Shipping Items Late, I don’t believe I was.

[CuriositishopByLisa]

Hello, my name is Lisa and I am new to Etsy. I sold my first item on 4/26/25. I mailed it the very next day, even  though I put in the 1-3 day mail option, I wanted to be on top of my game. The next 3 items that were ordered and shipped were ordered on 5/7 but because I believed that my dates would be 1-3 days since those were the dates I signed up to do I hesitated because I had an issue to resolve. You see there was a situation on one of the orders. The customer ordered 2 items separately, but I had already made a shipping label for 1. It took me sometime with ETSY assistance (this can be found on my conversations with them) to figure out how to not use the shipping label and get a new one for both items. Thinking I had 3 days, I was not concerned the items would be late. In searching my problem I now see that the shipping dates default back to 1 day. How unfortunate. Again, being new to this and a senior at 63 I’m not always on top of tech. like defaults (my son helped me and pointed it out that might be the problem)?  My customers were all very happy and no one felt that things came late. I sold 3 more items and made sure they went out on time although I now see I must put in 1-3 day each time. It would be nice if it could default to my preference.  I was so upset to see that I am less efficient than I believe I can be. Is there anything I can do to fix this situation? I can tell my shop is suffering.Nothing has been ordered since I have a bad score on shipping.  Thank you for your time and patience. Lisa Vaccaro. CuriositishopByLisa 

[NanaLetha]

I have mine set at 3-5 days. I usually mail early and always use Etsy labels. I’ve never had a problem with late shipping.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

You don't have to enter the 1-3 each time....I have had 1-2 days for about 10 years and it stays constant.  Of course, if you have calculated shipping it might be different....I use fixed shipping and I never have to enter a processing time.

Lisa, I send everything ahead of time and my sales are slow.  Trust me, it has nothing to do with when you shipped.  It's just the way Etsy is....up one day and down the next.

[CuriositishopByLisa]

Thanks for your replies. However, I am more confused. I texted with Ervin asking how I can find out what I did wrong and how I can fix the situation. I put in 1-3 days for shipping and I always purchase Etsy shipping labels. But everytime I go to mail it goes back to 0-1 day and I have to re enter 1-3 everytime. So why am I being told my shipping stats are low? I’m not sure why he sent me to this forum for answers on my specific problem?  Any insight would be helpful. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@CuriositishopByLisa: "I texted with Ervin ... I’m not sure why he sent me to this forum ..."  Presumably you mean you used the Etsy Chat function. Support and the Virtual Assistant appear to be trained to send people to the forum as soon as 'Star Seller' is mentioned as they do not have the authority or ability to manually adjust Star Seller stats.

"I put in 1-3 days for shipping ..." Are you saying that you are setting your processing time as 1 - 3 days, making sure that it is attached to the listing, and it is not sticking?

[sharonjenkins1]

Are you confusing processing time with shipping time?  Processing time is how long it takes you to get it out the door after you receive the order.  Shipping time is really up to the PO, not you, although Etsy still holds us responsible for shipping times.

[UppNorthEh]

Does this have something to do with the new "Processing Time" thing etsy just added?  Processing time used to be included in your shipping profiles.  Truthfully I haven't even looked at it.  When I get an order it says ship by X date so I figure that looks good. 

[UppNorthEh]

@CuriositishopByLisa  - congrats on your new shop and so many sales.  From what I understand etsy gives new shops some sort of boost.  In the future don't waste your time with customer "support."  Just come to the forums with your questions.

[TailoringByDebra]

Could something in your shipping/processing settings be causing this? I checked a couple listings by putting them in my cart and looking at the shipping details, if ordered today: Free shipping: get it by June 5-9   USPS Priority: get it by June 5-9   and Priority Mail Express: get it by June 5-9. Express mail should be much faster than Priority, and Priority should be somewhat faster than regular mail. I don't know if this is a glitch or settings or what, but you really should consider extending your shipping time temporarily---and set shipping for just Monday-Friday and not weekends--- to give you some time to get this figured out. Hopefully someone with experience with this specific issue will post the solution. Very nice shop, I'm sorry you have this frustration going on!

