{"id":28126,"date":"2026-04-21T11:37:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westernbid.com\/%d0%b1%d0%b5%d0%b7-%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%b3%d0%be%d1%80%d1%96%d1%97\/sergiy-dmytruk-etsy\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:26:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:26:44","slug":"sergiy-dmytruk-etsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernbid.com\/en\/case-studies\/sergiy-dmytruk-etsy\/","title":{"rendered":"Serhiy Dmytruk: The History of a Family Business on Etsy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Sergii Dementruk is an entrepreneur who managed to realize his dream of a small family business.<\/strong> He started his own venture, successfully combining the creation of soulful products and manufacturing personalized orders for an international audience. Currently, the man owns four shops on Etsy, specializing in handmade wall decor for homes made of wood and metal.<\/p>\n\n

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Etsy Shop<\/h2>\n\n

Before his Etsy shops turned into full-time work, Sergii was a senior manager at a small company selling heating systems. However, he always nurtured ideas to start his own, a family business\u2014not grand and enormous, but rather heartfelt.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abAt first, I leaned toward children’s themes because, at that moment, I had children. I tried making children\u2019s items and sold them on Instagram, but I quickly realized that on the Ukrainian market, if you want to earn\u2014rather than just sell\u2014you need to sell a lot. Handmade prices here are extremely low. People do not appreciate producers. It\u2019s considered that if you made something with your own hands, you did it for free. Consequently, to earn as much as I wanted for a comfortable life, I would have to make a huge number of sales\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

Sergii began exploring opportunities abroad. Everyone was talking about Amazon, so he watched videos on YouTube to understand how the platform works. At that time, he came across an educational project from Ukrposhta E-Export School<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abThat was about four years ago. I watched many videos… Then, by chance, I heard about Etsy\u2014I watched a video with a speech by one of the first Ukrainian Etsy influencers, Kateryna Vitkovska. She asserted that, compared to Amazon, starting to sell on Etsy is quite simple and easy. I browsed the website, looked at how everything is organized, and it resonated with me. It didn\u2019t look like the usual buy-sell, which I had been doing for 7-8 years as a manager. Etsy worked with handmade, exactly what I loved\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

Things didn\u2019t go smoothly right away. Sergii enjoyed working with wood, so he wanted to create decorative boards in the style of \u201cestablished since.\u201d At that time, there weren\u2019t many shops on Etsy with similar products, but those that existed sold very well\u2014sales reached hundreds per day. Mostly they were American shops.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abI looked at it and thought: okay, I don\u2019t need hundreds of sales a day, but if I take a small piece of this pie, that would already be good. I roughly calculated the cost, spent a lot of time preparing the product myself, and looked for a suitable background to photograph the product profitably. Honestly, when you start doing something, it always takes a lot of time and effort\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

However, regardless of the time and money invested, the business did not meet expectations; sales did not take off. Then, the entrepreneur decided to open another shop, this time focusing on metal products.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abI found a person, an artist, who could create drawings in DXF format for AutoCAD. I made sketches in Paint, showing how the product should roughly look… I even had to redraw one font because I couldn\u2019t find a similar one online. My wife says I\u2019m a font fanatic. When I sit down to look for fonts I like, I can spend hours… I really pay a lot of attention to this\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

After the product\u2014a number on a wooden plaque\u2014was ready, Sergii\u2019s wife hung it on the house wall, right on the balcony, and took a series of photos. Within five days, the couple made their first sale. In a month, the number plaques sold another 60 times.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abPeople liked it. This listing, as is often the case, turned into a locomotive pulling the whole store. However, after that, a small misunderstanding happened. I wanted to create a new listing, but due to my inexperience, instead of copying the product page, I started editing an existing one. Over time, the most profitable listing stopped selling, and I couldn\u2019t figure out what was wrong\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

Eventually, the edited listing was bought only a few times, but sales of other designs increased. Sergii pondered and created two more shops. He noticed that wooden products are more complex to produce (painting, sanding, laser processing) and often get damaged during shipping, so he focused on metal products.<\/p>\n\n

