“More than 50% of Peg and Awl’s business now comes from wholesale clients, built on top of an Etsy shop that has sold more than 7,000 items and is still open today.”
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Background: A Home Workshop and a Single Etsy Listing
- The Strategy: Treat Etsy as One Channel, Not the Only Channel
- Step 1: Open the Shop and Let the Products Speak
- Step 2: Say Yes to the Wholesale Order Nobody Asked For
- Step 3: Move Out of the House Before the House Runs Out of Room
- Step 4: Build Retail Partnerships Without Dropping Etsy
- Step 5: Add a Direct-to-Consumer Site as a Third Channel
- The Results
- Key Lessons
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Bottom Line
Introduction
In this case study, I’m going to show you exactly how a two-person Etsy shop called Peg and Awl grew into a wholesale business that ships to retailers like West Elm, without ever shutting down the Etsy storefront that started it. Every detail below comes from Etsy’s own seller profile of the business, the founders’ own site, and outside interviews, not a hypothetical growth plan. Here’s the step-by-step breakdown of what actually happened, in the order it happened.
Background: A Home Workshop and a Single Etsy Listing
Margaux Kent first joined Etsy in 2007 selling jewelry, photographs, and journals under a shop called The Black Spot Books, according to Etsy’s Seller Handbook profile of the business. After she married Walter Kent in 2008, the two combined their skills, and the household objects they were already making for their own home became the starting point for a new shop: Peg and Awl.
Peg and Awl opened on Etsy in 2010. One of their first listings was a tub caddy. There was no wholesale plan, no retail deck, and no outside funding. It was two people selling handmade goods, built largely from reclaimed materials like old-growth wood and waxed canvas, out of their own house in Philadelphia.
That “before” state matters for the rest of this story: a single sales channel, home-based production, and no prior wholesale relationships of any kind.
The Strategy: Treat Etsy as One Channel, Not the Only Channel
Instead of treating Etsy as a hobby storefront to graduate away from later, Peg and Awl treated it as the discovery engine it already was, and layered new channels on top of it as demand showed up. The channel wasn’t the constraint. Production capacity and space were. Here’s why that distinction drove every decision that followed.
Step 1: Open the Shop and Let the Products Speak
What they did: List handmade, materially distinctive products (reclaimed-wood candle blocks, waxed canvas bags, hand-bound journals) with clear photography and specific descriptions of the materials used.
Why this over the alternative: Etsy’s built-in search traffic meant the shop didn’t need outside marketing to get in front of buyers who were already searching for handmade, materially specific goods. Listing titles and photography still do most of that discovery work today; see how to write Etsy titles that actually rank and how to photograph products for listings that convert for the current version of that playbook.
How they executed it: The shop launched with a small catalog rooted in what the founders were already making for their own home, rather than a large speculative product line built for a launch.
Data from this step: Within the first week of the shop being live, according to Etsy’s own profile of Peg and Awl, a boutique in Madrid, Spain placed a bulk order for the shop’s reclaimed-wood candle blocks.
Step 2: Say Yes to the Wholesale Order Nobody Asked For
A single unsolicited bulk order, taken seriously, became the wholesale business. Peg and Awl had not built a wholesale program before that Madrid boutique’s order arrived. They filled it anyway, and treated it as a signal rather than a one-off.
Why this over the alternative: Plenty of Etsy sellers decline early bulk requests because they don’t yet have a formal wholesale process. Peg and Awl instead used the order itself to work out pricing, production timelines, and packaging for a buyer that wasn’t a single retail customer.
How they executed it: They filled the order using the same reclaimed-wood materials and process already in use for retail listings, scaling the batch rather than redesigning the product. Working out a wholesale price that still protects margin starts with the same math behind pricing handmade products for real profit.
Data from this step: That single order, arriving within the shop’s first week, is the documented origin point of what Etsy’s profile describes as more than 50% of Peg and Awl’s business today.
Step 3: Move Out of the House Before the House Runs Out of Room
What they did: In 2012, after production had outgrown the house, Peg and Awl moved into the Atlas Casket Factory, a dedicated workshop space in Philadelphia, where they operated for roughly two years, according to the company’s own History page.
Why this over the alternative: Wholesale orders require repeatable output at volume. A home workshop caps that volume at whatever fits in a house; a dedicated space doesn’t.
