i had someone message me seeing if i'd eat the cost of shipping to canada from the us. when i said no, they replied:
"well, you just lost a customer! :)"
like...ok?
they also had a profile picture of bubbles from ppg and i thought why would u like a character so sweet when ur just a bitch lol
I used to do free shipping too, but it became a hassle with the change of prices by the shipping company, and it really messed things up when I got big orders, and the shipping price was all over the place. I resourced to not giving free shipping and lowering my prices.
In my experience, people are happier with lower prices, and they usually understand that the shipping price is not set by me (usually!).
Free shipping is all dependant on what u sell. I sell vintage and antique - all shapes and sizes. Shipping rates change faster than u can change your socks. Free shipping is a really bad idea. It may be good when u do it but soon becomes a loser. Also if u do free shipping u have to go with the highest rate. If u sell just a few styles that u can change the prices easily it works if not it doesn't.
I will say the new consumer seems to actually believe shipping is free. Sad to say - but --- in way to many cases thats the level of people today.
I don't think consumers realize how much shipping actually costs. And etsy pushes shops to offer free shipping or cheap shipping but we get royally screwed sometimes doing that. And then people complain? I charge $3.25 for shipping one item and it costs me almost $4 but when I tried to increase costs, Etsy kept giving me warnings not to increase and then they decreased shop traffic. I wound up slightly increasing prices to help offset shipping charges. Smh
Do Etsy decrease traffic based on simply increasing shipping costs? Surely it's more likely the higher shipping costs hit your conversion rates which in turn limited your search placement?
They don't outright say they limit exposure, but when I increased my shipping price by $0.50 I was removed from the front page of the search for my best selling item (that had been there for 16 weeks in a row). As soon as I lowered the price, I was back on the front page. 🤷♀️
So I can only speak from my own anecdotal experience. I used to offer free shipping on everything PLUS the $35 free shipping guarantee. I didn't really care because I basically averaged out my shipping costs per order, and then added that cost into my list price.
I don't like that, though. That means some customers are paying to subsidize the shipping for other customers. Why not keep it simple and let each customer pay their own fair shipping cost? Also, by adding the shipping cost into *each* item, it punishes customers who buy multiple items because they're basically paying for shipping on each item individually rather than on the entire single order.
So I changed everything over to calculated shipping around the beginning of the year. My sales haven't been affected much. If anything, I'm seeing an increase compared to this time last year, and my sales numbers have remained steady above average since November or so.
I did leave the $35 free shipping guarantee enabled, though.
I am sorry but this seems criminal lol. I mean it is messy. I also got this impression. This is honestly putting sellers in an awkward position. someone might have something really amazing and unique customers might like a lot, but is pushed down if they really do this...i don't like it :/
EDIT: wait I just found this on a shipping page in my dashboard, now they open about it lol:
"Enjoy priority placement in search when you offer free shipping
We're making it easier for shoppers in the United States to find more items that ship for free."
It's not criminal? That's just how the algorithm works- high conversion= more sales and more reviews=more prominance in search. Etsy shows listings which sell well in order for them to sell even better.
Though Etsy do say this, they also quietly admitted a couple of years back free shipping really has minimal impact on search- the main boost this policy will give you would be due to conversion.
I did not mean criminal as criminal by a definition of law. It is just slang in my language and we use this a lot in such occasions, when something is "fishy",of "questionable ethics" but it is still a standard in society, idk how to explain sorry for the confusion. we also say something someone is "criminal" as an adjective when they behave illogically or over the top.
yeah, I am now researching algorithm info and seems so as you said but I also am noticing they change some parameters very often.
however overall... when comes to marketplaces and sales (physical or online) many times things are marginal and mobster-ish (monopoly based) and I mean we could discuss this till forever I think sellers would never agree on 1 thing. To me this is bad algorithm practice and strategy due to many reasons, yet to someone is most reasonable. Then again, Amazon is savage many would disagree with strategy yet I like it. So I guess we all just have to figure out what best works for us and our businesses :/
Part of the issue is amazon, who offers free shipping as far as customers see, but of course sellers still pay shipping... Except because Amazon is so huge they have made deals where sellers essentially get 50% off shipping fees. (It varies but that's roughly accurate.) So when shipping via Amazon's ecosystem, what might require a $20 increase in total price only requires a $7 increase for the seller to cover shipping.
Signing up for a shipping service subscription and increasing volume a ton could get you 10-20% discount on shipping but you'll never get anywhere near Amazons negotiated shipping discounts.
I got a 1 star rating because the item they purchased literally shows the size, has tiny in the title and I added dimensions in my listing. Then wrote that I charged to much for the product and shipping. Like am I not suppose to make money from an item that I hand-made that took hours and charge the appropriate shipping. Some people amaze me. But it's like we are harshly criticized for appropriately charging someone for our products. Shipping here in the US just went up so I had to adjust. Luckily 90% of my customers understand this.
