Etsy's Handmade Blog
Your Shop 101: Getting It There In Time
Story by daniellexo
Published on November 16, 2007 in How-To 		Photo by DirtyVinyl

This article was originally published on November 16, 2007. We've updated the content to be current as of September 8, 2008 for the upcoming holiday selling season. Check out Holiday How-To: Offering Services for more great tips on providing those special extra touches for your holiday shoppers.

Shipping can be the least exciting part of the selling process. What service should I use? What should I charge? How do I get it there in time? I've put together some information that should help your shipping process for the holidays.

Warning: The following information is U.S. based (because I live here now and am now solely dealing with USPS, UPS and FedEx). If you are a seller that has tips about shipping from another country I encourage you to share that in the comments below!

Tips for shipping within the US:  

  1. Announce in your shop that you mail out two (or one) specific weekdays a week. The weekday before you are to mail out packages, schedule a mail pickup from USPS. This is a free service, and it saves your time and gas.
  2. Print shipping labels online through USPS.com (only works for Priority and Express packages).
  3. If you receive payment via Paypal, you can log into PayPal and print a shipping label for USPS directly from the PayPal payment details page.

Tips for shipping internationally:

  1. If you are selling to a lot of international buyers you might want to check out Endicia.com. This service allows you to print shipping labels online that integrate customs forms as well. Shipping internationally is much easier when you use Endicia.com. You enter all your customs information in an online form, and this information is printed out along with proper postage!
  2. If you ship infrequently to other countries, grab a bunch of green customs forms when you happen to be in the post office. Then you can keep the forms at your desk to fill out before you make your next shipment.
  3. Don't fib on your customs forms! Marking your item as a "gift" or undervaluing it is a red flag to customs agents. It's possible they'll inspect your item which will delay delivery indefinitely!
  4. Don't make any promises. Shipping internationally will go smoothly most of the time. Every so often a package can get stuck in customs. Make sure your customers are aware that you can't be responsible for these delays. It's nearly impossible to track a package once it leaves the United States; so if something goes missing, there isn't much you can do.

Tips for your Etsy shop:

  1. Include your shipping policy on your Shop Policies page. Include what day(s) you ship, whether the buyer will receive an email confirming shipment and/or a tracking number, how international items are shipped, etc.
  2. Think of offering a way to expedite shipping. Ask buyers to contact you via Conversation or email so you can tell them what you can offer in terms of getting an item shipped faster. Perhaps you also want to include the cost and details of expedited shipping in your shipping profile.
  3. Refer to your shipping policy and expedited shipping options in each of your item listings and/or your shop announcement. 
  4. Now that the holidays are upon us, you may want to include the date an item must be ordered by to get it to your buyer by the holidays. First Class USPS should take less than 7 days, but I would add on a few days to that estimate just to be safe (and make sure to factor in a day or two for packaging up your sales!).

Tips for your shipping station:

  1. Whether it's an old school desk in the corner or an entire office in your home, keep it organized. Gather as much free USPS packaging and forms as you can to avoid unnecessary trips to the post office!
  2. Invest in some adhesive labels and a laser printer or label printer (about $100) if you are doing a lot of shipping.
  3. Hire someone you trust to help you with shipping. This will give you more time to create! (Pay them with cookies!)
Please see more Shipping how-tos on the Storque!
Tags Holiday How-Tos, HOW-TO, mail, postage, postal service, seller, Seller Handbook, selling, shipping, United States, Your Shop 101
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38 comments     Login to add your own!

Nov. 16, 2007 at 1:57 p.m. KillTaupe

Great tips Danielle! Printing your own labels and scheduling pickups from your home save so much time when it comes to shipping.

Nov. 16, 2007 at 2:11 p.m. diddledumpling

USPS.com offers free boxes & envelopes for Priority mail. They ship to you free, cost nothing and come in large bundles so you'll always have them on hand. LOVE their Carrier Pick-up, too!

Nov. 16, 2007 at 4:08 p.m. terrain

For Canadian sellers:

Most Canadians are aware of the dreaded 2cm thickness limit that hikes a domestic package from about $2 to over $10. However, you can save money if you purchase prepaid XpressPost envelopes (i.e. $7.50 for a 15x25cm bubble envelope) for "regional" deliveries.

The regions are:

Atlantic - Newfoundland/Labrador, PEI, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

Central - Quebec and Ontario (only some northern ON postal codes)

Western - British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and some postal codes in northern ON

Nuvavut - some postal codes

Northwest Territories - some postal codes

Yukon - all postal codes

You can put as much as you like inside these envelopes and mail them within the region in question. They can be purchased ahead of time and don't need to be weighed at the P.O.

Nov. 16, 2007 at 8:10 p.m. Dreamwoven

Note... when sending Priority International mail... it comes with built in indemnity/insurance (and you can purchase more). It is the only way to insure an item going overseas other than Global Express, which is very very costly. Not everyone needs to send something Priority International.. but for those that do... it's good for you as well as your buyer to know you have indemnity/insurance

Nov. 16, 2007 at 8:27 p.m. chocolateandsteel

You can still use paypal to ship items that have not been paid through paypal. Go to merchant services, Paypal multi order shipping (make sure your pop up blocker is turned off). When the window comes up click on "create new order" and off you go. Enter in all the info. It's great because you can keep all of your tracking numbers and shipping information in one place. This is only good for domestic shipping. There is no international feature.

Nov. 17, 2007 at 8:35 a.m. girlsavage

Great tips danielle! Having a shipping station for your studio is a wonderful thing. To have all of your shipping needs organized in one space is a huge stress and time saver.

