Etsy Free Shipping Guarantee - Yes or No?

[@startingfromscratch9158]

Don't apologize for the length of your videos. The information is all good stuff, and I watched to the end. That means your retention rate is good, and that means more watch time. I only click away if a video starts to get irrelevant halfway through, and your videos seem to have good information all the way through. Keep up the good work!

[@PODinsights]

Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

[@chloeblankenship2713]

You're a genius man! I reference all of your videos for my new Etsy/Printify shop and the information is gold 😌

[@PODinsights]

Thank you so much!

[@sarahowe4747]

Seriously! It's like he knows those little off the wall random questions we're all struggling with... and then he does a video on it. PLEASE keep these up, you are helping SO many people!

[@amandacasey1946]

Appreciate the time and effort you put into your informative and well presented videos. Very helpful Thank you

[@BilliBluSavageGang]

This is what I needed!!! I was so confused I had a headache. I’m new and I’ve made 5 sales but I could get a lot more with free shipping.

[@PODinsights]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@osewhoopy9253]

Would love to see how we can set up additional shipping that is upgraded to a faster shipping, but paid by the buyer...or a charge for a gift box??? Thank you for the video!!

[@sarahowe4747]

Let me know if it was helpful in the comments?..... uh, yea.... every single one of your videos is extremely helpful. You're one of the best, by far.

[@PODinsights]

That made my day! Thank you so much!

[@lamejoramor336]

Sometimes a video has to be 15 minutes long. As long as the video is purposeful, it’s 15 minutes well spent. The time, then, actually goes by fast without you knowing it was 15 minutes long, unlike 99% of the videos on KZbin!!!!

[@PODinsights]

Thank you so much!

[@Jacklepuff]

No matter what unless the currency is USD, doing printify print on demand as a canadian store isnt cheap for apparel. Free shipping or pay for shipping, the price for items can be expensive at a 30% margin and adding taxes into your price since etsy doesn’t do it. I chose 30% so I can run sales, but still feels unbalanced when an acrylic cup can cost more than a t shirt.

[@stepbystepfarming2686]

Great video and very helpful. Couple of questions: 1. If I choose the free shipping over $35 with Etsy is there something to show the buyer this offer exist or would I put this in the banner? 2. What are some of your price points you found converts your views to sales for your items? I have over 21K views but only 4 sales in 3 months. I sell shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, journals and mugs but I'm wondering if my prices are too high. 🤔

[@arkikali5632]

Etsy puts a little banner / sidebar below your description that says something like "Want free shipping? Check out these other items from ABC store." Or something like that. If you look at your listing page, you should see it.

[@dkhd72]

Thank You so much. Shipping is confusing period

[@EM-fz3hf]

I still find the shipping aspect of selling so confusing. There's so many working parts and it's all over the place. I started out with free shipping guarantee but didn't price my items correctly. Now I charge for shipping because I want to actually make money but I'm thinking about switching it back to free shipping guarantee. This is so confusing, especially since I'm only connected to 1 supplier now but want to add several more products from different suppliers. I just imagine it'll be a nightmare to set up.

[@PODinsights]

I totally understand! I think that next to figuring out your taxes (and how to get sales tax exemptions), shipping is on top of the list of confusing things. Recently I've been considering changing my shipping strategy as well but I think I'm going to stick with doing free shipping on apparel at least so I don't have to worry about the free shipping guarantee messing things up for me. I just build the shipping cost into the price and usually for apparel I can still offer a reasonable price. I do charge for shipping on mugs but I figured out how to price them so that when a customer buys multiple and it goes over $35, I'm making enough built-in profit that losing the shipping doesn't matter...at least until the price of mugs increases to the point where two of them cost $35 which might not be too long at this point!

[@victoriaacosta5410]

Very helpful! Thanks a lot!

