Checklist: How to Ship Smoothly This Holiday Season

Having a clear shipping strategy is essential to ensure the best experience possible for both buyers and sellers. Use this checklist to help get your shop in shape for fulfilling holiday orders with our favorite shipping tools and best practices.

❏ Review your processing times:

Processing time indicates how much time you need to get an order ready to ship and get it to your shipping carrier. The processing time you list helps set expectations with buyers before purchasing an item, and shorter processing times may increase your sales.

Quick delivery is an important factor for shoppers—many buyers expect that their packages will arrive within seven or eight days.* Throughout the purchase experience, we’ll share updates with your buyers about their orders progress based on information you’ve provided, including your processing times and shipping service (mail class and carrier). Try adjusting your stated processing time to give buyers what they want, while staying realistic and accurate about the time it will take you to prepare the item and coordinate shipment.

If you’ve accounted for shipping times or potential delays in your set processing time, we recommend removing that buffer. We’re closely monitoring the latest information from shipping carriers so if delays do occur, we’ll take care of adjusting the estimated delivery date accordingly.

❏ Share estimated delivery dates:

Adding shipping profiles with your preferred shipping services (carrier and mail class) for different destinations, along with your processing times and zip code, lets us show shoppers an estimated delivery date for when their items should arrive, which can help provide them peace of mind.

Based on your listing’s set processing time, shipping services (carrier and mail class), and zip code, we’ll show shoppers an estimated delivery date range of when their items should arrive, making it easier to manage your orders and reducing the volume of messages from customers during the holiday rush. Plus, if you’ve added shipping services to your listings or shipping profiles, we'll adjust the estimated delivery date shown to buyers pre-purchase with more accurate info based on carrier delays. We’ll also let them know if the shipping carrier you’re using is experiencing delays that may extend their estimated delivery date once their order is en route. Review your shipping profiles.

❏ Save time with shipping labels:

If you’re in the United States you can save up to 30% on retail postage rates by purchasing shipping labels on Etsy. And now when you purchase USPS Priority Mail labels on Etsy, you’ll save on average 5% off Etsy’s already discounted rates.**

With the new Etsy Seller app, sellers in the US can now buy and print shipping labels directly via the app to save time and money. Plus, if you purchase a USPS shipping label on Etsy, cut down on trips to the post office by scheduling a free pickup from your USPS postal carrier or by bringing them to a USPS postal drop-off location, if available in your area.

Sellers based in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India can also save time by purchasing shipping labels on Etsy and printing them at home.

Shipping labels purchased on Etsy 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.

For sellers in other countries, you can purchase shipping labels through your preferred shipping carrier. Many shipping carriers offer shipping labels that you can purchase online and print at home. You can find tips for shipping a variety of products, from oversized furniture to vintage goods and lightweight craft supplies, in Strategies for Shipping Challenging Items.

❏ Consider offering free shipping:

People come to Etsy with expectations based on their other online shopping experiences, and free shipping or affordable shipping is often a big consideration.

Plus, Etsy's search algorithm takes US free shipping into account, so by offering a US free shipping guarantee you may show up higher in results. Items that ship free also have a better chance to be featured wherever Etsy advertises in the US—in email marketing, social media, and television ads.

While there will always be costs to package and ship items, you may consider ways to build those into your product pricing strategy. That will help you recover the costs and meet customer expectations. If you set up a free shipping guarantee in your shop, you can choose to adjust the prices of your items to recover shipping costs using our smart pricing tool. Sellers based outside of the US can find additional strategies for updating your prices to recover shipping costs here.

❏ Offer shipping upgrades:

With shipping upgrades, you can offer your buyers more shipping options, like 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. To confirm shipping upgrades are enabled for your shop, visit the Rates & upgrades tab in your shipping settings.

❏ Consider shipping insurance:

Purchasing shipping insurance can offer peace of mind against financial loss, especially for higher priced items. It can also provide a safety net in case an item is lost or damaged during shipping, making it simple to issue a refund to your buyer.

When you purchase USPS or Fedex shipping labels on Etsy, you have the option to purchase USPS and Fedex parcel insurance through Shipsurance to protect your shipments. The insurance available through Shipsurance includes coverage for damage and non-delivery.

Sellers in Canada can purchase insurance for shipping labels purchased from Canada Post. Parcel compensation (liability coverage) is included through Royal Mail for shipping labels purchased from Royal Mail on Etsy. You can learn more about how shipping insurance offerings vary by carrier here.

Important holiday reminders

Review 2022 Holiday Shipping Deadlines and Surcharge Information for details on carrier deadlines for when packages must be shipped in order to arrive by Christmas Day.
Stay protected with an Acceptance Receipt. Make sure you get an acceptance receipt when you drop off your parcels at the post office (one at a time, or using the Scan form), so you’re protected if the item goes missing in transit.
Only mark your item as shipped when it’s with the carrier. Based on the ship date you set in your listing’s shipping information, we automatically send your customer an email letting them know their item is on the way. But, make sure you don’t do it too soon! Marking an item as “shipped” before it’s out the door could lead to a bad customer experience.
Know your options if you feel like you’re falling behind. If you’re feeling like you’re falling behind on orders, you can place your shop on vacation hold to give yourself time to catch up on orders. If it’s taking you longer to fulfill orders, double check your processing times. We’ll notify you in your shop manager if you need to update your processing times so just keep an eye out there for a reminder from us.
Chances are, you won’t encounter an issue when shipping an order, but sometimes things go wrong that are just out of your control. We understand that these issues can be expensive and frustrating for small businesses, so we want you to know we’re here to help when the unexpected happens. Learn how Etsy’s Purchase Protection program can give you peace of mind.
We understand that any time you can save money while making your shop run more efficiently is a big win. That’s why we’ve worked with partners to help with your shipping needs as well as provide you discounts to help you save on things like shipping label printers and packaging. Explore discounts through our shipping partners.