 | Episode Cheat Sheet |
EP674
19 OCT 2026
63 MIN LISTEN
Nakisah Williams
CEO and Co-founder, Craft Club
| Brought to you by |   |
| From Bushy |
Most of us have a creative project hidden in a drawer somewhere. We gave it one go, it came out ugly, and we decided we just weren't the creative type. Nakisah Williams had one of those too.
Then Nakisah built Craft Club on making sure her customers never end up with one and found her biggest growth in crafts nobody else was selling. Even I’m going to have a go at getting crafty and I promise I won’t be too embarrassed to show my attempt in the ATC Community!
CHEERS, BUSHY
| 01 Skip To The Good Bits |
Tap any time code anywhere in this cheat sheet and the episode opens on YouTube at that exact moment.
| How one ugly first try shaped every kit in the range | 8:13 |
| Turning your best sellers into a book only you could write | 9:48 |
| Building your own brand site instead of relying on Etsy | 21:27 |
| Being first to teach a new skill to win an audience | 28:34 |
| Designing a product customers can't fail with | 31:03 |
| Ring-fencing 20% of budget for new categories | 39:52 |
| Preorders and a Shenzhen 3PL to free up cash | 45:42 |
| Moving your community off Meta into your own app | 51:56 |
“Our best success happens when we are in a category of one and when we are doing the educating to our customers.”
NAKISAH WILLIAMS | Craft Club
| 02 The Big Lesson |
GROW BY TEACHING CUSTOMERS SOMETHING NEW
Craft Club started in 2021 with six cross-stitch designs. Cross-stitch got people started. People already knew it and if you followed the pattern you couldn't get it wrong. It's now one of the smallest categories. Craft Club grew by taking these customers on a craft journey that went well beyond the cross-stitch starting point. Here's how the tactic can be applied beyond craft.
RULE 01 28:34
Find skills that people want to learn
Latch hooking was big in the 70s and 80s, then disappeared for 15 years. Craft Club was first to present it to adults in a modern, design-led way. That meant doing all the education. It also meant no big brands like Spotlight could do it well and no small brands were focusing on it, so Craft Club ranked high on search for latch hooking fast.
With customers nostalgic and adults always looking to learn, finding old skills to teach new generations is great content and connection.
It's harder, of course, to explain something brand new to them if they've never heard of it before. But it also means that you're not competing with all of this noise.
RULE 02 31:03
Make the first go impossible to fail
If you're the one introducing a category, the customer's first try determines if they are likely to continue with the hobby... and you! Every Craft Club kit has to pass one test: can a beginner follow it and end up with something they're proud of? Cross-stitch made the cut because a pattern can't go wrong. Every kit comes with tutorials, and most make something useful, like a pouch or a handbag.
That first win builds trust to try the next craft, and it shows in how many customers come back. Whether it's doing eyelashes for the first time, setting up a camp site or installing a TV, making it a success is crucial for repeat customers.
With every new category of craft that we've grown, it needs to have that failproof element to it in order to be a Craft Club kit.
RULE 03 39:52
Ring-fence money for the next category
Nakisah keeps about 20% of the budget and her time for brand new things. Six months in, she renamed the business from Cross Club to Craft Club so she had permission to make anything. The moss coaster kits started as an order of 50 that friends called "a bit weird". They became the fastest-growing category, and half-stitch needlepoint repeated the trick.
Craft Club launched around 150 new products in the last year. A Shenzhen warehouse turns stock back into cash in weeks, so the next test is always funded. This product expansion means Craft Club never stops teaching customers new skills and introducing them to more products.
I like to think of it as a bit of an 80/20 rule around always making sure there was 20% of our budget left or 20% of my time and energy spent on brand new things.
A crowded category is expensive to enter. Finding a new category means that you will need to educate the market but when done right it can scale with content, connection and commitment.
| 03 Test Yourself |
While Craft Club was scaling, about 10% of its customers came back. Then it added new crafts and its own community app.
After adding new crafts and its own community app, what share of Craft Club's customers come back now?
Submit your answer and get the correct answer at the bottom of this email.
| 04 Steal These Tactics |
1
Add a preorder with a thank-you discount ($10 or 10% off) so revenue keeps coming while stock is on its way. 45:42
2
If you sell overseas, look at holding stock next to your supplier, which cut Craft Club's wait for cash from about two months to two or three weeks. 47:22
3
Keep only proven best sellers in your local warehouses and launch new products from the one closest to the factory. 48:45
4
Be upfront about delivery times, because customers happily wait six or seven days when they know before they buy. 50:29
5
Give your best customers a community space you own so the algorithm doesn't decide who sees what. 52:30
| 05 The Stack |
The platform under Craft Club's own app, the Clubhouse, which passed 8,000 members within six months of launching in May.
Rug tufting videos in lockdown showed Nakisah the demand and latch hooking became the cheaper, easier way in.
Still the main paid channel but one craft on its own didn't have a big enough audience there to scale.
Some kits are listed but customers aren't comparing the same product on next-day delivery.
Craft Club's own pattern design tool. Every product from the last six months was designed in it, and it's now free for anyone.
| 06 If This One Landed |
EP565
How she wear Turned Women's Frustration into High-Conversion Ecommerce
Opening up a category means teaching people about a fix they didn't know existed. Stacey Head was told her market was a myth, and built a high-converting brand in it anyway.
EP610
How Sam Moore Bought Back PYRA from Culture Kings and Built It His Way
Holding stock next to the factory gets your cash back in weeks. Sam modelled the same move to a China 3PL and found about a quarter of a million dollars in savings.
EP150
Getting Clayed: The Crockd Story
Pottery studios felt intimidating, so two founders put clay in a box anyone could open at home. Every product had to pass one test: does it break down the barrier to entry?
| Pass It On |
Episode Cheat Sheets are built to be forwarded. If you know someone weighing up their next product category, send them this one.
| Continue the Conversation |
What's the one category your customers would trust you to teach them next? And would you hold stock next to your supplier to get your cash back faster? Jump in and tell us, whether you're a regular in the community or brand new.
Free to join. 800+ Australian ecommerce operators talking shop every week.
| Quiz Answer |
About 35%. Nakisah says Craft Club's returning customer rate has gone from about 10% to about 35%. A first-time buyer who has a win with one craft trusts Craft Club enough to try the next one, and the Clubhouse app gives them a reason to stay. 44:29
| 2027 Partnerships Are Open |
Want your brand in front of Australia's ecommerce operators next year? Our 2027 partnerships are open now. There are 25 categories, including 2 Gold and 6 Silver spots. First in, best dressed.