[@JSa-cv6rh]

I'm still confused but I barely started an etsy account , can you look at the shipping profiles menu again to see if the menu has changed since this video? I clicked on create profile, would that single creation count be set for all of my products? And what would you recommend for where it reads handling fee? I assume these profiles are for specific products one might be selling hence why you titled them all, apologies I'm just very slow when it comes to these menus they should add description over some of the tabs giving more info on what they are for exactly for new people but I'll just rewatch this until I understand it better appreciate the video

[@giuliana4_]

Thank you! Very useful!! And what about the Express shipping possibility when already offering free shipping?? Do I have to also build it up the price on my items?

[@AmandeepKaur-qh9uo]

Hi, I have a question. After watching this video I tried for my products - when you do this accordingly it shows something different but once u activate the free shipping for US only the price per product is different. Im not understanding this. Would u please help , I just want to make sure to not to lose my profit at the end of the day.

[@NikoNemo]

Nice :) If i select individual listings in my shop to deliver for free will they have priority placement in US search results too?!

[@billyemaden5500]

This probably is a super silly question but I’m new so please don’t laugh. If the shipping price from say Monster Digital $4.99 and you say you’re charging $3.00 for shipping, where does that extra 1.99 for the rest of the shipping cost come into play? I’m confused by that part of the videos.

[@PODinsights]

Hi! Not a silly question at all. Basically setting your product and shipping prices is all about the total price you need to get for your desired profit. You can set any shipping price you want in your Etsy shipping profile, it does not have to be exactly what your shipping cost is. Whatever you add or subtract in the shipping cost, you just make the corresponding adjustment in the product price. So if I'm only charging $3.00 for shipping, I would add $1.99 to the price of my shirts to balance it out. Your goal is to balance the product & shipping prices so neither one looks "too high" to the customer. Of course if you do free shipping then you have to built the whole shipping price into the product but if you're going to charge for shipping then you can set the prices to whatever you think will be most appealing. I hope that helps!

[@weareloved]

how did you come up with the price of $21.67?

[@dianneg-phila]

So helpful! Ty

[@ateljeavesaltus]

excellent, thank you

[@ChrisCabe]

Great content, Jeff. I've turned on the free shipping guarantee after listening to your video, but I did get a little concerned when I looked at t-shirt shipping for Canada and Everywhere else besides the US. Etsy has affixed a warning on the Printify generated shipping costs for those two areas stating that my shipping is too high. Do I need to address that issue in any way and if so, how would I go about doing that? Thanks again for all your content. It has been really helpful.

[@PODinsights]

Hi! I have a few listings where the same "you're charging too much for shipping" message is showing for the international shipping rates. I don't worry about the message as long as I know I'm not charging way more than what my cost is. There's a slight chance that Etsy may place my listings further down in the search results in those countries because my shipping charge may be higher than other sellers (I'm assuming it's a possibility but I don't know that for a fact), but thankfully it does not impact your free shipping guarantee, because that only applies to US orders. So even if someone outside the US spends over $35, they will still pay the shipping charge in your shipping profile for each item. One other suggestion I have on the international shipping piece is that if you know you are going to use a different production partner for the other country - say you plan to use Duplium if you get a mug order for Canada - then I would edit your mug shipping profile on Etsy to reflect the Duplium shipping price for Canada. I'm not sure if it's lower/the same/higher with them specifically, that's just an example of something else you can do to make sure you're charging a fair shipping rate for international orders. You would have to manually swap the product in the order out to change suppliers. But you may still have to inflate the shipping price a tad - because international orders usually charge you tax as well, and we have no way of getting that from the customer through Etsy other than adding to the shipping charge. Ex: Orders from the EU on Printify charge US sellers for VST. I usually bump my shipping price for EU countries up by $3-4 to capture most of that VST charge. I hope that helps!

[@hudhud7172]

Thank you for this info, very helpful. I was wondering if you offer free delivery do you also offer other discounts, like 10%, 15% etc?

[@PODinsights]

I do! I set my pricing so that I can regularly have them listed at 15% off in addition to doing free shipping for my apparel items.

[@hudhud7172]

@@PODinsights Ok, thanks for replying

[@debigeorge7588]

What about upgraded shipping? Do you pay or upgrade shipping like USPS Priority mail? 99% ask for upgraded shipping which about $10.

