During her first holiday season as an Etsy seller, Alison Walla was frantically trying to keep up with a flood of orders for her cookies and treats, which she sold in her Etsy shop Butter + Love. In the commercial kitchen where she was working, another baker gave Alison – who has taken a break from her shop to focus on her role as a seller advisor at Etsy – a sweet piece of advice. “She said, ‘Don’t be stressed, because if you’re stressed out, your cookies are going to be stressed out and no one wants to eat a stressed out cookie,’” Alison says.
Seeing orders pour in during busy times is exciting — it means people love your product enough to make a purchase and your shop is thriving. But making, packing and shipping all of these orders also means your to-do list just got a lot longer, which can cause stress. Stress not only affects your health and productivity levels, it can also reveal itself in the way you communicate with customers or present your products. Don't let it get the best of you. Instead, take a deep breath the next time you start to feel overwhelmed by your workload and use one or more of the following techniques to keep your cool.
Hit the Pause Button
As a seller advisor at Etsy, Alison works directly with shop owners to provide support and some friendly advice when things get hectic. Her top tip, applicable for almost any situation, is to breathe. “When you get emotional, take a step back,” she says. “Breathe, breathe again, breathe a third time.” Pausing for a moment to gather your thoughts will prevent you from taking your stress out on customers via Convo or spiraling into a panic tornado. For Jahje Ives, taking a mini break with a mug of tea helps keep stress at bay when things get busy in her Philadelphia-based nursery decor shop Baby Jives Co. “Don’t underestimate the power of stepping away for 10 minutes and drinking a cup of tea while not thinking about anything other than drinking a cup of tea,” Jahje says.
Embrace the Adrenaline
When you’re in the zone and powering through orders, embrace that adrenaline and use it to fuel your work. Putting on some tunes and dancing around her studio helps Rachel Budde of natural body care shop Fat and the Moon shake off anxious energy and focus on the tasks she needs to accomplish. “It takes a stressful time and brings up the volume a little bit so it can be more fun,” says Rachel, whose shop is based in Point Arena, California. “It can be hard when your energy is really up to take it down and relax, so I just take it a little bit higher. Blast your favorite album and dance your way through it.”
Have a Packaging Plan
Do you spend too much time trying to tie the perfect bow or fretting over how your outgoing orders look? Instead, develop a streamlined process for prettifying packages before you get busy. Reducing the amount of time she spent packaging her printed textile goods has made the day-to-day easier for Tiffany Kerr of Twill and Print in Montreal, Quebec. Tiffany used to pack orders in standard manila mailers that she dressed up with ribbon. This year, she splurged on mailers printed with her shop logo. "Making the mailers pretty means not as much frill has to go into the packaging and I don't have to spend five minutes packing an order and tying it in a bow," she says. "It’s a lot simpler for me, but still represents my brand and looks nice.”
Recruit a friend or family member to help get your shipping station in tip-top shape by assembling shipping boxes or organizing supplies. It doesn’t require much training and you’ll feel the impact immediately. “Anybody can build boxes for you,” Rachel says.”Have a box-building party.” Read 4 Steps to Shipping Success for more tips on optimizing your shipping process.
Set Realistic Goals
Pushing yourself to create more products and add new listings more frequently can help you reach your shop goals, but being overly ambitious can cause unnecessary stress. “Understand your own limits, be that work hours, productivity or even inventory,” Tiffany suggests. “This will save you and your customers stress and potential disappointments.”
Although it might be tempting to pull all nighters or spend every weekend in your studio, working more hours doesn’t necessarily mean getting more done. “Last year, I was too willing to deprive myself of sleep and work like a crazy person,” Tiffany says. “There’s a point of diminishing return where you start to get exhausted and you work slower.”
One way to ensure you’re not committing to more than you can handle is to create listings with only the quantity you have on hand or that you know you can reasonably make in the time you have available. “Don’t be your own worst boss ever,” Tiffany says. “Treat yourself fairly.” In order to give yourself time off, you might need to learn how to say no to new orders or customers who ask for tight turnaround times, which can cause unnecessary stress and lead to burnout. “Be realistic about what you can make and not what you wish you could sell,” Alison says. “If you can really only produce 10 scarves then be realistic with yourself and with your buyers. Most of the shoppers on Etsy realize they’re dealing with real people.”
Communicate Clearly
When you start to see a rush of orders coming in, the first thing you should do is adjust your shipping and processing times for future orders. “Set the correct expectation,” Alison says. “If you’re receiving a lot of orders, try to remember that all of your communication is part of your brand. If you act stressed, your communication is going to be stressed and it could cause your customers to freak out.”
Update your listings and Shipping Profiles so your customer's estimated delivery date is correct. It's also a good idea to post your current turnaround time on your Policies page or in your Shop Announcement. Letting customers know upfront what they can expect helps manage their expectations around when their orders will arrive and saves you from having to spend time responding to inquiries. Keep in mind that you can adjust the shipping date for an order one time, so if you're getting backed up, it can be smart to adjust the "Ships By" date within the order and message the buyer to let them know when their item will ship. Learn how to adjust ship-by dates.
Saving your responses to commonly asked questions as Snippets can save time and prevent you from sending angry or harried messages in a high-stress moment. Learn how to create Snippets.
Make a To-Do List
When many different tasks need your attention, making a to-do list eliminates that nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten something important. The feeling of accomplishment when you cross something off the list is an added bonus. With a barrage of distractions, including 5-year-old son Gavril and 2-year-old daughter Elodie, competing for her attention, keeping a list of what needs to be accomplished each day keeps Jahje on track. “I’m less likely to hop on Instagram and waste time when I see the list of what I need to get done," she says. " If I do get distracted, I can always go back to my list.”
Breaking your task down into smaller chunks is key to a successful to-do list. “Thinking in the big numbers (I have 150 orders to fulfill!) can be scary,” Alison says. “Making a list of every open order with the dates the items needs to ship by and pinpointing the ones you need to tackle each day helps put things in perspective.”
Don’t Take It Personally
Anxiety over negative reviews can be stressful. Alison cautions sellers not to take feedback personally, especially during busy times when you might be a bit overwhelmed. Remember that criticism of your brand or product is not personal. Ask a friend or employee to read the review and offer their opinion to help you gain some perspective. Think about how you would want to situation to be handled if you were the customer and respond accordingly. Remember that criticism is also an opportunity to learn — feedback helps you understand what you could change to make your product and business even better.
What techniques help you keep your cool when things get busy? Share in the comments below.
Words by Taylor Combs
