Correctly calculating weight

[Former_Member]

I just started playing around with the calculated shipping option in one of my shop categories. I want to make sure I am doing this right, so let me know what you think!

My earrings weigh anywhere from 1-3 oz in the jewelry box, which is 3.5x3.5x1. I typically ship in a 4x4x4 box with 2 sheets of tissue paper and my business card.

When calculating weights for each individual item, do I add the weight of the box, tissue, business card to the weight of the earrings in the jewelry box? Wouldnt that mean the customer would get charged too much when ordering 2 pairs of earrings? If I dont include the weight of the packaging, how does it get factored into the total weight?

[Former_Member]

Good to start slow like you are doing.

First, since you put your earrings in a box, the the dimensions of the box is what you put in the listing.

For the weight you pack up your shipping box just how you would for mailing.

For really light items that you sell multiples of often, weigh two packed up ready to ship, then divide that in half for your weight for one item in your listing. That can get you pretty close to the best weight. If that is going to leave you a bit short for shipping one then add a small fee either to the profile or your package in package preferences.

Since you are dealing with ounces you have a lot of room where the price is the same or goes up very little.

I had to play around with this myself with various items. It takes a little time to get it just right where it works for one and multiples.

Remember the calculator adds no weight. The weight that gets calculated is totally up to what you put in the listing.

My example is I have an item that weighs 9 oz. to ship alone. That is weight all packaged with shipping label on and everything. I sell multiples of this all the time and 9 ozs. Would add up weight too fast. Actually two boxed and ready to ship weigh under a pound at 15 ozs. So in the listing I have the weight listed as 7.5 ozs. And a 50 cent fee on the box it ships in covers the difference.

It works. Just remember if you put a fee on the profile that goes on every item sold, but if you put it on your box in package preferences it only goes on once per box.

[DustyBDesign]

I'm new to Etsy and have spent a little time trying to figure out the calculated shipping. This team has been super helpful. I want to share what happened to me so others can benefit. Kathy's comment, "Just remember if you put a fee on the profile that goes on every item sold, but if you put it on your box in package preferences it only goes on once per box", is super important to understand. I went into my store and pretended to buy a set of six cards and the shipping came out to a little over $3. I then pretended to buy six individual card and the cost of shipping was over $9! Same amount of product and packaging but $6 more to ship. All because I had a $1 fee in my profile so each time I added a card, it added a $1 to shipping.

[Former_Member]

Tina, great that you found that information and you were able to fix the problem.

Many people don't realize that about the profile fee. If a person needs to add a dollar extra to each item they should put it in the item price. Adding it there makes shipping ridiculous.