[@PODinsights]

Hi! I don't enable upgraded shipping options in my Etsy shop shipping settings because upgraded shipping is not available from all print on demand print providers. Some of the providers I use on Printify offer it, but others do not. Rather than try to keep track of it I just don't offer upgrades becuase I don't want to have a customer pay more for it and then have to refund them because the provider doesn't offer it. The cost also varies by provider for the ones that do offer it - for example Monster Digital on Printify does offer expedited shipping but it's way more expensive than what anyone wants to pay. To ship a t-shirt they charge $4.75 and expedited shipping is currently $24.44 (and may adjust by destination). Most customers are not willing to pay an extra $20 for that option. If you use a platform like Gelato for all your order fulfillment, they do offer a few different shipping options for each product so it would be safer to offer expedited shipping, though the charge is going to vary by destination for the "live rate" services like USPS Priority. Occasionally a customer asks me if I can do expedited shipping, so I just tell them what the charge would be and if they agree, I enable the upgrade option for them and then turn it back off (unless the print provider doesn't offer an upgrade of course). I hope that helps!

[@ptarlow7708]

I’m offering the free shipping guarantee on $35 and above orders. What if I have a shipping price listed on mugs but someone buys a print too and therefore gets the free shipping guarantee. Then, what if the mug arrives broken and they send it back? I’m losing a lot of money, aren’t I? Am I better off offering free shipping on prints that I’ve added in my shipping cost to, and then being able to charge shipping on mugs or totes, and not offering the free shipping guarantee at all?

[@PODinsights]

Hi There, let me unpack your question and keep the issue of the damaged mug separate. You should never lose money when the customer receives a damaged or broken item - your print on demand platform should send a replacement or provide a refund in those situations. All you have to do is submit a support request and I have a video about that process (for broken mugs, actually!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/b37Fd3mco9ysqbc I don't recommend accepting returns in general with a print on demand business for several reasons...honestly I need to do a whole video just about that. You lose money on return shipping for an item that you most likely cannot resell, so it's cheaper to let the customer discard or donate it even if you're giving a refund. Ok, now about the free shipping guarantee: if you watch the section of the video starting around 7:50, I address the issue of a customer buying two items together that add up to over $35 where you lose the shipping charge for one of them. You really just need to do some calculations and set your pricing/profit levels to ensure that you don't lose too much. Not charging a high shipping fee helps, because the less you charge, the less you lose when the order is over $35. If you've set your pricing correctly, you should never lose money even with the free shipping guarantee. I hope this helps!

[@tinawhitewood2584]

Hi there, Can you make 2 different shipping profiles for the same item. Example the white mugs. Can i choose 2 different print providers. One profile for buyers in my country and another profile for other countries.

[@PODinsights]

Hi! You can only have one shipping profile assigned to each listing. However, you can still enter different shipping details for other countries within the same shipping profile. You can set a different shipping method, estimated shipping time, and shipping price for each country, or you can use the "everywhere else" option to set one shipping method and price for all other countries.

[@EM-fz3hf]

When it comes to international orders I only have my shipping profile set up for items to be shipped within the United States. I also include in my announcements that I only ship within the U.S just so customers know. I didn't really see anywhere that allows you to exclude international orders so I don't really know if customers can still order from my store outside the U.S which is what I don't want. Since I only have a shipping profile set to the U.S, should I assume only United States customers can order? I don't want to deal with international orders and all the shipping headaches, especially around the holidays.

[@PODinsights]

You are correct that Etsy doesn't have any dedicated option/feature where you can disable selling to certain countries/markets. The only way to do this is to not include countries you don't want to sell to in your shipping profiles. As long as you don't have the "everywhere else" option in your shipping profiles, then your listings will only display for customers located in the specific countries that you included in the profile. They could definitely make it easier for us!

[@EM-fz3hf]

@@PODinsights Thanks! I was worried about someone from another country purchasing from my store so now I don't have to worry about it. I set up Google analytics to my store and am getting a couple views from other countries. Good to know. I also just switched my store to free guaranteed shipping only to switch it back within the same 20 mins because I saw a store with 20k sales and they are doing just fine charging $8 for shipping on each item. I only sell crews and hoodies so far and charge $8 for 1 item and $2 for any additional items. I also run sales of 20% off so I think that will help. Even charging free shipping it bumped up the prices way too high so I just didn't think it was worth it.

