EP 7. Should I Offer Free Shipping on My Etsy Shop? | Etsy Tips for Sellers

WYW 3: In this episode I'm answering the Etsy question "Should I Offer Free Shipping on My Etsy Shop?" I walk you through how to think about the math, what your competition is doing and why it matters, and how to split test if you're not sure. Have a question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? Submit it at melissacarroll.co/question

Mentioned in this episode: Etsy Seller Handbook

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey there, welcome to the Modern Etsy Seller Podcast and What You're Wondering, the segment where I answer one specific Etsy question in under five minutes. I'm Melissa, a busy working mom with two profitable Etsy shops, and I'm here to help you build yours. Let's get to today's question. The question today is should I offer free shipping in my Etsy shop? And the answer is it depends. Depending on what you're selling, it may or may not be the right move. And I know you already know this. I'm gonna say it anyway. Free shipping isn't actually free. Someone has to pay for it. It's either going to be you paying for it and cutting into your profit, which I would never recommend, or the buyer is paying for it. And if the buyer's paying for it, they either pay it at checkout on top of the item price, or it's already built into the price. So if you sell a mug for $20 and shipping is five, you're gonna charge the buyer $25 and call it free shipping, or you'll charge them $20 and an additional five for the shipping. So when you're making this decision, the first thing to figure out is the math. What you need to charge in order to not eat the shipping cost. That's your starting point. The next thing to consider is your competition. What are the majority of sellers in your product category doing? This matters because Etsy shows the item price and search results and they don't include the shipping costs when they do it. So if you've built your $5 shipping into your item price, your mug would show up as $25. Your competitor's mug would show up at $20. At a glance, yours looks more expensive, even though the buyer ends up paying the same amount. And this can cost you sales. On the flip side, if everyone in your category is showing a higher price with free shipping and you're charging separately, you'll look like the cheapest option in search, which could actually work in your favor, or it could hurt your perceived value depending on your product. If you can't decide which would be better for your product, then you can test it. Duplicate your listings on Etsy and just change that part. One with free shipping and one without. And actually, there's probably one other thing I would do. I would add the words free shipping to the current main listing photo. Maybe just on top of the photo, have like a banner at the bottom that says free shipping, or put like a badge up in the corner and a circle or a star or something that says free shipping. Something clear and visible so that someone scrolling past would see it. And then make sure not to change anything else and watch the numbers for like four to six weeks. Is one getting more traction, more views, or favors or sales? The data will tell you what's best. There's one more thing I want to mention here. Etsy used to say that they gave search priority to shops that offered free shipping. And then a year and a half ago, they made some changes. It was a big thing when it came out. Etsy had done some research and their data was saying that once shipping prices are $6 or more, buyers are less likely to make a purchase. And so they updated their handbook and it now states that listings with shipping prices lower than $6 will be prioritized in search. Whether they are or not, I don't know. But here's the part I don't hear people talking about. They also note in the seller's handbook that there are search visibility exceptions, and print on demand is one of those exceptions. I'll actually link that part of the handbook in the show notes in case you'd like to read it yourself. So here's the TLDR on this one. Do the math, check your competition, and if you're still not sure, do a split test. And if you're a POD seller, know that Etsy's own rules give you more flexibility here than most people realize. Okay, if you have a question you'd like me to answer on a future episode of what you're wondering, head on over to melissacarroll.co slash question or click the link in the show notes. I'll see you next time.