From Passion To Profession: Becoming A Full-Time Marketplace Seller With June Child Ceramics

Seller success is directly correlated to marketplace success. But what does providing value to sellers actually look like? To find out, we sat down with Jo-Anne Wu, the founder and maker behind Etsy shop, June Child Ceramics. 

A true maker, Jo-Anne creates everything in her shop by hand out of her Montreal studio home. She sells playfully designed ceramic wall hooks and crocheted flower wall hangings, which have performed so well on Etsy that she’s attained the coveted 'Star Seller' status.

We interviewed Jo-Anne to learn how selling on Etsy’s marketplace enables her to:

• Focus on creating 
• Sell full-time on the platform 
• Do business in over 20 countries 

Takeaway for marketplace merchants: 
‍Enable sellers to do more of what they do best — by taking care of what they want to do least.

N: Congratulations on June Child Ceramics’ success! And thank you for sitting down with us. I’m looking forward to hearing the story of how you built this thriving business by selling on a marketplace. Take me to the beginning of your journey.

What’s June Child Ceramics’ origin story?

J: Selling ceramics on Etsy was a happy accident. I have a background as a graphic designer, and my original plan was to create and sell design templates. Past colleagues of mine encouraged me to start an Etsy shop after experiencing success of their own. I decided to do the same. 

When I started on Etsy, I used my ceramics as a placeholder for other listings. To my surprise, people started messaging me and asking if I sell them. From there, I created June Child Ceramics, and before long, I had enough Etsy sales to turn June Child Ceramics from a part-time passion into a full-time profession.

N: Selling on Etsy has been a career-changing endeavor for you. It’s no small feat to sell full-time on a marketplace!

How did Etsy enable you to make this leap?

J: I started June Child Ceramics as a side hustle. In under a year, my Etsy sales grew to the point where I could turn June Child Ceramics into a full-time business. It got so busy, I had to hire two employees to keep up with demand. 

I think I experienced this degree of success on the marketplace because Etsy makes it really easy to do business and reach customers — even today, I mostly reach customers through Etsy. It takes care of tasks I have little interest in or time to execute, like marketing. I post a little bit on Instagram, but I'm not a huge social media person. Etsy does a really good job promoting my shop in-house and in off-site ads. You can see my products on their Pinterest, Google, and Facebook. 

N: Take me back to when you started setting up your Etsy shop.

How was Etsy’s onboarding process? What resources did you find useful as you set up your shop?

J: Getting started on Etsy was smooth sailing thanks to three things:

1. Ample educational content
2. Built-in incentives
3. An engaged seller community that generously shares tips and tricks

There are so many YouTube tutorials out there. I started by following a step-by-step tutorial. When I first got on board, I got my first 40 listings free. Even beyond that, other sellers often share their codes. I still read forums all the time and ask questions on how to handle tricky situations.

N: It goes without saying that marketplaces must make it worth it for sellers to participate.

What does Etsy do for you to help get your products in front of more buyers and make selling easy?

J: In a nutshell, Etsy provides me with support for marketing, global sales, and logistics.

Built-in marketing

In terms of marketing, Etsy has been very supportive. Etsy purchases my hooks and features them in everything from their email marketing to commercials. They also asked influencers to collaborate with me. 

That exposure has been really good for my shop because I can spend less time on marketing and more time creating product — which is what I’m best at. If I didn’t sell on Etsy, it would be a lot harder to grow the business quickly. I'd have to spend a lot more time creating videos and marketing my pieces. Etsy handles a lot of that for me, so I can just focus on making.

Global customer reach

A big benefit of selling on Etsy is that you can tap into their global reach and enormous pool of qualified buyers. Today, 90% of my customers come from Etsy. While my buyers are mostly from the US, I have shipped to over 20 other countries, which is great. It's ‘wow’ to think that my work is all over the globe.

Streamlined logistics

Etsy’s seller platform is really easy to navigate. For example, I can batch print pre-populated labels. My only job is to select a box size and print the label. I can also split orders up to different tabs, by pre-orders or orders to be sent out later. Everything is organized so I don't feel like a mess when I have to pack 100 orders at a time.

N: It’s clear that Etsy has done a lot to create a win-win for sellers like you. But what about challenges?

Have you experienced any challenges selling on a marketplace?

J: Selling on Etsy has been mostly smooth sailing, but I have encountered a couple of hitches along the way. 

Seller protection

I was unaware of Etsy’s seller protections until well into selling on the platform. In the beginning, I didn't know how to handle exchanges or lost shipments. I didn't know about the seller protection where Etsy would pay if anything gets lost and protect your pieces.

Instead of reaching out to Etsy for support, I took on the losses, remaking missing items — which takes three weeks — and refunding customers out of my pocket. But now I know I can lean on Etsy to protect me.  

Growing pains 

As a seller, strong demand is a good thing, especially on a competitive marketplace like Etsy. But I experienced so much demand so fast that I verged on burnout.  

I was working about 10 hours a day during my busiest times, and it took a toll on my mental health. I felt that sometimes I just didn’t have it inside me to make new things because business efficiency was all I could think about. I ended up hiring two staffs to manage the high sales volume. The added help allows me to take time to rejuvenate and focus on the creative aspect of my shop. 

Keeping up with trends 

My Etsy experience continues to be smooth, but I put a lot of effort into maintaining my shop.  I keep up with trends, frequently update product photos, and heed the sales advice Etsy gives sellers every season. I see some sellers on the forums complaining that they have no views or no sales. But when I look at their shop, their pictures are 10 years old, and the trends they’re following are long gone. Etsy gives sellers like me a lot of support, but I still have to put in the effort to make my shop appealing. 

N: Well, I’m glad to hear that you’ve solved all the challenges that came your way and that your experience as a marketplace seller has been so positive.

To close out, if you could ask Etsy for one feature to add to the seller experience, what would it be?

J: I would ask Etsy for a pre-order option. Currently, I use a workaround, manually changing product titles and processing times to indicate pre-orders. I’d like a button where customers can pre-order or get notified when an item is back in stock, instead of the listing disappearing when it's sold out. That’s it! That’s all I would add right now. 

N: That’s a good one. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us! 

You can check out Jo-Anne’s products on her Etsy shop. To learn how you can build value into your marketplace for your sellers, sign up for our Marketplace Bootcamp. There, you’ll receive an entire module dedicated to creating a marketplace built for seller enablement.