[@bevbeenen136]

Thanks for your insights! Much appreciated. Can you clarify... the $35 or more free shipping guarantee... by default, it applies to the entire store so how do you offer it for t shirts but not for mugs? Please and thank you in advance.

[@PODinsights]

Hi! You're correct when you opt into the free shipping guarantee it applies to your whole shop. But if you offer free shipping on your individual listings by setting the shipping profile to $0 for domestic shipping, then you will basically never "trigger" the free shipping guarantee on orders over $35 since the listing already included free shipping. Where you can still run into the free shipping guarantee is if you also sell some items where you do charge for shipping - so I gave the example in the video of how I charge shipping on mugs but not apparel. If a customer buys a mug with something else and the order is over $35, they don't pay the shipping charge on the mug because I opted into the free shipping guarantee. I hope that helps!

[@freegreat583]

Could you tell me please, how do get your photos or images to post on etsy?, how can you download a picture from printify with a design on a product and upload it to etsy?

[@PODinsights]

Hi! Your printify product photos should come through to the Etsy listing when you publish. You can also manually upload the photos into the Etsy listing by downloading them from Printify. When you are in the design-creator view in the listing (Printify account), go to the "preview" view. Then right click on the image and save/download it. Do this for each one you want. Then edit the Etsy listing and upload each photo. I also recommend using some realistic mockups from a site like Placeit. I hope that helps!

[@freegreat583]

@@PODinsights appreciate your answer, I have another question, does etsy actually allow to connect their store with a third party provider like printify? do you recommend to enable automated order routing on printify?, do you have any video about how to connect printify with etsy because when you create a listing on etsy it says... who made this item?, what do you have to select there I did or other option?

[@pueblodove]

I have never shipped a mug for $3.00, it costs $8.00 + to ship. And how is your merchandise for Etsy handmade or vintage??

[@PODinsights]

Hi There, you're right the shipping cost for mugs is more than that, but I charge $3.00. The rest of the shipping cost is covered in the price of the item. I've found that some customers find the shipping cost too high when charging $8-10 for shipping and they won't complete the purchase after adding an item to their cart. I have had better results when charging a little more for the item and reducing the shipping charge because the total cost doesn't increase as much after adding the item to the cart. Also, print on demand items are made to order for each customer. They are printed by skilled printing partners that support local jobs. Nothing I personally sell is presented as being a vintage item. Thanks!

[@pueblodove]

@@PODinsights I sell vintage, so I try not to sell anything worth less than the shipping cost for this reason as well, I have to keep the shipping cost close, because often the item value itself just isn't there.

[@Jammerlee]

I have separate shipping profiles for stickers and pinback buttons, but Etsy combined them and treated the button like it was an additional sticker. Have you or anyone else run into this problem? Any idea how to stop it? Etsy says changing the prices won't stop it from only using one shipping profile at checkout

[@PODinsights]

Hi! Yes, I have experienced that before. Unfortunately it's due to some type of limitation that Etsy has with combining different shipping rates together on one order. Printify has a help article that explains - it applies even if you don't use Printify but they show a good breakdown of the issue: help.printify.com/hc/en-us/articles/4483616513041-Why-was-my-Etsy-customer-charged-a-different-amount-for-shipping-than-they-should-have-been- As far as what will fix the issue, adding the cost of shipping into the product price and doing free shipping is the only 100% solution, which could make your product prices look too high of course, depending on the product. The only other suggestion provided is to adjust your "additional item" rates in all shipping profiles because that is what Etsy is applying when there are multiple products in the order.

[@arkikali5632]

@@PODinsights This honestly makes free shipping look more attractive. Gah. Thanks for the link.

[@BilliBluSavageGang]

What about if some products are being shipped from out of the country? I sell socks, tshirts and hoodies and my tshirts come from Slovenia and my hoodies come from UK. I am in US but I’m not sure if the free shipping pertains to products that are not shipping from US.

