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Hi, everyone!

Thanks for making your way over to the Etsy Success section. We hope you’ve had a chance to review Josh’s Announcement on how we’re making it easier for US shoppers to find items that ship free. We know many of you may have questions and we're here to help!

Today and tomorrow, Madison, Bryan, Perry, Michele, and Nathan from the Etsy team will be hosting a Q&A on offering a free shipping guarantee. What questions do you have about this new guarantee?

Here are the Q&A details:
- Share your questions about this change in this thread from now until Wednesday, July 10. We will close the thread that evening at 9pm ET.
- Etsy staff will answer questions by 5pm ET on Thursday, July 11.
- It is unlikely we will be able to answer all questions, so be sure to read through what others have asked before posting your own. If yours has already been asked, give it a Like! We want to ensure that we answer the questions that matter most to you, so with that in mind, we will prioritize answering questions with the most Likes.

And a few housekeeping notes:
- This Q&A is to address questions about how we’re making it easier for shoppers in the US to find items that ship free. Please remember that all comments should remain on topic and in line with our community policies. Any comments that violate our policies will be removed.
- If you have feedback to share, we encourage you to fill out our seller survey form. We are collecting feedback and suggestions from the community here, and the team is actively reviewing it over the next couple of weeks.

One last note: if you are unable to make this Q&A, the team will be back next week to answer your questions about the new smart pricing tool that is designed to help you offer a free shipping to your US buyers and recover shipping costs. The tool should be available to all US sellers with items $35 and over next week, and all other sellers in August.

Thanks, all. We're looking forward to your questions!

Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@LindasJewelryShop wrote:

Hello,

I have been in the process of changing my listings over to free shipping, with about 430 done and 80 left to change. Currently I have the free shipping set up under the Sales and Coupon section. Does it matter for placement sakes whethter the free shiping is set up in the Sales and Coupon section or the Delivery Settings? 

Thank you,

Linda


Hi there Linda (and Joe and Bill),

Many thanks for the question! As long as your listings ship free to the US, they'll be eligible for prioritization in US search. So if a listing is a part of an unconditional free shipping sale OR has shipping price set to free in a shipping profile, you're all set.

One exception is "conditional" free shipping sales - i.e. sales that offer free shipping if a buyer purchases a minimum number of items or minimum order value. Listings that are covered ONLY by this sort of sale will not be eligible to receive the prioritization.

If you want to offer free shipping on US orders over $35 USD, keep a close eye on your shop manager. Over the next week, we'll be gradually rolling out a new page under the "Settings" section of the Shop Manager where you can easily turn on a "free shipping guarantee." When you turn this on, your shop will offer free shipping on all US orders $35 and up, and your listings will all be eligible to be prioritized in US search.


Hope this helps!

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@EDCCollective wrote:

My question was along these lines too. The announcement said we would have a tool within the next week to help with this but I have had free shipping with a minimum order (higher than announced minimum for search placement) set up in my other shop since late last year. If I were to adjust that threshold to meet the $35 or less will my other shop be set to qualify or do I have to use whatever the new tool will be?


Hi @EDCCollective,

Thanks for your question. If you want to get priority placement in US search or other benefits of the free shipping strategy, you’ll need to either offer unconditional free shipping on your items or offer a free shipping guarantee to US buyers on orders $35 or more from your shop. You can continue to offer free shipping through a separate conditional sale, but your shop will not get priority placement in US search.  We expect the tool that will enable you to turn on free shipping on all orders over $35 to be available to all shops by the end of the week.

Thanks! 

Nathan

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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So I would like to point out that last week I sent 2 items that weighed the exact same, same size box, to 2 different states and there was $9 difference in the shipping costs. So, who gets to eat that difference? Me or everyone that doesn't live in Alaska? 

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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Good point! If we're being encouraged to mix shipping into our item prices then we should be able to vary item price by location. 

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NoHoJO
Crafty Poster

Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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Exactly, Jenna.  

Shipping cost can vary greatly, depending on Buyer location, package size and weight.  Funny thing about all of this is, I have never had a customer complain about shipping costs. I’m thinking it has been pretty obvious that Etsy, Inc. and its shareholders simply enjoy taking a cut of that which they view as Seller’s revenue, and are forcing the issue on my business.    Sad that the original understanding of my business establishment with Etsy was very different and, honestly, much more favorable and acceptable than what it has become, forcing many of its worldwide Sellers to reconsider.  

