Payment on small items

[Former_Member]

Some of my items are as low as $5.00 and can be mailed out in a small first class envelope. I sell these with free shipping since it only takes a regular first class stamp. What happens if someone uses their credit card to buy one of these items? How do I get paid from Etsy if I don't get a tracking slip?

[ButterflyFeetDigital]

I sell digital items so I never have a tracking slip. Etsy still pays me.

[PinchtheMuse]

As of right now you don't have to enter tracking info when using the shipped button.

I use tracking on all my packages, use the ship button, and don't enter the tracking info. I still get paid. I notify my customers in my own way of the shipping information for their order.

[Former_Member]

Hi Patricia!

Please rest assured that a shipping price (or lack thereof) will not affect your ability to deposit funds from your Shop Payment Account. Rather, you simply have to mark this item as shipped when you have shipped it to your buyer.

The same goes for digital items, Sherri! "Shipped" in a way! :)

[woodsedgestudios60]

I am making barely enough to pay for shipping on most of my items. But, I wonder if the shipping fee is keeping people from buying my products. How do people out there approach the offer of free shipping? It might get me more sales. Could I try it for a week to see if it works? Are there any other options? I am relatively new to e-commerce and Etsy.

[PrairiePrimitives]

David, I looked at a few of your items and you have a shipping cost on the items I looked at.

If you want to offer "free" shipping, just add the shipping cost to the price of the item! If/when you sell multiple items to one person, you'll actually come out ahead this way!

[PinchtheMuse]

Hi David,
As Tana said just put 0 in for shipping. If you are struggling to cover the cost of shipping, I would be very sure of eliminating a shipping charge. Yes you can try it for whatever length of time you want. Just edit your listings and then edit them again when you want to change them back.

Most shops it is not a matter of price, but getting the right people looking at your items. You may want to check out some of the teams for newbies and SEO (search engine optimization) before doing things like lowering prices.

I don't have any links for those types of teams, but if you search through teams you should be able to find some.

Edit to add: Zero shipping does not always garner add on sales. I have one shop that I can capture additional add ons with zero additional shipping and another that it makes not one lick of difference with add ons whether I have 0 shipping or not. It depends on the shop and the items you sell mostly.

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone. This was something that really had me worried - though at the present time these items are not selling but, fortunately, my bigger items (the nesting dolls) are doing okay.