In Episode 8 of “Hi, I’m an Amazon seller” we speak with two business who are part of the Amazon Handmade community. They share how they got their start with Amazon Handmade, along with their advice to other sellers who are looking to grow their business online.
Michelle Rutta-Wahe, Your Heart’s Content
Michelle Rutta-Wahe starting sewing with her mother when she was just five years old and has over 30 years of experience in the fabric business. The Madison, Wisconsin, native started her company, Your Heart’s Content, focusing on creating handmade home décor and accessories in her shop, turning her love of fabrics into a full-time job. Her products are bright, beautiful, and unique, featuring décor for all times of year, from bottle brush trees, to velvet pumpkins, eggs, wreaths, and beyond.
Sara & Susan Robinson, Sara Sews, Inc.
The mother-daughter duo of Sara and Susan Robinson co-founded Sara Sews, a company that started making aprons when Sara was in second grade. Based out of Bremerton, Georgia, they create aprons, bookmarks, and other personalized products that are all sewn by hand. Sara Sews launched in Amazon’s online store as part of Amazon Handmade in 2015, and they have continued to grow their business ever since.
Video transcript:
00:09 – [Michelle] Get ready to do more than put listings up and wait for the sales to come in. To new sellers my best advice would be to plan on having at least 30% of your time and resources in marketing to get your brand out there and to get the sales going.
00:29 – [Susan] Picking listing photos, writing good descriptions. All of those things are really important to selling items on Handmade. Developing something that within that photography or within that description that really connects with people. I think that’s what actually brings customers to the Handmade items.
00:57 – [Susan] We received an email at some point sometime in 2015, I think, asking us if we’d be interested in applying for Amazon Handmade, and wow! I went to Sara and said, ‘Hey, look, Amazon is going to have handmade products.’ I just couldn’t believe it.
01:16 – [Sara] I trusted my mom with her giving all the benefits of moving to Amazon. I mean, it’s Amazon! Like I thought, I thought it was cool that they reached out to us and wanted us to be on there with us. Just crazy to think that, like at such a young age, we could sell things to people that they actually want, that we had made with our own two hands.
01:37 – [Michelle] We’ve been on Amazon Handmade for between four and five years, and it’s become a big part of our business. Amazon has one of the biggest marketplaces in the world, and we wanted to see if we could tap into that. And then it got legs. And then it started, it started going, and we haven’t looked back from there.
02:04 – [Michelle] As a society, folks are looking for high quality, handmade products that are, either, locally made, or they know where, ‘I know where Madison, Wisconsin, is, hey, this was made there.’ We really love when our orders are going out the door and customers obviously are enjoying our product. So, we are inspired then to create new products for them and to keep them coming back.
02:32 – [Susan] We make things with our hands. And so, when we say that it’s handmade, we’re not kidding. We make every product that is listed with our hands, with these hands.
02:45 – [Sara] We get pictures all the time and reviews. And it’s so amazing to see that, like people are making memories using our stuff.