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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It is definitely so we have to pay a percentage on that extra few dollars. It's pathetic. And I will also say that I have ran free shipping in the past and it definitely instills more confidence in your buyer when they come expecting to pay shipping and they do, in fact, pay shipping. Including it in the price is very unprofessional when you are doing custom work. This isn't Amazon. 

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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I set mine at an average. I am lucky that mine are all small 4-5 ounce items, so I don't have that big of a difference. So I calculated the average between the higest and lowest shipping costs so some you loose some you win. 

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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I am already losing money on shipping because Etsy won’t allow you to ship from them, with the discount, if it’s been more than 10 weeks since the order was placed. My customers know my waiting list is long and don’t have a problem with that, so I’m not sure why Etsy feels the need to set an arbitrary cut-off date on how long they think it should take to make things or how many orders you should have lined up.  

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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This is my huge question as well!  As of now, this makes no sense to me - someone will be over-paying for the benefit of another.  I hope we find out more soon.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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Is calculated shipping going away? 98% of my items are over the weight limit for USPS first class mail, that means shipping prices of $9 to $25 on EVERY ITEM THAT I SELL. 95% of my items are also $65 and above. So this means that I will be forced to offer free shipping on ONE item and The vast majority of my boxes are $12 to $15 to ship across the US. How am I supposed to add $15 to every item that I have in my shop when customers often buy local (only costs $9 to ship) and they already buy multiples. So if I am offering "free" shipping and I am adding $15 to cover the cost of shipping (for when customers on either coast purchase), my customers are paying MORE to ship than they were before. I do not have the time or the energy to refund "shipping" overages that my customers supposedly are getting for "free" for every item that ships for under the arbitrary number I added in for shipping. My shop does quite well (thank GOD and the universe) but this will kill it dead in the Etsy water.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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Sadly, this is another badly-thought-through "so-called" improvement that Etsy is going to force onto everyone, regardless of "common sense".  If the only way to get your attention is this:   "How do you think the SHAREHOLDERS will feel when ETSY  is dead in the water?"  That's the way it's heading, in my opinion.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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If you are going to force us to do this, why not make it so the free shipping minimum makes sense for our own INDIVIDUAL shop. I think you got the $35 number because most items on Etsy are supplies or lightweight jewelry items priced under that amount. However we are NOT ALL THE SAME (isn't this supposed to be the beauty of Etsy?!) What makes sense for one shop will not make sense to another. For instance, the majority of my items are $65 and up. Why would I offer free shipping with a minimum $35 purchase? That is just plain stupid and not encouraging shoppers to buy more from MY shop. Why can't I (and others like me who sell higher priced/heavier items) do free shipping for a minimum of $95 or $100. That would make sense for me. Why force me into shipping for free over $35 - that isn't going to get people to buy more from my shop... it's just an arbitrary number that you made up.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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This is my concern as well. I’m okay with changes, as long as data and research backs them up. However, when I’m adding shipping costs to every single item (in the event they buy ONE), when they buy FIVE- they’re paying 5x the shipping costs? I don’t have the time nor energy to sit there refunding overages to people everyday either. Nevermind that they’re not going to purchase it anymore because the price is absurd! Everything that I ship is priority, we all know what it costs from PA to CA.. I can’t eat the costs but I can’t expect my customers to willingly be ripped off either. What’s the recommendation for these circumstances, when multiples are being purchased, and your shipping costs are added in? 

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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another thought.. how do we manage that the increase in our prices, due to hiding "free shipping" to US in our prices, doesn't affect our domestic sales, our sales in the EU zone? because they will have extra cost... or we'll have less income.. great anyway!

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@arrowsarah wrote:

Is calculated shipping going away? 98% of my items are over the weight limit for USPS first class mail, that means shipping prices of $9 to $25 on EVERY ITEM THAT I SELL. 95% of my items are also $65 and above. So this means that I will be forced to offer free shipping on ONE item and The vast majority of my boxes are $12 to $15 to ship across the US. How am I supposed to add $15 to every item that I have in my shop when customers often buy local (only costs $9 to ship) and they already buy multiples. So if I am offering "free" shipping and I am adding $15 to cover the cost of shipping (for when customers on either coast purchase), my customers are paying MORE to ship than they were before. I do not have the time or the energy to refund "shipping" overages that my customers supposedly are getting for "free" for every item that ships for under the arbitrary number I added in for shipping. My shop does quite well (thank GOD and the universe) but this will kill it dead in the Etsy water.


