Shipping fees are a bit of a tricky business for Etsy sellers. Sure, Etsy try to guide you towards applying free shipping, but the shipping still needs to be paid.
Once the mental arithmetic has been done, and you’ve worked out how to make the pricing work, how do you actually set up your listings to remove all shipping charges? This article will show you the rest of the way.
How to remove shipping charges on Etsy
There are two ways to remove shipping charges from listings on Etsy.
- Remove the shipping costs on the listings
- Applying the “Free Delivery Guarantee”
These should both do the trick, but I recommend doing both just to be sure. The “Free Delivery Guarantee” is designed for the US market, and special messaging is applied to help convert viewers in to buyers – where as applying it at listing level ensures everyone gets free shipping regardless of which country you ship to.
How to remove shipping costs from one or more listings on Etsy
To remove all shipping charges from a listing on Etsy follow these steps:
- go to Etsy.com and sign in to your store account
- go to the Shop Dashboard by selecting the shop icon, then select Listings to see all your listings
- scroll through and find your listing, then open the listing menu by selecting the gear icon at the bottom of the listing block and select Edit
- Scroll down to the Delivery section
- Select Edit on the active shipping profile. Select Duplicate if you only want to update the current listing
- Update the What you’ll charge dropdown to Free delivery
- Click Save profile
- Click Publish
If you choose to Edit the profile this change will affect all listings using the same profile. When you save the profile it will say Affects X listings (the “X” being the number of listings affected) on the Save profile button.
If you chose to Duplicate the delivery profile then only the saved listing will be updated.
Updating each listing also gives you a good opportunity to update your listing prices to accommodate the shipping costs.
How to set the Free Delivery Guarantee on Etsy
Here is how Etsy describes the Free Shipping Guarantee:
A free delivery guarantee lets shoppers in the US know that they won’t pay added postage costs on orders totalling 35 USD or over that are delivered within or to the US.
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360024198553-How-to-Offer-a-Free-Delivery-Guarantee?segment=selling
Any additional messaging to help convert viewers into buyers is a “win” in my books. Here is how to set up the Free Delivery Guarantee:
- On Etsy.com, click the Shop Manager icon.
- Click Settings.
- Click Delivery settings.
- Click Get started in the Free delivery guarantee tab.
- Click Next.
- Click Set free delivery.
Why you should remove shipping charges
Its all well and good showing you how to remove shipping charges, however it’s probably a good idea to say why you should do it.
On the face of it it shouldn’t make a difference. If you just add the shipping cost to the listing price, the user will still just pay the same amount. And surely a higher ticket price would put buyers off? Especially if there are other listings on for cheaper – either because they don’t include shipping in the price, or because they are offering cheaper postage.
Lets look at those in turn…
Yes, a user will end up paying the same amount, but the transparency of the final price is key here. Its well known amongst the ecommerce community that free shipping converts better (i.e. the number of viewers becoming buyers). A higher conversion rate = more orders and revenue.
Also, other sellers can undercut you by offering cheaper shipping. However, “cheaper” often means “slower”, and rarely includes tracking. Great shipping is key to great reviews, and having great reviews drives more sales.
Finally, due to the likes of Amazon, buyers expect free shipping. Whilst we may not see ourselves in the same light as Amazon it is a fact that Etsy sellers are competing with them in one way or another. Offering free shipping is key to staying competetive.
Conclusion
In summary free shipping is key for Etsy sellers. There are multiple ways to remove the shipping fees from your items, both directly on the list itself, and through the Free Shipping Guarantee.
Follow the steps above and you’ll be well on your way to getting your store to the next level.