[@PODinsights]

Hi! If you are opted into the free shipping guarantee, it will apply for customers in the US no matter where your products are being shipped from. So if your customers buy something that is shipping from your UK print provider and they spend over $35, they will get free shipping. This is one of the reasons why I do free shipping for the US on apparel because I know the cost of shipping will be built into the price and I don't have to worry about the guarantee. I hope that helps!

[@BilliBluSavageGang]

@@PODinsights yes it helps me a lot. I’ve been looking all over KZbin trying to find the answers.

[@amberstevenson7505]

I sell wreaths, I listed a simple wreath for $25, Etsy was telling me that shipping for this item was $112!!! Is this accurate??

[@PODinsights]

Hi! That does not sound right for a standard shipping method like USPS priority unless it's a super heavy wreath, but if you're using Etsy shipping labels and calculated shipping in your shipping profile, then it will depend on the shipping method options that you are using. That sounds more like the rate for 2-day or overnight shipping maybe? I don't use Etsy labels often for my shop so I'm not super familiar with the typical rates but in general it does sound like something is off there.

[@dominantgaming6838]

Hey there! I am quite new and just starting to sell mugs on etsy. In your profit margin calculations you did not include VAT from buying and fullfilling from Printify. Why is that can i ask? Because as of now I pay VAT on every order from Printful which is 20% and it cuts into my profit margins alot. Again im quite new to this so any insight would be extremely helpful!

[@PODinsights]

Hi! Printify will only charge VAT when they are required to, and it depends on where you are located and the country that you are making sales in. For example, I am charged VAT by Printify when I make a sale in the UK because I'm located in the US and I do not have a tax exemption for the UK. Over 90% of my sales come from the US and I do not pay sales tax on those orders because I have sales tax exemptions filed for all states in the US. Since only a small number of my orders come from countries where I am charged VAT, I just add a little bit extra to my shipping charges for those countries to cover it. If you are selling in a country where you do not qualify for a tax exemption, then you would need to factor that into your product and/or shipping prices to cover the additional cost. Great question!

[@latinvibras]

@@PODinsights Hi Jeff, don't apologies for the length of the video, the information is invaluable and as usual clearly presented. I'm based in the UK but want to us the US as my target market. I will be using US based print providers in my listings to enable my shipping rates to be competitive. So my listings will only be avaialbe in search results for people living in the US. I hope this is correct as I watched your International Shipping videos and that's where I found this information. Is there an easy guide as to what I would pay in sales tax so I can factor that additional cost when items are shipped to my customer in the US, even though they will be shipped from Monster Digital or District Photo for example?

[@toyawhitewood9334]

If I offer free shipping to the country I am in, and include the shipping cost into the listing price, will this just show free delivery for that country? Do I have to make separate prices, so that listings for my country, have a higher price with free delivery and other countries have a lower price but pay for delivery? Hope this makes sense, I am just starting out my Etsy shop and still understanding it all. Thank you

[@PODinsights]

Hi! Your shipping profile controls how the shipping will show in the listing for different countries. If you set free domestic shipping in the shipping profile, then it will show as free shipping in your country and no charge will be added for the customer during checkout. But in the shipping profile, you can set different shipping prices for other countries. You can add individual countries separately or use the one that says "everywhere else" if you want to have the same shipping charge for all other countries. The prices you enter for the other countries will control what shoppers see when they view your listing from their country. You can edit the shipping profiles that your print on demand platform pushes to your shop and you can do this either from within an individual listing in the shipping section or by going to your Settings > Shipping Settings on the seller dashboard. You can also create your own shipping profile from scratch if you don't want to use the ones that your platform creates. I have mine set up by product, so I use the same one for all my T-Shirts, another one for mugs, etc. I probably should do a video about shipping profiles because I haven't done that yet but I hope this helps!

[@toyawhitewood9334]

@@PODinsights awesome. Thank you that helps alot. And yes a video on shipping would be great. Thank you

[@theunconciousmind7314]

Yeß 😅

[@sadikzymeraj4079]

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