Hi! We don’t have any plans at this time to remove Calculated Shipping. If you have items under $35 USD, you can still use the feature to set shipping prices for your buyers based on their ship-to location. But if you use Calculated Shipping for items under $35 USD and you also set up a free shipping guarantee, your buyer will automatically get free shipping if they meet the $35 USD order minimum.

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TheOrangeCove
Conversation Maker

Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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Can we get just a bit of information of how this will help shops who already do free shipping and the items are under $35,

thank you

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@TheOrangeCove wrote:

Can we get just a bit of information of how this will help shops who already do free shipping and the items are under $35,

thank you


Hi there @TheOrangeCove - if you're already offering free shipping, keep on doing what you're doing! Items that ship free unconditionally to the US (regardless of the price of the item) will be prioritized in US search the same way as shops that offer free shipping on US orders over $35.

Thanks!

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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How about Etsy lowering their fees to help the seller offset some of this cost?  Only seems fair since they not only add fees to the selling price but the shipping cost as well.

Only seems fair.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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exactly! because in MY survey I found 100% of sellers are more likely to list & sell on Etsy when there are ZERO Etsy fees.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@helloarietis 

in my survey, 100% of sellers were OK with Etsy paying shipping itself to help shops flourish

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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There would be no Etsy without the fees.  Those fees do pay for the development of software, programming, engineers and everything else.  The bulk of the money comes from those fees with services coming in second.

If you look around at other places you will find that Etsy fees are actually lower with exceptions of course depending on which country a shop is located.

And 100% more likely to list and sell?   Not likely.  Drop that down to 99% because I never would be in a place where there are no fees.  Software, programming and everything else is expensive and has to be paid for.  

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@JDTotesnDolls are you telling me you don't have one single free subscription to anything? How many businesses out there offer something to us for free because they make their money on advertising? Hmm, places like YouTube wouldn't even exist, but they make their money on the back end. So many more examples, but it does exist. And there are other sites that only charge commission, same thing, ads.

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@helloarietis - I want to like your comment a THOUSAND times!!! 

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Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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I am Canadian and have offered free shipping in my main shop since 2017 - I would love to offer in my secondary as well, however they are smaller, lower priced items. The cost to ship these items within Canada makes it difficult to offer free domestic shipping at the $35 mark, but the price to ship to US, I can definitely take advantage of this opportunity. 

How do I go about charging shipping for domestic orders, but offering US shoppers the option for free shipping over $35 (I'm also assuming it's $35USD)? The shipping profile doesn't allow me to set a minimum and when creating a sale, it automatically includes domestic or gives you the option of "domestic only". 

Please help!!! TIA

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PodushkaStudio
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Re: Q&A with Etsy admin: Offering a free shipping guarantee

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@StencilsGaloreCanada wrote:

I am Canadian and have offered free shipping in my main shop since 2017 - I would love to offer in my secondary as well, however they are smaller, lower priced items. The cost to ship these items within Canada makes it difficult to offer free domestic shipping at the $35 mark, but the price to ship to US, I can definitely take advantage of this opportunity. 

How do I go about charging shipping for domestic orders, but offering US shoppers the option for free shipping over $35 (I'm also assuming it's $35USD)? The shipping profile doesn't allow me to set a minimum and when creating a sale, it automatically includes domestic or gives you the option of "domestic only". 

Please help!!! TIA


Hi @StencilsGaloreCanada! So glad to hear that you are already making customers happy by offering free shipping in your main shop! If you decide to offer a free shipping guarantee to US shoppers it will make all your listings eligible to ship free to the US when a shopper spends $35 or more in your shop (excluding applicable taxes). Canadian buyers will still see shipping prices based on your existing shipping profile for a given listing, so if in setting up a free shipping guarantee to US shoppers you decided to edit item prices to recover the cost of shipping to the US, you might consider reviewing your shipping prices for non-US buyers to make sure the total price they're charged reflects your actual costs. We’ve put together some education on how you might adjust your item prices to recover shipping costs, but how you determine and set prices for your shop is your decision, and should be part of your overall business strategy. Learn more here

Thanks!

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