Sometimes, life complicates the marketplace itself by changing algorithms. When Sergii\u2019s first shop reached a thousand sales, it simply stopped selling without any apparent reason.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abOne, two, three sales a day is normal. When there are no sales in a day, you get suspicious. Two\u2014think something\u2019s wrong. Three days without sales\u2014is a real nightmare. Eventually, sales dropped by 70%, and since then, the shop has been fluctuating, never returning to previous levels\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

Because of this, the entrepreneur opened two new shops under different people\u2019s names. One with metal suddenly skyrocketed, while the other with wood declined. Sergii calls Etsy \u00aba sort of swing\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n

Sometimes, the manufacturing process is complicated by clients themselves. There was an instance where a customer approved a design, but after receiving the finished product, he claimed he wanted the digits in a different arrangement. The entrepreneur tried to negotiate, offered a discount, but the client insisted on principle. Since then, Sergii reworks each product without disputes because a single bad review can significantly damage the reputation.<\/p>\n\n

Nevertheless, Sergii notes that there are few problematic clients. Americans are more focused on gratitude and often leave detailed reviews even for a simple number plaque.<\/p>\n\n

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After February 24<\/h2>\n\n

The first month of full-scale invasion was very tough for Sergii and his business. No one worked, everyone waited to see if the war would push westward in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abAfter a month, I realized the advance was stuck, so I had to start doing something. I withdrew three shops from vacation, but they almost didn\u2019t sell anything. Additionally, about thirty parcels I sent before the war got stuck in the sorting center. A few customers asked for refunds, most decided to wait, and some said not to send the goods at all because Ukrainians need the money more\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

The issue with the stuck parcels was resolved quickly thanks to UPS<\/strong>. After that, one person even sent Sergii a hundred dollars in addition as support for the manufacturer. But there were other cases as well.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abBut you know, people are different. There were those who wrote to me: “I don\u2019t care about your war. This is my money.” Of course, that was unpleasant. Worse, based on the number of visits to the shops, I noticed a trend: if visits drop by 50%, sales drop by 75%. Customers visit the site, see that we\u2019re from Ukraine, and decide not to buy\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

The pre-war sales level has not been restored even after a year. Sergii tried a new concept: on the website, he indicated that although the shop is located in Ukraine, shipments are made from the USA (using fulfillment).<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abHonestly, I just wanted to experiment because the fourth shop was dead anyway. And, surprisingly, it worked. Customers are satisfied. They are willing to wait a month for us to manufacture the product and deliver it to the US… Of course, I earn less from sales because I cover the shipping costs, but I gain on the volume of orders. Americans like this approach\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n
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Western Bid<\/h2>\n\n

Sergii has been working with Western Bid<\/strong> since he opened his first shop. He has quite good relationships with the service.<\/p>\n\n

\n \u00abIn the Lviv office of Western Bid, very pleasant people work. They are loyal to all clients without exception. You can talk to them; they always help and advise on the best approach. I also like how Western Bid handles complaints. I have won all cases with PayPal. And although in most disputes, the truth was on my side, I understand that positive problem resolution is thanks to the people who handled them\u00bb.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

In addition, the entrepreneur is grateful to the call center operators for their adequate and patient responses to any inquiries, even when questions are not very competent.<\/p>\n\n

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Conclusion on the role of Western Bid<\/h3>\n

Sergii Dementruk\u2019s story emphasizes that Western Bid<\/strong> is a reliable defender of Ukrainian sellers\u2019 interests on the international stage:<\/p>\n

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  • Dispute protection:<\/strong> Successful resolution of cases in PayPal demonstrates that the company professionally defends its clients\u2019 rights.<\/li>\n
  • Human approach:<\/strong> Having a physical office (in Lviv) and quality support in the call center creates comfortable working conditions.<\/li>\n
  • Stability and support for experiments:<\/strong> Assisting in implementing new logistics schemes (such as fulfillment shipping) allows the business to adapt to wartime conditions.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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