Getting featured on Etsy – It’s what every Etsy shop owner’s dreams are made of, right?! But what happens after you open that email, see your shop featured, and do your happy dance? Well, if you guessed major growth and a little bit of chaos, you’re right on the money! Want to learn more about the aftermath of an Etsy product feature? Listen in today as our guest, Samantha Belsey of Samantha Ann & Co. dishes out the deets on her Etsy feature experience. She’s discussing everything from how she got the feature to the impact it had on her shop long-term! 

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More about Samantha

Samantha is from small-town Wooler, Ontario, Canada where she operates her business, Samantha Ann & Co. Samantha has been serving the Wedding and Home Decor industry for over 5 years now through her Etsy Shop and local Wedding Rental Company. She is known for being one busy gal with all of the different avenues within her business from providing Home Decor, Personalized Seasonal Products and Wedding products through her Etsy Shop.. as well as Wedding Rentals, Wedding Decor Set-Up Services, Wedding Stationery and Day of Stationery services to her local clients… yes… she wears all the hats!! In-between all the craziness of juggling a Business and everyday life, she can usually be found frolicking on her hobby farm with her partner Brandon, dog Levy and their Chickens, usually tackling a Home Decor DIY project or working away in her garden!! Samantha has high hopes and dreams for her small business including opening a Retail space, expanding her wedding rentals and running Samantha Ann & Co as her full time career!! Samantha loves every second of being an entrepreneur and can’t wait to keep working towards her big dreams and goals until they become her reality. 

Etsy Feature 

Share your experience getting a Product Feature on Etsy?

Sam 17:00

Okay. So a tad bit of a background story to that. So in January of 2021,Brandon and I bought another house and we were set to move at the end of May, 2021.

So, you know, it was around mid-March when Etsy’s marketing team reached out via Etsy message and they were like, Hey, Sam we love this one product we found on your shop. We would love it if you were a part of our spring sale campaign happening mid may, all you have to do is throw 50% off on this item and we will include it in our campaign.

They originally wanted to feature a wood sign that you could customize. But in the back of my mind, I was like, okay, at the end of may. I’m not really going to be in the woodshop. Like, that’s probably not a good idea. I’m not even going to have a studio. Like I won’t, like, I don’t even know at that point. Like having to close down my shop. So I replied to them, and I was like, you know what, actually, I just made this design or this product. It’s an urban garden marker. It’s laser cut, super trendy, all that kind of stuff. I’m really excited about them. Is there any way I can feature this item instead? And they were like, yeah, no problem. For sure. Um, you’ll take this as like, you’re being involved with it. Just make sure you set it on the backend and then all is good and we will, we’ll put it in the campaign for you.

So I’m like, okay, like, you know, I’ll just put 15% on it. I scheduled it and, and, you know, see you later life goes on. I didn’t even really think about it nor like, looking back on like, Sam, you probably should have asked more questions and then like, what does this mean? Like, to be a part of the campaign.

So, then May rolls around and I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off because I’m trying to move, I’m trying to pack, I’m trying to do all these things. Like I legit had no studio from like, honestly at the time the campaign went live, which was mid-May until probably like June 1st, because I still didn’t know exactly what we were going to do to the house. In terms of renovation wise, we ended up getting the whole freaking thing.

So May rolls around  and I’m like, okay, where am I going to put my studio? Like, how am I going to work? So I went back to where it all started. I went to my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house. Dad and I made a table for the laser. 

On May 25th I opened an email from Etsy and saw that my garden markers were featured. And my heart dropped there in like 90% of this screen is my frickin urban garden markers or stakes, like right there. Like my picture. I’m like, oh my God, this can’t be it.

And that’s when the panic set in, I opened up my Etsy app and I shot out of bed so fast because there were already 90 orders. I was just like, and it’s like, it’s like 7:00 AM.

Okay. I dunno when, I don’t know when it got sent out this email, I’m like, oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. It’s happening? Like, you know, those like tech talks that it was like, it’s happening. Like it was actually like real life happening. 

And at this time, my Glowforge is still in a box. So, I’m panicking like, Okay. I’m like, I need to get going right now.

I started cutting that night, but by the end of the day, I was up to over 200 orders, urban garden stakes.

How did the Etsy Feature impact your Shop moving forward? Do you feel like it was like a catapult to some more growth for your shop?

Sam 29:46

Oh gosh. Yeah. And I mean, people were, the trick was just to get people to come to my shop.

Right. Whether they liked the urban garden stakes. So they ended up buying or not, I didn’t even care. I was like, even if I get like a hundred favorites or, you know, some followers on it, like, you know what I mean? When, when things started really coming in, I was like, okay, this is great. 

I think it was great that I didn’t have expectations goin into it because I didn’t know what the heck was going on.

I do think the feature really set the tone, I think for the rest of my summer and even into fall and Christmas, because you know, when things started rolling with the house, renovation and wedding started picking up, like you guys might have noticed that I was quiet on social media.

Like I could not keep up, like my full-time job. I was back on the road. Like I was just like, man, I can’t even, I couldn’t even throw out a new product. I couldn’t like get a freaking email market marketing out. Like I was just like, I was maxed like by 1130 every morning, like the contractors would have a list of million things to ask me and I’m like, okay, can I go back to bed?

So, um, I, I think that feature really just helped. I, I was having like, I’m up a hundred and I think I just looked at this morning, I’m up like 128% year over year in my Etsy shop. And that’s definitely because of those urban garden stays. Cause it’s been keeping up the traffic, like, you know, my, my listings are doing really well.

And without even trying, I know people are probably gonna hate me saying this, but like, without even trying this summer, like my sales have been really consistent. So they might not have been like 200 orders a week, like the urban garden six, which is fine. Um, but they’ve definitely, definitely like picked up and I’ve been very steady ever since.

The Road to Full Time

In your bio it said you’re working towards your dreams and your goal of going full-time in your business. Has that happened yet?

Sam 3:10

No, not yet, but it is very much so in the works. As you guys know, there are just so many boxes you feel like you need to check off before going full time and I want to make sure it’s the right time before I take the leap. But everyone’s like, Sam, it’s never going to be the right time, which is true. I do feel like I’m very very close to taking that leap.