uOpen Seller Success Stories - Sew Darn Sweet

This week, we connected with one of uOpen’s very first merchants Ellie Whitehead, founder of Sew Darn Sweet – a fantastic haberdashery subscription box. Ellie takes us through her experience as a seller on uOpen and shares her thoughts on the whole process – from setting up her subscription box to how the platform has helped grow her business over the past 2 years.

We are so grateful to have Ellie as an active part of our merchant community and we are delighted to give Sew Darn Sweet a place to truly grow and reach its intended audience.

We hope you enjoy learning about Ellie’s seller success story and that you might also be inspired to promote your subscription box business on the uOpen marketplace.

My subscription box business is called Sew Darn Sweet and it's designed for people who are passionate about fabric and sewing. Each box contains a new little project and I usually try to make sure that they are all suitable for people who are still quite new to sewing. The box goes out every month, and subscribers are encouraged to share their creations on the Facebook page @sewdarnsweetbox. They can also use the page to ask for help with their projects if they get stuck! I sometimes upload extra videos and photos on there too to help with the projects and I usually include a clue to next month's theme on there as well.

I heard about uOpen from another Facebook group, I think it was called Indie Roller – it's a group for people who run small independent businesses. One lady from that group mentioned that she had joined uOpen (sorry I can't remember who it was) and that instantly sparked my interest. I've been a member since summer 2018, and I believe at that time there was only one other craft box on there as well.

I chose uOpen because it was another exciting outlet for me and my business. I'd already tried another subscription box platform but didn't get any sales. I have to admit the no up-front fees incentive was something that attracted me to uOpen the most!

I found it very easy to set up. However, I'm used to dealing with online platforms and I did find the help desk very useful and supportive – and they continue to be so. The one thing I had trouble with was trying to explain that if you refer to someone who sews as a 'sewer' it makes you think of sewerage! Once communicating that with the uOpen team, they were happy to rewrite the product description.

uOpen has changed how my business works and operates! I've gone from being a fabric seller with a subscription box sideline to subscription boxes being the mainstay of my business.

uOpen has been able to promote my business and reach out to the gift market as well. It has surprised me how many people buy subscription boxes as gifts - I've bought a couple of different ones myself. When customers order a gift subscription, they have an option of adding a gift message and I love typing these out. This past year, many have been gifts to encourage people through lockdown and some messages make me laugh out loud, especially when it's an obvious family joke concerning guinea pigs or recorders! I've also had messages in different languages, I hope I haven't made any mistakes with those.

I've got quite a good system right now for downloading my orders. I like the fact that I can tick off boxes as I go. Getting paid works very well, as does liaising with customers, it's good to have a middle man there sometimes.

Yes, absolutely! I'd recommend uOpen and I frequently do! Both to people who have subscription boxes and those who want to buy them.

I'm not sure what improvements I'd make. Perhaps having a box with a fixed number, say 12 months, so I could do a little course and it would automatically end when the project is finished.

We’d like to thank Ellie for taking the time to answer our questions and sharing her experience as a seller on uOpen with us. We love connecting and chatting with our merchant community and learning about new ways in which we can make our platform even better for your business. We look forward to sharing more merchant stories with you very soon and keeping you up to date on our growing subscription box community!

We're always looking for new and innovative subscription box businesses to join uOpen. If you have an existing business and want to learn more then please visit our seller area and apply here.

If you'd like to try the Sew Darn Sweet for yourself or give as a gift, click below to sign up for Ellies next monthly box below.