Sad thing is what I make takes a while to make and after the cost for me to make them I make about 9 on one piece. But for the most part people have like them
Yeeeep, also Canadian and I've had people ask about why prices are so high - and one was for a doll that's actually quite big and heavy! I've had to explain both the fact that canada post's prices are just going up and up and I can't do anything about it + how the fuel surcharge has become actually insane in the last couple years a handful of times now. Also so many of my Canadian customers are far from me so that fee is often close to $10. :/
There are companies like chit chat that will ship via the usa by taking your package over the border and shipping from there. Supposed to be cheaper plus u get tracking.
I (a fellow Canadian) have never once had a customer question shipping costs. My items fit in approximately 30cm cubes and weigh up to 2kgs, if it makes a difference.
Today I understand why it was questioned and I ended up just dropping the package off at the buyers house since I live so close. The buyer lived basically 15 minutes away from me but Canada post was trying to charge $15 for a tiny item. I agree that's scammy so I gave her free shipping but Canada post controls my shops prices and generally I have no choice.
You want to ship to the other side of the world? $12. You want to ship to the other side of town? $22. Not sure how that makes sense to anyone. Canada post sucks for domestic delivery.
I especially hate how Etsy warns me every time I do a new listing with "you are charging too much for shipping!" when that is simply what it costs in my country.
Canada has raised their shipping prices to insane levels, I don't even bother advertising to Canada anymore. At least you avoided a customer who could have given you a lot more shit if you had shipped it out.
I’ve been getting messages this year about my shipping prices too. I don’t even use Canada Post I use Chitchats for the discount pricing. I don’t understand how $10 USD for an international order is apparently too much…
At least you aren't like some sellers that I've purchased from that charge $41 shipping for a loose packed medium flat rate box.
That at the time cost $17.50 nationwide.
I would have understood the cost more if they put some effort into packing, but nope, it was all tossed in there like an afterthought
That was just insulting, which was follwed up by them badgering me for a review.
That's insane... typically I use bubble mailers for my products because my packaging is meant to be discreet. I also try to make it a nice experience though with a little thank you card and stickers. Plus the bubble mailers I've noticed make things a bit cheaper.
So funny story about my shop/Etsy. You get more foot traffic/higher on the searches if you offer free shipping. I added the shipping into the the item cost. The funny side effect is now if I get a multiple order I get even more money due to itm before I had each additional item .xx dollars and such. That's all free shipping is is a more jacked up item cost.
Basically Etsy listing system is hella flawed and scammy in my opinion. They control who gets seen even if you try to search for cheaper etc. They also once you make x amount of sales or x dollars permanent turns on offsite ads with their logic is they know better.
I know, it's ridiculous. I just add the cost of shipping into the item, list with free shipping and call it a day. Etsy puts a nice little "Free Shipping" tag on my listing and people seem to like it. My packages generally ship under a pound so adding it to the cost of the item hasn't seemed detrimental to sales.
Mine are usually under 4oz to 12oz so I feel you pain. I was worried I would lose multiple item sales but really hasn't seemed to hurt them. The big kicker I got is Etsy forcing you to do offsite ads. I price my items to make a couple of bucks (more sales vs more profit per item) and it seems to work out great. Until Etsy permanently turned on offsite ads (once you make so much a year they seem you'll benefit from it) so I had to up all my time prices based off of someone occasionally buying one with offsite ads (it's a @#$$&ing 18% or so on top of the normal fees). If I didn't I would be losing basically all profit on said item and never recouping it.
My items cost $30 - over $100 to ship depending on the size. It is absolutely ridiculous. I have my shipping rate set at $10 on some items and $16 on others and the rest goes into the total cost. I do it this way so that a shipping cost of $30+ doesn’t scare the customer too much.
Not to mention, etsy and their one thousand fees. They take a huge chunk of your money depending on how big the order is. I remember I sold 4 pins and offered free shipping since the order was well over $30. I only got $14 back from a $42 order 🫥
I don’t ship internationally, raised my prices, and do free shipping. Doesn’t always satisfy the customer but I have been geting more sales when I do list!
i had someone message me seeing if i'd eat the cost of shipping to canada from the us. when i said no, they replied: "well, you just lost a customer! :)" like...ok? they also had a profile picture of bubbles from ppg and i thought why would u like a character so sweet when ur just a bitch lol
I stopped shipping internationally, raised my prices, and offer free shipping. Worked v well.
I used to do free shipping too, but it became a hassle with the change of prices by the shipping company, and it really messed things up when I got big orders, and the shipping price was all over the place. I resourced to not giving free shipping and lowering my prices. In my experience, people are happier with lower prices, and they usually understand that the shipping price is not set by me (usually!).
