Whoa what a ride! First things first THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Have to say Skin Like Butter would not be here without the amazing customers who hung in there during the beginning of 2021. Also, another big THANK YOU to all of the Etsy customers who have returned in 2023!. If you were here from the beginning you might remember those first newsletters. Umm plenty of maritime references, mainly of the Titanic nature lol. Something in the neighborhood of "these are really rough waters, but we are going to make it through!" Okay between me, you and the sign post I really didn't think we were going to make it through. I wanted to believe it, but there were days when we were just out there in the middle of the internet ocean in that little lifeboat (skinlikebutter.com) just drifting and would think nope, no way, we're going down. But we didn't! Instead, with your patience, and encouragement, and Rave Reviews, this big Skin Like Butter yacht was built. Skinlikebutterbodycare.com The beautiful website that you are reading this blog post on. Also, full disclosure this big beautiful yacht was supposed to be transferred to the web address of skinlikebutter.com, but guess who's not going to try that trapeze act. You guessed it. Nope not taking any chances. The little life boat that saved Skin Like Butter will always be on skinlikebutter.com, and this blog post is to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of big beautiful yacht on skinlikebutterbodycare.com. So let's have a look around shall we.....
Etsy & Skin Like Butter
First a little history. Well this is the abridged version of the abridged version. Other wise this might turn into an e-book lol. If you'd like to know about the full back story of Skin Like Butter you can find it here. This bit is how Etsy and Skin Like Butter came to be. I'm pretty sure it was the summer of 2011 and I was doing a really cool craft fair called Patchwork. Patchwork was the scaled down Southern California version Renegade. It was where hipster met fancy. Fancy is a real thing. Before there was Etsy there was Renegade. You know what we are going to dive into the hipster/fancy world just for a bit because it's worth noting. The hipster vibe is rooted in the fancy world. Not luxury, but fancy. There is a huge difference between the two. Meaning hipster would be vintage, wiggle dress, an antique broach, an art deco armoire, a turn of the century bike, Solange Knowles' amazing wedding, vinyl (I know there is more to it, but I'm trying to be brief), Then the fancy world meets the hipster world with fancy food, fancy coffee, seasonings, vintage goes farther to antiques. Okay we are getting the vibe now? Okay so I'm doing Patchwork and someone gives me this brochure for something called CRAFTED.
Patchwork, Renegade, and a few other events were all juried and hard to get into. CRAFTED was going to take that to another level, and unlike the other events it was going to be a venue. It was Etsy (the way Etsy used to be) live and in person. The grand opening was amazing. When CRAFTED opened the internet was a teenager, and Etsy was a toddler. Etsy was a big part of CRAFTED, which I'm going to talk more about CRAFTED in another blog post because wow those first 6 months were amazing, and although it didn't live up to it's potential it's still awesome. Like I mentioned earlier CRAFTED was the live and in person Etsy so it was softly required of you to have an Etsy shop as part of your acceptance into the marketplace. Although I loved Etsy, I never planned on ever having an Etsy store. I wanted to stay rooted in the Fancy world, and build a fancy brand but well sometimes God has other plans. It was really just timing. Well it was a lot of hard work, but timing for sure. Between the years of I would say 2010 and well 2020 the internet took off like a rocket. The Skin Like Butter Etsy store took off like a rocket too. Everyone who is here was along for that wonderful ride. Thank you so much again. And to the thousands of Skin Like Butter Etsy store lovers who aren't here....hey still here!!! Come home!!
So yeah now that we have the Skin Like Butter Etsy store back story sorted, we can now talk about the big beautiful yacht that is skinlikebutterbodycare.com. This site is actually the Etsy store rebuilt, but just better. Actually, well no not a fan of leaving Etsy well ever, but as fate would have it there was a brand new theme (thank God for those amazing theme designers for non tech people like yours truly) that was almost the exact look and feel of Etsy stores. I was really happy about that so that my returning Etsy shoppers could feel right at home here on Shopify. So as we tour the store there are going to be a lot of references made to the former Skin Like Butter Etsy store.
Let's CHAT!
Let's SEARCH
Skin Like Butter is a lot. There were over 1500 listings on our Etsy store. Even though I had a mini boutique on the front page of the Etsy store with drop down menus on all of the items, that is not the way the Etsy shoppers would shop. What I would always notice was that they would always go to the search bar first and search for their favorite scent. Once they did that it would work like this. Lets say they put in Creme Brulee. Well what they would get would be
- Creme Brulee Body Butter
- Creme Brulee Body Wash
- Creme Brulee Soap
- Creme Brulee Roll On Perfume
- Creme Brulee Shea Oil
- Creme Brulee Argan Oil
Well you get the picture right. All of the Creme Brulee listings would appear and they could pick which one they wanted. The little life boat didn't do that. There could only be the store and the drop down. So here well I'm up to the big 5 items. There are separate listings for the
- Body Butter
- Roll On Perfume
- Shea Oil
- Soap
- Room and Body Spray
in I think I'm up to 120 scents for each. No worries though all of the listings for every scent for every product will have their own listing just like they did on the Etsy store.
Let's make a WISH
Now this is where Shopify starts to outshine Etsy. Here is the major difference. Etsy is a marketplace, where as Shopify is a platform. Kind of think of it like this. Etsy is a huge cruise ship that allows brands to create amazing treasures for the passengers on the huge ship to discover and enjoy. Shopify on the other and provides the tools for brands to create unique custom sailing vessels for THEIR passengers to enjoy amazing treasures AND a custom tailored voyage as well. For example in this case the wish list on Skinlikebutterbodycare.com. Etsy is huge right. So what in the world could be better than a wish list on Etsy right. What might be better is a wish list sourced from any brand on the planet all in one place. Your wish list can have Skin Like Butter, Tiffany's, Restoration Hardware, the delicious little cheese shop you discovered in Nice,France. All of your wishes all in one place.
Let's grab some loyalty points
This what I wanted to badly on Etsy because I really REALLY appreciated it when you guys chose Skin Like Butter out of all of those hundreds of choices not once, but over and over again. Now here on Shopify you get automatic rewards every time you shop. You get rewards for a whole lot more too. You can visit the rewards program by clicking on the little crown in the lower left hand corner.
Cool Coupon Codes
Unlike Etsy, there are and unlimited amount of coupon codes, with all kinds of combinations here on Shopify. More on that in part 2 when we talk about gift giving, and tips and tricks for savvy shopping. Speaking of coupon codes here's one right here. WELCOMEBACKDAY1S. This is if you are a day one and haven't ever slipped away, if you just came back today, and everything in between. This coupon code is to celebrate our most popular item. Our body butter. This coupon code doesn't expire. It's a one time use code you can keep in your back pocket literally lol. It's buy One 8 ounce body butter, and get a travel size free.
Again this is a big THANK YOU NOTE to everyone to contributed to this one year anniversary of the rebuild of the Etsy store coming true. Is this hard? Absolutely. Still have those Titanic moments and think well this might be the last day. TBH still not sure if that day is on the horizon. But I'll keep fighting and hanging on to Skin Like Butter alive, and the much loved and dedicated customers happy...new and old. Welcome aboard!!!
See you soon for part 2
