Starting an Etsy Print on Demand Store from (almost) nothing

UPDATE: This is copy of an original article that I posted on LinkedIn back in April 2022. I'm reproducing here on this blog platform in order to publish some content that I can use to test the integration and feeds into my new website https://www.karlsimpson.co.uk. As it's now January 2023 and a lot has happened since (not least a few more sales) at some point soon I'll publish an update on progress since last year. Until then please enjoy my original writings on the subject of launching an Etsy print on demand store with no prior experience.

I started my print on demand store back in Sept 2021 with a goal to see if I could scale a business with absolutely minimal investment and no tangible product or expensive product R&D costs. E-commerce has been a goldmine for many entrepreneurs but the reality is you can't just get started with nothing... or can you...??

The initial challenge was deciding what to sell and who to buy it from. There are many POD suppliers out there but unlike with dropshipping suppliers you are locked into a narrower range of products. After some research I decided on art prints as this category was well represented amongst the reputable big suppliers and I ordered some test prints. I chose Printful eventually because, although pricier than some others, the combination of range, delivery speed and the number of platform integrations they had was the biggest. This was a major draw if I were to expand onto other marketplaces and possibly Shopify as well. Once set up the whole process was smooth, email comms were flawless and gave me the confidence that the supply chain could be 100% hands off so I could focus on product and marketing.

I chose Etsy as the launch platform for a few reasons:

1. Cost - fees are very reasonable when compared with most others. At the time: £0.18 listing fee per product. 5% transaction fee and another 4% for using the payments system (a must have)
   
   
2. Traffic - Etsy was a rising star during the pandemic and the customer base was perfect for the product type.
   
   
3. There was lots of evidence of other shops doing well. I estimated sales volumes of 2000 items per month on some established stores.

Within art there is an unlimited amount of out of copyright and royalty free content available online. I used Rawpixel as the primary source - if you're unfamiliar check it out, it's a brilliant resource.

I then set about developing a product creation process that could be replicated at speed and scale. In truth it's a very straightforward process although over time I learned to cut down on the number of variations I offered. To begin with I set up 100 products that had on average a dozen variation sizes and frames each - too much choice! - however initially I did want to find out what sizes customers were most interested in so it was a useful exercise. I also ditched frames altogether because, quite frankly, people can buy the same ones much cheaper at 'The Range'. I also set up some assets for the storefront just to give it a little personality. I used a mixture of Canva and GIMP to create images and a logo (you will see I'm no graphic designer ;). I also created shop policies and filled in every section that was optional; always worth doing as Etsy gives you extra brownie points for looking like a professional outfit. I also learnt a lot about titles, tags and product imagery during this stage.

Listing was a pain as Etsy, unlike almost all other e-commerce sites, does not give the option to bulk upload off a spreadsheet. Not only that but you effectively have to set the product up twice because you need to create on the POD site too. You can push the products through directly to Etsy however the way I had created them with variations meant they would appear as separate products and I wanted to keep them altogether, not least because each would have a separate listing fee. I knew long term this would have to be a VA job but that would be much later down the line.

Timeless Art Prints was launched on a budget of £18.88 which was literally just the listing fee for the first 100 products. Traffic initially was slow. Unlike Amazon which gives you a honeymoon period and elevates your products to see how they perform, on Etsy you have to work harder in the beginning to get noticed. It really likes inbound traffic especially Pinterest and Instagram. I set up accounts for these but I've not really had much time to develop. Instead I launched ads and committed a small $1 a day budget. This helped me to get some traffic but more importantly showed which products had the most interest. I couldn't afford to spend more as my gross margins were only around 15-20%.

Then after a couple of weeks I got my first sale! Nothing feels better than when you put a product out to the world and someone actually buys it. In this case a lady in the US who bought a picture of the Space Shuttle launching. Visitors started to grow and more sales came in - still modest numbers - but they came from all over: Australia, Germany, Sweden, France, more from the US and I even had repeat customer orders from the UK. I joked to wife that I was now an international art dealer :)

Everything was going great until ...

One morning in early January I woke up and an alert on my phone told my I'd had a review - great my first one. So far I'd kept my pricing very competitive to get fast sales and ultimately reviews. However this guy wasn't happy. He'd given me one star and basically said the only good thing was the speed of delivery. The product quality was very sub-par and in his view overpriced and unusable. I was gutted but I acknowledge his concern and immediately sent him a refund and apology. I also included a reply and publicly acknowledged on his comment so at least other shoppers would see the response. My mistake - I should have private messaged him back and asked for some photo's so that I could take up with the supplier before I refunded him. He may have even changed his review and upgraded it but it was too late - Etsy won't let you do that after you've responded.

I now had a problem. Traffic dropped off a cliff overnight, no one's going to click through to a one star shop right.? 

First action was to look at other suppliers. Through listening to various podcasts I'd recently become aware of one called Gelato. I got some samples in. I also got some new print-worthy products - calendars, mugs, canvases. These were actually better and cheaper than Printful and they had a similar distribution network. Only downside was most of their integrations for other platforms were API so a bit harder to set up. But Etsy at least could be linked up through a direct connection. I spent the next two weeks migrating my products across. At this point I had around 150 but I decided to let a lot go because they weren't performing and many were due for the 4 month renewal. So as it's stands we are currently at just 56. At the moment I have folders of downloaded stuff that needs setting up ....

Once I'd reset the supply chain I put an announcement out stating I'd updated all product supply and we were now able to offer free delivery worldwide on many products (that extra margin came in handy). I've not re-enabled ads yet as I'd like to get the range back up first. I have had one order since. It's just very hard work changing buyer perceptions once you lose that initial trust.

If you've read this far you probably want to know the numbers...!?

• Store Costs: £156.51
• Product Costs: £187.01
• Revenue (inc P&P): £365.06
• Profit: £21.54
• Margin: 6%

Ok, it not enough to retire on but even after all the hassle we manage to turn a profit in six months - how many business can say that ? 

If I was being really generous I could say that's a bank beating 14% return on my initial £18.88 investment but I'm not getting excited about my retirement just yet. But as they say, if you're not earning, you're learning!