I found this Etsy store, From Japan With Love, on the Etsy Tools page for biggest sellers. She's sold 3,263 items (to be exact!) in six months!! The picture above is of the From Japan With Love's office building, which is just as cute as the items in her shop (:

Katelynjane: Where are you located?


From Japan: I am located in Fukuoka, Japan though I’m originally from Cambridge, Ontario Canada. I was living in Vancouver (moved there after leaving graduate school) and there was a job opening at an English school. I got the job and started teaching English. My then boyfriend needed one more year to prepare for us to move to the Caribbean to start a charter sailing company. So, I decided to come to Japan to make some money and "find
myself". Well, the boyfriend and I broke up and I had no reason to go back to Canada so I stayed! I've been here 9.5 years and am engaged to be married to a wonderful Japanese man.

katelynjane: When did you start selling on Etsy and how did you find the site?

From Japan: I opened my Etsy store on August 14th 2007 and made my first sale on September 5th. My mom has a store on Etsy (SouthamptonCreations) and she suggested that I should sell Japanese supplies on Etsy.

katelynjane: You're on the Top Sellers list on Etsy Tools! Great work!! What do you contribute to your success?

From Japan: Thanks! Wow…tough question….I think part of my success is because of what I sell. There aren’t a lot of people that offer what I offer. I also work really hard on the photos and customer service.

katelynjane: How do/did you promote your store?

From Japan: To be honest, I don’t promote it that much. My mom is always promoting me though! I have my blog and I have been featured in a few blogs and being on the Etsytools top 20 list probably helps too! I also occasionally take part in the forums.

katelynjane: What are your future goals for your store?

From Japan: At this point my plan for my Etsy store is to keep looking for great things that can be used as supplies. I would like to have many more items than I do now. I guess I really would like to have the best Japanese supply store on Etsy and the web. A lot of sites sell cute things like memo pads or they sell fabric or paper but I want to offer it all!

katelynjane: Do you have some advice for sellers just starting out?

From Japan: Have a great avatar that matches what you sell. Take great pictures. If you don’t have many items to list then don’t list them all at once. Sell something unique. Have great customer service.

katelynjane: Do you sell your items anywhere else?

From Japan: At this point we don’t but we are planning to open our own website so that we can sell many other great Japanese products that I can’t sell on Etsy since they are neither handmade by me nor supplies.

katelynjane: Are you able to work full time on your Etsy store?

From Japan: I do have a job but I would say that I work on my Etsy store about 6 or more hours a day during the week and about 8-10 hours a day on the weekends. And starting in February I will be taking Fridays off my job to work more on my Etsy business! My eventual goal is to leave my job and I see that as a real possibility more and more. I know it seems like all I do is work but I really love it and who doesn’t love shopping and finding great things!

katelynjane: What is one item on Etsy (from another seller) that you feel represents you?

From Japan: This is a really hard question!!! I bought a ring from Artisanimpact called “bubbling emotions” and I just love the name and that it is unique and stands out.

katelynjane: How many sales do you have a week?

From Japan: Lately I’ve been selling about 300-400 items a week. I sometimes sell 100 in a day.

katelynjane: What are some of the ways you make your business more organized?

From Japan: I know that not everyone can do this but I hired an assistant who basically takes all the pictures now and soon she will be in charge of filling most of the orders. I’ve also rented an office. Strange but this office, which looks like a little house, is in the parking lot of my apartment building. The original owners of the apartment building built it for their office but now it is mine. So all I have to do is go downstairs to the parking lot to get to my office!