No tracking affecting Star Seller badge?

[TheSealSlimeEmporium]

I'm baffled.

So I had a friend come into town and buy some slime from me. She did so through the Etsy app. Now, I refunded the shipping (since she took the slime back with her) and set up the "No tracking" and carrier like I normally do. For the carrier I always put "Me" or "NA" or something of the sort.

But here's the catch: I am looking at the Star Seller badge section in my shop, and the "On-time shipping and tracking" section says that I have 1 order that has no tracking. I look to see which listing/sale it is, and of course it's my friend's purchase.

Now I do not foresee myself getting a Star Seller badge in the near future so I'm not too worried about that. But I'm simply worried that it will affect my shop credibility, listing rankings, etc. because I sometimes see shops with part of the Star Seller badge, i.e. "smooth shipping", "rave reviews", or "speedy replies" (But not all 3). Just wondering if it will affect whether this shows up or not.

Is there anything I can do to fix this or prevent it happening in the future?

[VintageGiftsEE]

I afraid - no tracking means no star 

but maybe I am wrong 

[FallenAngelBrass]

No tracking means that the order gets a "no" for the shipping metric.  Depending on how many shipments there are in a three month period, a seller can still earn the star seller badge.  95% of the shipments in the three month period must have tracking and be shipped on time. 

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Nope. All packages have to have tracking or lose the star. It states very clearly in the star seller info:  Ship orders within the processing times that you set and include tracking or purchase a shipping label on Etsy.

[NanaLetha]

No tracking means no star seller 

[CarpetCollectionAU · Accepted solution]

@TheSealSlimeEmporium As far as Service Level Standards are concerned, Etsy does admit that there are some Orders which are "exempt" from the Shipping with Tracking Requirement. This means that you can mark something "Hand Delivered" and suffer no penalty or downgrading of your Shop's Standing. But, where SSP is concerned, in order to receive rhe "Smooth Shipping" Badge, 95% of Orders must be shipped On Time with Tracking

There are TWO diferent requirements for US Shops where tracking is concerned

1) Streamlined Shipping with Tracking In July 2021 Etsy announced this requirement. This is a Service Level Requirement. Etsy requires all US Sellers to send Orders with Tracking if the Order Value is over $ 10 (excluding shipping and taxes). However, there are a few "exceptions", one of which is Local Delivery. That is why there is an option available when completing an Order to mark Digital, Local Delivery, Customized and Oversized Orders as "exceptions".. There is also a "This order doesn't have tracking" option to select if the Order does not fall into any other category. These "exceptions" allow a Seller to keep the Shop in "good standing" for Service Level requirements despite not entering a Tracking Number.

2) SSP Program On Time Shipping with Tracking. Etsy considers this Program to be optional. Attaining a SSP Badge is not a Service Level Requirement. For US and most other Shops  ALL Orders must be sent with Tracking to quaify for this Badge. There are no exceptions apart from those for Sellers who sell in AUD, CAD, GBP and Euro who do have a "minimum order value" exceptions to this requirement to provide a Tracking Numbe for all Orders.

[TheSealSlimeEmporium]

@CarpetCollectionAU, I did click the "This order doesn't have tracking" option... however in the future I wonder if Local Delivery would be more suitable for that.

[BootifulLabels]

Unless you reach the Number of Sales and $ value of sales, you can't qualify for any badges at all. 

If you have reached both of those, then you can qualify for any or all of the 3 individual badges by meeting their criteria, but ONLY if you meet all 3 will you get the SS badge.

That said, unless you are a fairly small shop (with less than 20 sales in the three month evaluation period), it is unlikely that one untracked order in a review period would disqualify you.  Even if it does, if you meet the messaging and reviews criteria you should still get the individual badges for those, but not the overall SS badge.