Revitalizing our stale business

Recently, on Instagram I posted a carousel about “reorganizing” and I bet you’re wondering what that means for you. Let me explain further:

• We’re ending an abusive relationship: We would not be where we are today without Etsy. Seriously. Etsy was a godsend for the first couple years of the business. And then it started getting loaded down with AI slop and copyright infringement. And then my reach tanked because I dared to ship stickers without their labels, and because I can’t always reply to messages within 24 hours. So I said…enough is enough. Our Etsy presence will be finished by the end of 2026. I know I have a lot of regulars who prefer to shop on Etsy, but I simply cannot continue on this way. I will be putting notices in packages over the next couple months.
• We’re shifting our main focus to wholesale and B2B sales: this isn’t really a new thing, I’m just saying it out loud. Sprinkles Studios has become a wholesale powerhouse in the last two years and my attention to the retail side has suffered. I do not have the energy to fully commit to great service for both retail and wholesale customers, so we’re scaling back retail operations (more on that in a minute). This means wholesale orders will ship much quicker and we will be focused on serving our retail partners.
• We’re going back to our roots and giving our attention to library and bookish merch: Sprinkles originally took off because I was a librarian making merch for other librarians that made them feel seen, and I feel like I’ve spread myself too thin. Library advocacy and fighting for the right to read has been our focus from day one and I want to stay true to who we are. You’ll see a smaller, more curated collection on our website and other sales channels that reflects our values and speaks to our core customer base.
• We’re investing in our most successful and proven events: as the years progress, I have less and less energy to vend at events and rely more and more on my assistants to set up and run things. But events are where we really make our revenue, and there’s no way we could give that up completely. So from now on, no more craft fairs. We’re spending our event fee budget on book festivals and library conferences that are proven moneymakers and opportunities to connect with our core customer base.
• I’m prioritizing and investing in my assistants: Megan and Colleen are the glue that keeps Sprinkles together, and they deserve more attention than I’ve been giving them. That means more attentive training, on time payroll, and (eventually) raises. We may be running on fumes financially but these two are my number one priority when it comes to allocating funds.
  

I am hopeful that this will carry us through 2026 intact, and provides a better experience for all parties involved. Because I can’t keep doing what I’m doing and hoping for different results.

With love and sprinkles,

Jess