How they executed it: The move followed demand rather than preceding it. Production had already outpaced the house before the workshop change happened, so the space decision was reactive to real order volume, not a speculative bet on future growth.
Data from this step: The company’s site frames this move as the point where the business “really grew,” directly tying the space change to output capacity rather than to a marketing or branding decision.
Step 4: Build Retail Partnerships Without Dropping Etsy
What they did: Alongside the growing wholesale side, Peg and Awl built direct relationships with national retailers. West Elm currently lists multiple Peg and Awl items, including wood stools and tree swings, on its own collaborations page.
Why this over the alternative: A retailer relationship like West Elm’s reaches buyers Etsy’s marketplace search doesn’t reach on its own. Rather than choosing between marketplace reach and retail distribution, Peg and Awl ran both at the same time.
How they executed it: The Etsy shop stayed open and active as the retail partnerships developed. Nothing in the company’s own account of its history describes closing or pausing the Etsy storefront at any point.
Data from this step: The Etsy shop PegandAwl has sold more than 7,000 items over its lifetime, per Etsy’s own seller profile, figures that reflect a shop that kept operating through the wholesale build-out rather than one that was retired once bigger retail deals appeared.
Step 5: Add a Direct-to-Consumer Site as a Third Channel
What they did: Peg and Awl now also operates its own branded e-commerce site, pegandawlbuilt.com, with a dedicated wholesale inquiry page for prospective retail partners.
Why this over the alternative: A brand-owned site gives Peg and Awl a channel with no marketplace commission and full control over presentation, on top of Etsy’s discovery traffic and the retailer relationships already in place. Sellers weighing that same tradeoff can start with Etsy vs. Shopify for handmade sellers, which compares the fee and control differences directly.
How they executed it: The owned site was built after the wholesale relationships and the Etsy shop were both already established and generating revenue, so it added a channel rather than replacing one.
Data from this step: The PegandAwl Etsy shop remains active as of this article’s publish date, running alongside the wholesale accounts and owned site rather than being retired once the other channels launched.
The Results
More than 50% of Peg and Awl’s revenue today comes from wholesale clients, according to Etsy’s own profile of the business.
That’s the headline number, but the more useful part of this story is how the shop got there without abandoning any single channel along the way.
| Metric | 2010 (Shop Launch) | Today | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active sales channels | 1 (Etsy only) | 3 (Etsy, wholesale, owned site) | +2 channels |
| Wholesale share of revenue | 0% | 50%+ | +50 pts |
| Production location | Home workshop | Dedicated Philadelphia workshop | Home → commercial space |
| Cumulative Etsy shop sales | 0 items | 7,000+ items | Shop remained active throughout |
| Known retail partners | None | West Elm (among others) | 0 → 1+ named national retailer |
What drove the biggest shift here wasn’t a rebrand or a paid ad campaign. It was accepting one unplanned bulk order in the shop’s first week and building the operational capacity to keep filling orders like it.
Key Lessons
Treat an early bulk order as a signal, not a distraction. Peg and Awl’s wholesale business traces back to a single order from a boutique in Madrid that arrived before the shop had any wholesale process at all. They built the process around the order instead of turning it down for not fitting an existing plan.
Diversifying beyond Etsy doesn’t require leaving Etsy. Every account of Peg and Awl’s growth, from Etsy’s own profile to the company’s own site, describes the Etsy shop as continuously active. The wholesale and owned-site channels were added, not swapped in.
Space constraints are often the real bottleneck, not demand. The move to a dedicated workshop in 2012 followed the business outgrowing a house, not a marketing plan. If a seller can’t fill a wholesale order at volume, the fix is often production capacity, not a new sales channel.
Multiple channels reduce platform dependency gradually, not all at once. Peg and Awl ran a single-channel shop for its first stretch, then added wholesale, then later added a branded site. Each channel came online only once the previous one was already generating steady orders. For a fuller playbook on adding channels without losing Etsy’s own ranking signals, see the complete guide to Etsy SEO.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who runs Peg and Awl and how did the shop start?
Peg and Awl is run by Margaux and Walter Kent. Margaux had an earlier Etsy shop, The Black Spot Books, starting in 2007; after the couple married in 2008, they combined their making skills, and the household items they were already producing became the basis for the Peg and Awl shop.
When did Peg and Awl open its Etsy shop?
The Peg and Awl Etsy shop opened in 2010, with early listings including a reclaimed-wood tub caddy.