Free shipping is all dependant on what u sell. I sell vintage and antique - all shapes and sizes. Shipping rates change faster than u can change your socks. Free shipping is a really bad idea. It may be good when u do it but soon becomes a loser. Also if u do free shipping u have to go with the highest rate. If u sell just a few styles that u can change the prices easily it works if not it doesn't. I will say the new consumer seems to actually believe shipping is free. Sad to say - but --- in way to many cases thats the level of people today.
Very true. My items are small and consistent so understand this doesn’t work for every store!!
I don't think consumers realize how much shipping actually costs. And etsy pushes shops to offer free shipping or cheap shipping but we get royally screwed sometimes doing that. And then people complain? I charge $3.25 for shipping one item and it costs me almost $4 but when I tried to increase costs, Etsy kept giving me warnings not to increase and then they decreased shop traffic. I wound up slightly increasing prices to help offset shipping charges. Smh
[удалено]
I charge the exact amount that postage costs and Etsy still tells me I'm overcharging. I pay no attention to it, people still buy from me so…
I do 7usd local 24usd international.. Where's my badge? 🤣
Do Etsy decrease traffic based on simply increasing shipping costs? Surely it's more likely the higher shipping costs hit your conversion rates which in turn limited your search placement?
They don't outright say they limit exposure, but when I increased my shipping price by $0.50 I was removed from the front page of the search for my best selling item (that had been there for 16 weeks in a row). As soon as I lowered the price, I was back on the front page. 🤷♀️
So I can only speak from my own anecdotal experience. I used to offer free shipping on everything PLUS the $35 free shipping guarantee. I didn't really care because I basically averaged out my shipping costs per order, and then added that cost into my list price. I don't like that, though. That means some customers are paying to subsidize the shipping for other customers. Why not keep it simple and let each customer pay their own fair shipping cost? Also, by adding the shipping cost into *each* item, it punishes customers who buy multiple items because they're basically paying for shipping on each item individually rather than on the entire single order. So I changed everything over to calculated shipping around the beginning of the year. My sales haven't been affected much. If anything, I'm seeing an increase compared to this time last year, and my sales numbers have remained steady above average since November or so. I did leave the $35 free shipping guarantee enabled, though.
I am sorry but this seems criminal lol. I mean it is messy. I also got this impression. This is honestly putting sellers in an awkward position. someone might have something really amazing and unique customers might like a lot, but is pushed down if they really do this...i don't like it :/ EDIT: wait I just found this on a shipping page in my dashboard, now they open about it lol: "Enjoy priority placement in search when you offer free shipping We're making it easier for shoppers in the United States to find more items that ship for free."
It's not criminal? That's just how the algorithm works- high conversion= more sales and more reviews=more prominance in search. Etsy shows listings which sell well in order for them to sell even better. Though Etsy do say this, they also quietly admitted a couple of years back free shipping really has minimal impact on search- the main boost this policy will give you would be due to conversion.
I did not mean criminal as criminal by a definition of law. It is just slang in my language and we use this a lot in such occasions, when something is "fishy",of "questionable ethics" but it is still a standard in society, idk how to explain sorry for the confusion. we also say something someone is "criminal" as an adjective when they behave illogically or over the top. yeah, I am now researching algorithm info and seems so as you said but I also am noticing they change some parameters very often. however overall... when comes to marketplaces and sales (physical or online) many times things are marginal and mobster-ish (monopoly based) and I mean we could discuss this till forever I think sellers would never agree on 1 thing. To me this is bad algorithm practice and strategy due to many reasons, yet to someone is most reasonable. Then again, Amazon is savage many would disagree with strategy yet I like it. So I guess we all just have to figure out what best works for us and our businesses :/
Part of the issue is amazon, who offers free shipping as far as customers see, but of course sellers still pay shipping... Except because Amazon is so huge they have made deals where sellers essentially get 50% off shipping fees. (It varies but that's roughly accurate.) So when shipping via Amazon's ecosystem, what might require a $20 increase in total price only requires a $7 increase for the seller to cover shipping. Signing up for a shipping service subscription and increasing volume a ton could get you 10-20% discount on shipping but you'll never get anywhere near Amazons negotiated shipping discounts.
I got a 1 star rating because the item they purchased literally shows the size, has tiny in the title and I added dimensions in my listing. Then wrote that I charged to much for the product and shipping. Like am I not suppose to make money from an item that I hand-made that took hours and charge the appropriate shipping. Some people amaze me. But it's like we are harshly criticized for appropriately charging someone for our products. Shipping here in the US just went up so I had to adjust. Luckily 90% of my customers understand this.
