Seller Handbook

The following is a transcript of a podcast episode released in September 2020. The transcript has been edited slightly for this format. You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tess: Today we’re talking about Etsy Teams. First, I’m going to talk with Dayna Isom Johnson about our new Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team. In addition to Dayna’s role as Etsy’s trend expert, she also helps lead our diversity efforts within Marketing and is helping launch this Team.

Then I’m going to talk with one of the captains of the Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team. Her name is Latoya Johnston and she sells natural and organic skincare products in her Etsy shop, which is called Fresh Seed Glow. She’s going to talk about who the Team is for, what kinds of conversations have been happening in there lately, and what she’s learned since the Team launched.

Welcome back to the show, Dayna. Today we’re talking about Teams on Etsy, and specifically the new Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team. Tell me a little bit about this new Team, Dayna. What is it and what’s the purpose of it?

Dayna: I know you’re going to be speaking with Latoya soon after our chat but I have to tell you, I’m so excited for the launch of this Team. Like most Etsy Teams, the Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team was formed to help support our sellers. And this particular Team is aimed at how we can help support and bring more awareness to Black-owned businesses.

Tess: I love that. And I know another location on the site that shines a light on those businesses is the Black-owned Etsy shops Editors’ Picks page, right?

Dayna: Exactly, two totally different destinations. We have our Editors’ Picks page, and that’s a destination that’s a curated collection that we build in-house and lives on our Editors’ Picks pages for shoppers to discover. But then now we have this great Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team that focuses on support within the seller community. That is a private space where business owners can get advice and support each other. And they can bring more attention to their shops through a different shoppable page, which is the Favourites page.

Tess: What’s the Favourites page?

Dayna: The captains of the Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team, Latoya of Fresh Seed Glow and Alicia of Lingua Nigra, do an incredible job of adding new sellers to this list each week. They’re in charge of managing and adding new members to the Team, and then adding their items to this shoppable Favourites page. This page includes at least one item from each Team member. It’s just another way that shoppers and fellow shop owners can support these Black-owned businesses.

Tess: How can Etsy sellers support these Black-owned shops and other Black-owned businesses?

Dayna: One of the things I love about Etsy is the strong sense of community that our sellers build and the excitement to help uplift each other. If you’re a seller who is not a part of this Team but you want to help bring more attention to these businesses, one way is to share the shoppable Favourites page to your customers. Try sharing it through your social channels or in your About page, just wherever you want to share it to help bring more awareness.

Tess: Have you made any purchases from the Team lately?

Dayna: Which purchase? I’ve made so many! But my last purchase was this beautiful printed athleisure set from Rochelle Porter Design. It’s a matching sports bra and leggings, and then I also bought bike shorts to go along with it. I live in it right now, it’s comfortable, it’s bright, it’s colourful, it’s cheerful. All the things I love and need right now.

Tess: Thank you so much, Dayna, for sharing all of this background info on the Team. Now let’s hear from one of the captains of the Team, Latoya Johnston, of the Etsy shop Fresh Seed Glow.

Tess: Before we get into talking about the Team, I would love if you could tell me about what you make and how long you’ve been on Etsy.

Latoya: I make skincare products with natural and organic ingredients designed to pamper the skin from head to toe. Currently in my Etsy shop I sell a hydrating face mist and toner, a face serum, a body butter, body oil, and a body scrub. I’ve been on Etsy since July of 2018.

Tess: Amazing. I’m curious about how you discovered your passion for natural skincare, and how you learned to make your products.

Latoya: It started when I decided to go on a natural hair journey. I did my big chop in 2010, and I remember going to the haircare product aisle at the shop and seeing a small section catered to natural hair care. So I tried a few of the products on the shelf, and none of the products worked for my hair type – I have coily hair – so I just decided to make my own. I learned how to make my products from YouTube. I did a search for DIY skincare recipes, and I watched about a thousand videos. And after I watched those videos, it led me to making products of my own in my kitchen.

Tess: What’s your approach to getting the right recipe, like really perfecting it?