How did Peg and Awl land its first wholesale order?
A boutique in Madrid, Spain placed a bulk order for the shop’s reclaimed-wood candle blocks within the first week the Etsy shop was live, according to Etsy’s own profile of the business. Peg and Awl filled the order rather than declining it for lacking a formal wholesale process.
What does Peg and Awl actually sell?
Handmade goods built largely from reclaimed materials, including waxed canvas bags, hand-bound journals, reclaimed-wood furniture and home goods, and items made from salvaged materials like old floor joists.
How much of Peg and Awl’s business comes from wholesale today?
According to Etsy’s seller profile of the business, more than 50% of Peg and Awl’s business now comes from wholesale clients.
Did Peg and Awl close its Etsy shop after wholesale took off?
No. The shop, listed on Etsy as PegandAwl, has sold more than 7,000 items cumulatively and continued operating as the wholesale and owned-site channels were added.
What retailers carry Peg and Awl products?
West Elm lists multiple Peg and Awl items, including wood stools and tree swings, on its own site as part of a collaborations page.
Can any Etsy seller replicate the Peg and Awl approach?
The specific approach, keeping the Etsy shop open while filling an early wholesale order and later adding an owned site, is replicable in structure: don’t close one channel to open another, and treat unplanned bulk interest as worth pursuing rather than dismissing. The pace and scale will differ by product category and production capacity.
How long did it take Peg and Awl to move from a home operation to a dedicated workshop?
About two years after opening the Etsy shop in 2010, the business moved into a dedicated workshop, the Atlas Casket Factory, in 2012.
What’s the biggest mistake an Etsy seller could make with an early wholesale inquiry?
Based on how this case played out, the clearest mistake would be declining a legitimate bulk order because no formal wholesale process exists yet. Peg and Awl built the process around the order instead of waiting until it felt ready.
Is this still a relevant model for Etsy sellers in 2026?
Yes. Wholesale terms, marketplace fee structures, and retailer sourcing practices change over time, so any seller pursuing this path should confirm current wholesale minimums, current Etsy fee schedules, and current retailer sourcing requirements directly with each party before committing. The underlying structure, keep the marketplace shop open while adding wholesale and owned-site channels, does not depend on any single year’s fee numbers.
What tools or systems does a transition like this typically require?
At minimum, a way to track wholesale versus retail inventory separately, a documented wholesale price list distinct from retail listing prices, and bookkeeping that separates marketplace fees from wholesale account terms. Sellers exploring this path can start with Etsy bookkeeping tools built for exactly this kind of multi-channel tracking.
Fee structures, commission percentages, and wholesale terms mentioned in this article are based on publicly available information as of the article’s publish date and can change. Confirm current rates and terms directly with Etsy and any retail partner before making business decisions based on them.
The Bottom Line
Peg and Awl’s story doesn’t prove that every Etsy seller can land a West Elm partnership. It proves something narrower and more useful: a shop can add wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels on top of Etsy, rather than instead of it, and the shift can start with a single order a seller wasn’t necessarily prepared for. If a bulk inquiry lands in your inbox before you have a wholesale process built, that’s not a reason to say no.
Before adding a second sales channel, Calculate exactly what you’re paying per sale on Etsy today so you know what margin a wholesale price actually needs to protect.
Related Articles
- The Complete Guide to Leaving Etsy for Your Own Store: the full transition path for sellers who want to add or shift to an owned site, covering platform choice and traffic.
- 11 Etsy Alternatives for Independent Sellers: a round-up of marketplace and storefront options for sellers testing a second channel.
- How to Build an Email List Before Leaving Etsy: a concrete plan for capturing buyer contact information before diversifying beyond a single marketplace.
About This Research
Nadia Cole has spent the better part of a decade elbow-deep in marketplace algorithms — first optimizing Etsy shops for other sellers, then writing about what actually works instead of what sounds good in a blog post.
This case study is based on Etsy’s own published seller profile of Peg and Awl, the company’s own site history page, and independent interviews and retail listings, cross-referenced rather than drawn from a single source. No figures in this article were estimated or invented.
Content reviewed and updated: 2026-09-08
Connect With Us
Have a wholesale or diversification story of your own, or a question about the numbers in this case study? Marketplace Hackers covers Etsy fees, SEO, and store growth for sellers building beyond a single channel. Compare your own Etsy fees against a wholesale model before making the jump.
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