Seller Handbook

Sellers based in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India can purchase labels for open orders right from Shop Manager. Labels can be printed from the comfort of your own home or office, meaning less time at the post office—plus when you purchase USPS shipping labels for your Etsy packages, you get discounted volume shipping rates: up to 30% lower than the USPS retail rates you would pay at the post office or elsewhere online.

Shipping labels on Etsy also help automate important steps in the fulfillment process. When you buy a domestic or international label on Etsy, we’ll fill in the buyer’s address and automatically mark the order as shipped. Tracking is included on most services, so shoppers can rest easy knowing when their orders will arrive.

When available, using shipping labels purchased on Etsy also positively impacts your Star Seller shipping score—an important customer service indicator for potential customers! Plus, purchasing a shipping label on Etsy is a great way to help ensure your order’s eligibility for Etsy’s Purchase Protection program.

There are a number of ways to get even more out of your shipping labels on Etsy. Read on for tips on lesser-known features to help streamline your shipping process.

1. Save time with shipping label presets

Create a shipping label preset to prefill package details for each order. Presets are helpful if you consistently ship items of a similar size and weight, and use the same type of package.

When you purchase a label, you can save the settings (ie: package type, weight, size, etc.) as a new label preset. Then, for future orders when purchasing a label you can apply this preset from the dropdown “label preset.” Learn more.

2. Customize your shipping label preferences

Set your shipping label preferences to streamline your order fulfillment process. You can set things like how to download and print your shipping labels and settings for customs forms.

• Downloading labels: Choose how to download and print your shipping labels (ie: one per page or two per page, whether or not to include order details when printing)
• Pre-filled calculated shipping labels: We can pre-fill labels for orders that used calculated shipping (available in the US and Canada) with mail class, weight, and dimensions. You can make edits before printing. Otherwise, fill out the labels manually. Learn more about calculated shipping here.
• USPS customs form signature: Automatically sign and date your customs forms using your first and last name when shipping internationally from the US.
• International customs forms: Add a description for the items you ship internationally. This will be the default description added to international customs forms.
• Default label presets: Once created, you can choose from your shipping label presets to prefill package details for each order. Presets are helpful if you consistently ship items of a similar size and weight, and use the same type of package.

3. Easily view, track, and manage your existing shipping labels

Under the Orders & Shipping section of Shop Manager, you’ll find information on your orders. Tracking is included on most services when you purchase shipping labels on Etsy, so you can follow along with its progress via the tracking link next to the order details.

If you don’t use a shipping label that you purchased, you can easily request a refund through Shop Manager. Learn more.

4. Add a personalized note to buyer when their order has shipped

When purchasing a label, you can add a personalized message in the “Note to Buyer” field to share things like shipping estimates or thank the buyer for their purchase. The buyer will see the message in the email confirmation once their order has shipped. Plus, you can save frequently used messages to pull from for future orders. Learn more.

5. Adjust shipping dates to keep buyers informed

Your “ship by” date indicates when the shipping carrier will receive your package, which then helps us calculate an estimated delivery date for buyers. You can easily adjust your ship date when purchasing a shipping label on Etsy to provide a more accurate estimate and help set realistic expectations for your buyer. Learn more.

6. Enable upgrades for expedited shipping options

Give buyers the option to pay for expedited shipping during checkout. Once enabled, you can add upgrade options to shipping profiles or add them manually when listing an item. Learn more.

7. Preview postage costs to see how we’re keeping rates competitive

Previewing postage costs can help you get a clear sense of how discounted rates for shipping labels on Etsy compare to USPS and Canada Post retail rates. The USPS Price Your Postage and Canada Post rate calculators let you look up shipping costs for any order, which you can compare to the rates you’re seeing when purchasing a shipping label on Etsy. Sellers in India can find an estimated shipping rate calculator in Shop Manager by navigating to Settings > Shipping settings.

8. Simplify bulk shipping label purchases

You can purchase up to 20 labels at the same time by clicking each of your orders that need a label on the Orders & Shipping Page or by clicking “Add another shipping label” when you go to purchase a label.

Pro tip: If you purchase many shipping labels at once, printing a SCAN form can help streamline the tracking process—compiling all of the individual orders under one scannable barcode that’s used by USPS. Once scanned, tracking information is updated for each of the individual orders simultaneously. Learn more.

For more information about shipping on Etsy, read 4 Steps to Shipping Success.