Latoya: My approach to perfecting my recipes is simple. I ask myself a few questions: How does it feel on the skin? Is it drying or is it hydrating? A lot of my products are hydrating for the skin because I believe that you need to continuously add moisture to your skin because of all of the environmental elements that take away moisture from your skin. You need to add things back into your skin. So if it’s hydrating and it passes that test, I then give a few samples to friends and family to get their take on the product. And once I’m at a point where I’m comfortable, I put the product up on my Etsy shop.

Tess: It’s great to have that test run because they might even point out positive things about the product that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own, because they have some distance from it that you don’t have.

Latoya: Yes, and they’re looking at it from a different perspective. And they have a different skin type than I do. My skin is normal-oily skin, like I get oily in my T-zone but the rest of my skin is pretty normal. But for someone else, their skin could be really dry and this product could be even more drying to their skin. So it’s important to have a variety of people try your products so that you can formulate it or have a recipe that really matches up with the claim that your product is making.

Tess: Let’s talk about the newly formed Team. You teamed up with another wonderful Etsy seller, Alicia Goodwin of Lingua Nigra, to create this Team that focuses on supporting and bringing attention to Black-owned businesses. Congratulations! Before we jump into that, can you share what Teams are for our newer listeners?

Latoya: So Teams are a way to come together and to continue to build our maker community. It’s also a great opportunity for sellers to meet like-minded business owners who make similar items and share a passion for creativity.

Tess: Is this your first time joining a team?

Latoya: Yes, this my first time joining a team. Before this time, I didn’t know that Teams existed on Etsy. But now that I’m on a Team and also a captain of a Team, I believe it’s so important to continue to build and grow our community of Black-owned Etsy shops. As sellers, we need people to lean on in the good times and the bad times.

And during the day I work for BRIC, which is a non-profit arts organisation in downtown Brooklyn. I work on the community media side, where we help Brooklynites learn how to use cameras and equipment to produce their own shows.

Tess: Yes, you’ve been on the ground working with your community so it seems like a perfect fit for you to transfer those skills to the online platform of an Etsy Team.

Latoya: Thank you. It has helped me learn a lot about community building, and it also allows you to look at things from a different perspective. Like a lot of the people who are part of the Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team may have suggestions for me as a captain that are helpful for me in my business. So that’s very important.

I think it’s important when you’re working with a Team as a captain to listen. Listen to digest the information and not listen to just respond to the information. Really try to understand what the community is saying to you. And that’s one of the things that I learned from BRIC: really listening to the community.

Tess: Who is this team for, and what are you and Alicia’s goals for the group?

Latoya: The Black-Owned Etsy Shops team is for sellers who identify as Black. My goal and Alicia’s goal is to continue to facilitate meaningful conversations that help our members to grow their business. And we want to do the same thing for our businesses. So it’s great for us to be helpful to others, and also for them to be helpful to us.

Tess: That makes sense. It’s not a hierarchy, but it’s a safe space for mutual sharing of information. So now that the Team has been live for a few months, I’m curious to hear what types of topics the group has been discussing.

Latoya: We’ve been giving each other a lot of business advice. I recently posted about finding a balance between work and life. I work a 9 to 5 job at BRIC, and I also have my small business on Etsy. So I have had to learn how to structure my day in a way that I can get everything done. So now I’ve set alarms for myself. From 7am to 9am, I’m packing orders. Then at 9am, I’m dispatching orders at the post office. And then from 10am to 6pm, I’m working for my job. After 6pm, I’m transitioning back to working on my business.

And I take a lot of breaks in between. Stopping and saying, “You know what? Give yourself a break”, is important. Because if you run yourself all day with your business, all day long, you’re going to get burnt out very quickly. It’s important to set time aside for your business, and to set time for a 9 to 5, if you have one.

Tess: And it sounds like that got brought up in the collective of the group, like other folks were empathising with your situation?

Latoya: Yes, so there are a few people who just strictly run small businesses on Etsy, and then there are people who have to balance their jobs and their small businesses. But one of the suggestions that I got from another Black-owned business was to hire an intern. And I am currently looking to hire an intern in my shop.

