booth to have fun, and I enjoyed it, so it started evolving right before I had my first child,” Connor says. “I decided to do this as a business. It has evolved in the last four years, and I love it.”
As Connor’s business grew, she decided to take it a step further and go online.
“Once I saw what clients were leaning to – that coastal shabby chic look – I set up my Etsy shop,” Connor says. “It was slow at first. It took a while to build, but it is a great reference for those who haven’t seen it in person.”
Connor’s business includes craft fairs and a booth space in Scotts Hill Market. A Facebook page allows local orders of her larger pallet signs, which “are tricky sending through the mail.”
“Craft shows are great. It’s wham bam, but it’s a lot of work leading up to it,” Connor says. “Etsy is a steady stream shop. The market is great when tourists are coming into town, so all three have different pros and cons to them. That’s why I like having all three avenues. When I can touch on all three, I make up with all locations.”
Husband-and-wife team, MELISSA ISON and STEVE LUSHER (left), own the local letterpress greeting card business GUTTERSNIPE PRESS, and they use Etsy Wholesale in addition to the traditional retail Etsy.
“Wholesale is our bread and butter,” Lusher says. “It is our primary focus. We connect with storeowners and buyers through Etsy.”
Etsy Wholesale is a separate site from the retail Etsy shop and serves as a private marketplace where buyers and sellers must apply and go through a vetting process before they are approved to use the site. It facilitates business between storeowners and buyers, according to Lusher.
“As soon as we launched, Etsy was the first place we went. It took six months to get our first sale. It is a steep learning curve, but it is essential to us,” Lusher says. “It is the main avenue to which customers find us. It is the largest exposure of any of the avenues to which we sell online – wholesale or retail.”
As an Etsy consultant, Chambers helps artisans start stores, and of the twelve stores she has helped launch, all of them have made a sale within the first twenty-four hours of opening.
“The model I’ve been using seems pretty effective,” Chambers says. “For artists who create art and don’t have to keep all of it, for stay-at-home moms it can be an income supplement, or as part of a brick-and-mortar business, Etsy is for all walks, all ways of life.”
To view more of photographer Megan Deitz’s work, go to www.megandeitz.com
