Local pickup or delivery

[VERSICOLORWOODWORKS]

So a customer who lives five minutes away from me purchased 2 items and wanted to pick them up. I marked the orders as complete within the processing time. When I didn't input a tracking number, etsy provided the option for local pickup or delivery, which I selected. Now I've lost my star seller badge for on time shipping because of lack of a tracking number!? Not to mention, the tracking info is clearly labeled as "optional" in the seller app. Etsy support is unable to make changes to star seller ratings. What a joke. 

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

As of now, the star seller is not set for local pickup. And frankly, I don't think buyers pay much attention to the star anymore.

[VERSICOLORWOODWORKS]

Probably not, but being penalized for this without recourse is a bit much. Especially while navigating their 2 broken seller apps. 

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

Right or wrong, it has been the policy. If you have not yet done so, you might want to read https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling and https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000338067-How-to-Offer-Local-Pickup-or-Delivery?segment=s...

Will local pickup orders be part of my evaluation for a Star Seller badge?

All physical listing orders must include a valid tracking number or a shipping label purchased on Etsy to be considered for a Star Seller badge. At this time, we’re unable to make exceptions for local pickup orders.

This also applies to delivery orders.

[VERSICOLORWOODWORKS]

This seems to state that local pickups are not considered for the star seller badge. After reading this, I was under the impression that it wouldn't "count" either way. The problem is that it is indeed included in the evaluation, and has a negative impact. 

[HeartWarmersByLezlie]

It is not a clear policy! It is also a horrible one! So remove those sales from the calculation instead of penalizing for them.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

All physical listing orders...

[RowhomeVintage]

I gave up because I mail things out with vintage stamps for those customer's who are paper crafting. It hasn't hurt my sales to not have a complete star seller line-up. I just do what I'm going to do and let Etsy spin their wheels with all the new and improved and changing and what not.....

[TonsOfPaper · Accepted solution]

Hello there,

As of the moment, tracking metrics don’t account for local pickup, shipping without tracking if not in a market with an exception or in-person delivery. All physical orders must include a valid tracking number or a shipping label purchased on Etsy to be counted positively towards your on-time shipping & tracking. All shipping labels purchased on Etsy count positively towards your score, even if they don't come with tracking. 

You can check out this Help Article for a reminder about marking an order as complete without tracking.

We’re currently working on an option for sellers to tag the order as a pickup that won't count towards Star Seller. We’ll be sure to let you know once this improvement is ready. In the meantime, please know that Etsy understands that Star Seller may not be viable for every shop. Star Seller is not a disciplinary program and sellers will not be penalized for low scores. Additionally, having the badge doesn't give sellers an edge over other sellers in search ranking.

Thank you very much!

[RamenSandwich]

As I have said elsewhere, it has always surprised me that Etsy has so little provision for in-person transactions, given that hard-to-ship items like handmade furniture gets sold here. I think Etsy would benefit from something that eBay instituted many years ago, in which buyers can pick up an item in person and the seller can require cash payment. The buyer waives buyer protection because they have the chance to inspect the item in person and back out if necessary, and no Seller Protection is needed because there is no risk to the seller.

[AlabamaMudSoapCo]

It’s still WRONG. You are penalizing LOCAL support which makes you kind  of a hypocrite as a company.It shouldn’t count at all if you are just focusing on shipping. 

[TKTogether]

Please do. I'm at 94% because of one $8.00 local pickup order because there was not label or tracking #.

[MarvelousMelissa]

I have had good luck just copying and pasting a previous tracking number and informing the customer that I had to use a fake tracking number to comply with the Star Seller program.  

[TaracudaJewelry]

It's happened to me a dozen times. Currently, I am about to lose my Star Seller status because out of almost 200 5-star ratings, I got my first 2 4-stars with wonderful comments attached. Some people just simply don't give 5-stars out. Because in their eyes, they were providing me with a good rating, those 2 4-star reviews are causing me to lose my status. I just figure I'll continue to do my best, but it is disheartening.

[TonsOfPaper · Accepted solution]

Hello there!

As of the moment, tracking metrics don’t account for local pickup, shipping without tracking if not in a market with an exception(below £10/€10/CA$15/AU$15), or in-person delivery(Square). All physical orders must include a valid tracking number or a shipping label purchased on Etsy to be counted positively towards the on-time shipping & tracking. More information can be found in this Help Article.

Please know that Etsy understands that Star Seller may not be viable for every shop. Star Seller is not a disciplinary program and sellers will not be penalized for low scores. Additionally, having the badge doesn't give sellers an edge over other sellers in search ranking.

Thank you so much!

[AlabamaMudSoapCo]

It’s still WRONG. You are penalizing LOCAL support which makes you kind  of a hypocrite as a company.It shouldn’t count at all if you are just focusing on shipping. 

[JDTotesnDolls · Accepted solution]

@AlabamaMudSoapCo   It's not wrong at all.  Tracking is the only way Etsy can know for sure the item has been delivered.  Handelivery has no such surety.

If I have a local delivery, I remove the item from Etsy and deliver it but I do this only for friends and family.

To people I don't know I ship.  I believer ETsy is not being hypocritical or wrong in requiring tracking.   

You also have the option of using Square for hand delivered items.  

[OneEyeCatStudio]

"Tracking is the only way Etsy can know for sure the item has been delivered."

actually, if the item is reviewed then it is a pretty good indication that it has been delivered, don't you think?

[BagmakerSupply]

@OneEyeCatStudio : So does the delivery order count as shipped without tracking until and if the buyer leaves a review? What if the review is left after the applicable Star Seller period? What if the review is "I never received my item"?

[WreathAroundRoses]

Same thing with me.   I have a brand new store and sold to friends and family and lost money by doing that because I went through ETSY and they take a percentage.   I only did it to build up my store reputation.      I delivered the items and I got positive reviews on the items and yet etsy still says that i have orders that were not tracked so I can't have my badge.    It is honestly a shame.   I could see if the customer didn't receive the item....but there are pictures of the items at their house in the reviews.   Terrible policy and I wish I had known instead of losing 7 percent of the cost to Etsy.

[HeartWarmersByLezlie]

As I have a lot of local friends who want to pickup their items, this policy makes no sense. And forcing people to use Square, which takes an additional cut of profits (standard processing fee is 2.6% + 10¢ for contactless payments, swiped or inserted chip cards, and swiped magstripe cards. Payments that are manually keyed-in, processed using Card on File, or manually entered using Virtual Terminal have a 3.5% + 15¢ fee) is crazy for small businesses already paying a percentage to Etsy.

[CraftTherapyOH]

Same thing happened to me and caused my shipping rating to drop to 75%.

[LisasClockShop]

Same thing happened to me. Saying that local pickup does not positively affect star seller status is misleading. It NEGATIVELY impacts it and should be stated clearly.

[TextOnTimber]

ETSY! I HAVE A SUGGESTION!!

Can you please add an option for local pick-up if we have our own pattern subscription. We will most likely bringing in our own traffic if we have pattern and most of my own traffic is local people. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE add an option for local pick-up when checking out through pattern. Everybody wants this. I want to stay on etsy because its more simple to use but i am tempted to switch to shopify because i really want this option.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

@TextOnTimber   This post is more than a year old.

You will have to contact Etsy directly for your suggestion.