Tess: I love that within Teams, the community can really talk about everything from business advice, to your favourite songs, to general life tips like work-life balance. Do you feel like the conversation has been really flowing, and even as the captain you’ve learned a lot from the other members?

Latoya: Yeah, I feel like I have learned so much from other sellers who are in my field and who are also out of my field. I normally would sell my products at markets, but due to COVID-19 all of the markets have been shut down. So now I sell strictly on Etsy. I quickly learned that my natural products would melt in direct sun.

I brought that conversation to the Team and I said, “Hey Team. Is there anybody who delivers natural skincare products? How do you send your products? Because my shea butter is melting during transit.” So there was another shop owner who suggested to me, “You should use a thermal shield bubble mailer and also a cold pack.” So now I use those two items to deliver my shea butter, and it’s been arriving perfectly.

Tess: Oh, that’s amazing. It’s great to be able to connect with other sellers who sell similar items and get tips that are specific to what you’re doing.

Latoya: Yes, that’s what the community is all about. And another thing I wanted to bring up is that Alicia is an original in the Etsy community, and I look up to her as a captain. She’s always helping me with my shop. Even though we make two different things – Alicia’s in jewellery and I’m in skincare – she’s such a wealth of knowledge and a helpful resource for me when I’m struggling with things in my shop. I can call her up and say, “Hey, Alicia. What do you think I should do with this?” or “What do you think I should do with that?” And she has answers right on the spot. I’m thankful to be able to look up to someone else like that who’s another captain on the Team.

Tess: So what do you like most about being part of a Team?

Latoya: I like that it feels like a safe space for me to interact with other sellers. It’s refreshing to know that I have a place I can go for help and to also be helpful to others. I’ve been on Etsy since July of 2018, and I was on my own doing all of the research by myself: searching for bottles and labels, sourcing out wholesale products and ingredients, and things like that. And now I feel like I have a community of people that I can go to, to just pour into and ask those questions that I need answers to.

Tess: What’s the last item that you purchased from a Team member?

Latoya: I recently purchased some brown craft bags. I plan to incorporate a botanical face steam into my shop, and I thought that these would go well with the whole aesthetic of my shop. All my labels are white, my bottles are brown, so me incorporating a brown craft bag was like the icing on the cake.

Tess: So if a seller wanted to join the Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team, how would they do it? Can you tell me about the process?

Latoya: So if you identify as Black, then you would go on Etsy and search for the Black-Owned Etsy Shops Team, and just send us invitation. And we would love to have you join us. If you are one of the listeners, and you want a safe space to share your ideas on Etsy, then join us. We approve invitations every week.

Tess: What’s next for your shop? What can we expect from Fresh Seed Glow?

Latoya: I just recently did a collaboration with the Bamboo Switch Shop, and I’ve added these organic reusable cotton rounds that you can use up to a thousand times and they’re really safe for the environment. That was one of the newer items that I incorporated into my shop, which people are really loving because it goes hand in hand with the hydrating face mist and toner.

The funny thing is I got this idea from another Black-Owned Etsy Team member! I was telling them that it really takes a long time to perfect skincare products, and people were looking for more things to buy from my shop. So she made the suggestion, “Latoya, why don’t you sell the accessories that go along with the skincare products? Why don’t you collaborate with another shop?” And I said, “That’s an amazing idea! I’m going to do that right away.”

I started doing research on different body tools, like body brushes, jade rollers, and things like that, and I landed on these cotton rounds. Because I thought the cotton rounds were really nice. They come in this washable mesh bag, and you could use them a thousand times so it’s no waste and it’s safe for the environment.

So I reached out to the Bamboo Switch Shop and they were like, “We would love to collaborate with you!” They gave me all the tools that I needed to set up the listing for my shop and the rest is really history. People are loving the reusable cotton rounds. People don’t realise how many cotton rounds you use to take off make-up and to cleanse your skin. It just made a lot of sense to incorporate that into my shop, since I’m using natural and organic ingredients. I care about the environment, and what I put on my skin, and what I put into my body.