[ACertainFeel]

I use Shipping Profiles and the processing time is set and I don't have to enter each time. I see you are giving free shipping which is what Etsy scares new sellers into doing. You could create a shipping profile for $5.99 and gain the same benefit that free shipping gives you. Did you disable Offsite Ads because that is another thing that you don't need and is costing you 15% of each sale. I think you are doing great and the possible late shipping isn't impacting your shop. Sales are very up and down and if they have slowed for you it's more likely "your beginning boost" is over. Read the Forums to find out lots of things and good luck, don't worry, you will get there. 

[CuriositishopByLisa]

Thanks, very helpful info. I will look into Shipping profiles and disabling offsite ads. I had no idea there was so much involved. I am a retired art teacher and not very tech savvy. I’m doing this to boost my income but I’m not sure it’s worth the headache. These posts give me hope.  Best regards, Lisa 

[CuriositishopByLisa]

Hi again, You were very helpful with my last problem. I hope it’s ok to ask another question. My apologies if I’m not using forums incorrectly. All new to me. Someone had an Item in their cart. So I read that you can send just to them, a discount code. So I did. But now on a new order they are using the same code. I don’t mind and will send the item. However, I want to stop the discount. I read about how to do it but Im afraid I might make things worse. What do you suggest?  I really can’t afford 10% off my entire inventory. Thanks, Lisa 

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@CuriositishopByLisa 

You really should start a new thread for a new question.  You will get more answers that way.

I need some clarification to answer your discount code question.  Did you create an abandoned cart coupon that Etsy sent to them.  (These are not retroactive so if the item was already carted the potential buyer should not have received a code.)  Did you create a code and personally send it to the potential buyer.  (Sending unsolicited anything is against Etsy's policy and is illegal in most jurisdictions.)   The customer does not have to use the coupon on the originally carted item.  They can use it on any item or multiple items in your shop.  If Etsy sent an abandoned cart coupon it should have been one time use.

[CuriositishopByLisa]

Wow, thank you all for your insights. I can tell by your posts I still have a lot to learn. Yes, I believe I am confusing processing times with shipping times and I will work on that first. I wasn’t able to reply to Bagmaker like most of your posts. I wanted to ask specifically what they meant by “setting the time but it’s not sticking”? I called it defaulting back. I just know now that I have to re apply it each time. Although, someone above said you don’t have to? So I’m still confused. Someone mentioned “fixed shipping”. I will try and figure out what that means as well. Someone also mentioned about “when I get an order it has a ship by date” and yes I got that and it said I needed to ship it the same day the order came in. That was impossible, The post office was closed. And that I believe is where the problem started.  Again thanks for your insights, time and patience. Must appreciated, Lisa 

[BagmakerSupply]

@CuriositishopByLisa: When you edit a listing, there are two sections under 'Processing & Shipping' : 'Processing profile' and 'Shipping option'. There have been reports in this forum that the processing profile changes on its own (not sticking to what the shop selected) and / or what the profile is set to is not actually applied.

[TailoringByDebra]

Etsy recently tinkered around with shipping/processing and confused most of us. Once you get it set up to work for you, it's actually pretty easy. If you go to your dashboard and scroll down to shipping settings, click into that and there is a clickable 'learn more' by the order processing schedule part that is pretty clear and helpful. Then below the processing section there is your shipping section and profiles with another 'learn more'. I hope this helps, stay with it you really do have a lovely shop and welcome to etsy !

[EccentricHandbags]

Etsy recently reset everyones listings and changed the processing time to align with how soon you usually ship orders rather than the shipping time you want to have.  For example I had mine set at 1 to 4 days.  Etsy changed all of my processing times on every listing to 1 to 2 days.  Had I not noticed I would be in the same predicament you are.  I have mine set at 1 to 4 to allow some time in an emergency and because I have other things in my life that may need first priority at any given time.  Etsy really doesn't care about what I need to do.  To fix this go to your edit window.  You can bulk edit everything back to the processing time you want.  It has to be done one page at a time.  I expect to see more posts like yours in this forum.  It is only reasonable to expect that the settings you choose will stay as you made them, so don't blame yourself for this catching you.  Etsy really shouldn't treat us this way.  

[CuriositishopByLisa]

Thank you. I have been beating myself up over this. So to finally get some clarity and understanding means so much. (Not that I completely understand) but I will learn. 

Best regards, Lisa