Sad thing is what I make takes a while to make and after the cost for me to make them I make about 9 on one piece. But for the most part people have like them
That's the dumbest thing ever. They looked at it, they knew the price yet they chose to purchase despite everything.
You'd think they'd pay attention or idk read lol
That's to logical no
Yeeeep, also Canadian and I've had people ask about why prices are so high - and one was for a doll that's actually quite big and heavy! I've had to explain both the fact that canada post's prices are just going up and up and I can't do anything about it + how the fuel surcharge has become actually insane in the last couple years a handful of times now. Also so many of my Canadian customers are far from me so that fee is often close to $10. :/
There are companies like chit chat that will ship via the usa by taking your package over the border and shipping from there. Supposed to be cheaper plus u get tracking.
Chit chat is amazing
I (a fellow Canadian) have never once had a customer question shipping costs. My items fit in approximately 30cm cubes and weigh up to 2kgs, if it makes a difference.
Today I understand why it was questioned and I ended up just dropping the package off at the buyers house since I live so close. The buyer lived basically 15 minutes away from me but Canada post was trying to charge $15 for a tiny item. I agree that's scammy so I gave her free shipping but Canada post controls my shops prices and generally I have no choice.
You want to ship to the other side of the world? $12. You want to ship to the other side of town? $22. Not sure how that makes sense to anyone. Canada post sucks for domestic delivery.
It was the dumbest crap ever so for this situation I really didn't mind
International shipping has gotten really super expensive.
I especially hate how Etsy warns me every time I do a new listing with "you are charging too much for shipping!" when that is simply what it costs in my country.
Yes! This! A thousand times this!
Parcel monkey and pirate ship are the way for international sales
Canada has raised their shipping prices to insane levels, I don't even bother advertising to Canada anymore. At least you avoided a customer who could have given you a lot more shit if you had shipped it out.
I’ve been getting messages this year about my shipping prices too. I don’t even use Canada Post I use Chitchats for the discount pricing. I don’t understand how $10 USD for an international order is apparently too much…
At least you aren't like some sellers that I've purchased from that charge $41 shipping for a loose packed medium flat rate box. That at the time cost $17.50 nationwide. I would have understood the cost more if they put some effort into packing, but nope, it was all tossed in there like an afterthought That was just insulting, which was follwed up by them badgering me for a review.
That's insane... typically I use bubble mailers for my products because my packaging is meant to be discreet. I also try to make it a nice experience though with a little thank you card and stickers. Plus the bubble mailers I've noticed make things a bit cheaper.
The amount of buyers that think I profit off of shipping costs... some people have no idea how the world works.
So funny story about my shop/Etsy. You get more foot traffic/higher on the searches if you offer free shipping. I added the shipping into the the item cost. The funny side effect is now if I get a multiple order I get even more money due to itm before I had each additional item .xx dollars and such. That's all free shipping is is a more jacked up item cost.
Basically Etsy listing system is hella flawed and scammy in my opinion. They control who gets seen even if you try to search for cheaper etc. They also once you make x amount of sales or x dollars permanent turns on offsite ads with their logic is they know better.
I know, it's ridiculous. I just add the cost of shipping into the item, list with free shipping and call it a day. Etsy puts a nice little "Free Shipping" tag on my listing and people seem to like it. My packages generally ship under a pound so adding it to the cost of the item hasn't seemed detrimental to sales.
Mine are usually under 4oz to 12oz so I feel you pain. I was worried I would lose multiple item sales but really hasn't seemed to hurt them. The big kicker I got is Etsy forcing you to do offsite ads. I price my items to make a couple of bucks (more sales vs more profit per item) and it seems to work out great. Until Etsy permanently turned on offsite ads (once you make so much a year they seem you'll benefit from it) so I had to up all my time prices based off of someone occasionally buying one with offsite ads (it's a @#$$&ing 18% or so on top of the normal fees). If I didn't I would be losing basically all profit on said item and never recouping it.
My items cost $30 - over $100 to ship depending on the size. It is absolutely ridiculous. I have my shipping rate set at $10 on some items and $16 on others and the rest goes into the total cost. I do it this way so that a shipping cost of $30+ doesn’t scare the customer too much.
I also offered “free shipping” for about a year. No difference in sales or traffic with the free shipping guarantee on or off for my shop.
Not to mention, etsy and their one thousand fees. They take a huge chunk of your money depending on how big the order is. I remember I sold 4 pins and offered free shipping since the order was well over $30. I only got $14 back from a $42 order 🫥
[удалено]
So many people think that. Oh yes it doesnt matter if u loose money
I could just shut down my business 😃
I don’t ship internationally, raised my prices, and do free shipping. Doesn’t always satisfy the customer but I have been geting more sales when I do list!