Her SIMPLE Strategy To 5,000 Etsy Sales in 3 Years...

About this video

Dylan Jahraus interviews Etsy expert and coach Monica Little, who tells how she built her business Plant-Based Beauty, selling organic handmade skincare with superfoods. Burned out from leaving a corporate job to sell at markets every weekend, she committed to learning Etsy optimization and says she grew her shop to over 5,000 sales in about a year and a half (the video’s title frames the 5,000 sales as occurring over 3 years, the period she ran the business). She also says she got into over 160 stores and grew her Instagram to over 16,000 followers before closing the skincare business to coach full-time. Her case for Etsy over starting on Shopify: it is cheaper, simpler, and faster, and Etsy supplies a pool of shoppers — she cites 80 million people shopping on Etsy annually — so sellers don’t have to drive all their own traffic; she built her own website later, once money was coming in. Traction took 3–4 months of trial and error with photos, descriptions, and reviews, after which she says she was getting 100–200 orders every week or two, especially around the holidays. On competing with cheaper sellers, she argues mid-range/higher-priced products win through sophistication rather than price: strong imagery, packaging, and branding. She recommends investing in professional photography (her first shoot cost $400), putting a review screenshot in the third or fourth listing photo, and writing descriptions that answer every buyer question, because an Etsy shopper who can’t find an answer will hit the back button. Notably, she says she had only about 12 listings — quality over quantity — and she had proof of concept from market sales before scaling online.

Key takeaways

• Monica Little says she grew her Plant-Based Beauty Etsy shop to over 5,000 sales in about a year and a half, and also got into over 160 stores
• She chose Etsy before her own website because it is cheaper, simpler, and faster, and supplies existing shopper traffic — she cites 80 million annual Etsy shoppers
• Traction took 3–4 months of trial and error on photos, descriptions, and reviews before sales became consistent
• To avoid competing on price, she emphasizes imagery, packaging, and branding — including investing $400 in professional photography — plus placing a review screenshot in the third or fourth listing photo
• She says she succeeded with only about 12 listings, prioritizing quality and complete, question-answering descriptions over listing quantity

Episode details: published August 19, 2024 · 16:13 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dylan Jahraus’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: THIS is why you’re feeling stuck on Etsy… · Next: How To Sell Handmade Products on Etsy (FULL GUIDE for $10,000/Mo) →

All Dylan Jahraus videos · Dylan Jahraus profile · Dylan Jahraus on YouTube