Nov. 17, 2007 at 6:34 p.m. themefragrance

I signed up for stamps.com and although
I pay a small fee every month, the payoff is that I do not waste valuable time at my Brooklyn post office. You can print your own shipping label identified w your company name, get receipts and tracking...it is so worth it!

Nov. 17, 2007 at 9:20 p.m. triciamckellar

Thanks so much for the heads up about endicia.com -- they offer a free 30 day trial. :)

Nov. 17, 2007 at 9:21 p.m. Blakeswork

Thank you everyone for this priceless information!!

Nov. 17, 2007 at 11:47 p.m. mightycanoe

Yiiiiiii! Shipping! Yes, that's the very thing I've been trying to figure out. Thanks so much for a useful condensed bit of info!

Nov. 19, 2007 at 12:25 p.m. LindsayLuu

does anyone know if you use endica.com for international shipping, do you still need to go to the PO to ship, or can you just drop it in the box?

Nov. 20, 2007 at 12:27 a.m. LilahAndCompany

Yes! THANK YOU! I can't wait til the virtual lab session. Those really are lots of fun and a wealth of information.

Nov. 20, 2007 at 9:36 a.m. pookeh

omg.

THERE IS A WEBSITE THAT WILL LET ME PRINT OUT LABELS FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDERS?? No more wasting away my lunch hour at the ghetto-est post office in the world?!

I could cry.

Nov. 20, 2007 at 11:33 a.m. cicadacache

I'm happy to see I'm already on target with a lot of what's suggested. Who knew I was that organized? Good to have all this in one simple to read outline.

Nov. 20, 2007 at 3:46 p.m. asilomarworks

A very thorough and helpful article. I'm going to check out Endicia rather than limit my intl shopping to Saturday mailing only.

Nov. 21, 2007 at 10:42 a.m. BambooVillagePress

thank you so much for putting this together - it was very helpful!

June 18, 2008 at 1:16 p.m. nickiefrye

Hi there. I'm interested in opening an Etsy shop, but I'm confused as to how people determine the shipping costs? Every time I buy something, it seems that the shipping is calculated immediately when I checkout at Paypal. I have sold some things on ebay & got totally ripped off w/ the shipping b/c I didn't know how to determine the correct cost to put in my listing. How can you pre-determine shipping costs when you don't know where you're shipping to? Do people have scales at home? What's the deal? Please help! :)

June 27, 2008 at 7:46 p.m. artsplace

How about if I use Priority mail.
It's very fast I know.
Art

July 21, 2008 at 9:33 p.m. EndlessInspirations

Boy, this is a lot of information to take in. I'm just setting up a shop and I'm right there with you nickiefrye, the shipping confuses me too. Hope I'll be up and running soon!

July 28, 2008 at 3:51 p.m. sweetvirginiabklyn

I'm just starting out...how do i calculate the International Shipping, BEFORE knowing which country it's going to?

Aug. 6, 2008 at 2:48 a.m. SteeleCrystals

I don't understand the shipping, why can't they make it as easy as it is on eBay? It depends on the zip code where the package is going and the weight.

Aug. 19, 2008 at 2:36 a.m. mandalajane

Yep I have stayed in the U.S. until I can figure the whole international shipping thing out. Much to learn.

Aug. 24, 2008 at 9:22 p.m. CMJalajas

How do people ship large things like furniture?

Sept. 2, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. harandaa

hmmm. Shipping looks likely to be interesting...

Sept. 2, 2008 at 10:53 p.m. alinkajoyas

I am just starting my etsy shop, and I have the same questions as "nickiefrye",
could someone give me some info about that too?
I will ship from Colombia.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinka

Sept. 15, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. theemptynest

I agree with nickiefrye..shipping can be very confusing. I did not charge enough on my first few sales due to underestimating what priority shipping would cost. I have decided to ship parcel post to save customers money and if they need item faster I will adjust price. Most people don't mind waiting 5-10 days to receive purchase and it is half the cost for them. I will see how it goes and let you know. good luck fellow newbies!

Sept. 17, 2008 at 11 p.m. FetchingDesigns

This might sound like a stupid question, but how do people weigh things to find out how heavy a package is before they mail? What kind of scale do you use and where's a good place to buy a small, inexpensive yet accurate scale?

Sept. 21, 2008 at 1:34 a.m. perebags

Thanks for the info!! :)

Sept. 26, 2008 at 10:16 p.m. MelissasMelange

FetchingDesigns, I found a post office scale at the local Office Depot - check out their shippping section. They had all kinds of scales, I think the cheapest was about $10. I believe you can ship 1st class mail through the online shipping label printing method through Paypal, at least that is what I used on one of my recent packages...

Oct. 12, 2008 at 6:33 p.m. NoreenSoftwear

I know if you get payment through PayPal,they will create a shipping label, but ow do you know the rates? OK, I weigh the garment, or whatever, and then what == go to USPS web site to find out the cost?

Oct. 12, 2008 at 7:02 p.m. Vanessa

You can calculate shipping on the USPS website.

Oct. 20, 2008 at 12:25 a.m. PenguinsPlunder

Amazing, thanks so much! I'll probably be shipping first class, so I hope I can print my labels like that through paypal.

Feb. 25, 2009 at 1:01 p.m. PoppyJoy

This is so helful! Thanks!!

June 12, 2009 at 8:37 a.m. allmadewithlove

Thanks for details I even did not think of!

June 12, 2009 at 8:54 p.m. mammysshop

Very helpful.

Aug. 15, 2009 at 4:29 p.m. mgranade

Thanks for the tips!

Oct. 17, 2009 at 9:21 p.m. HeatherJaneDesign

Thanks for the tips! I am going to go update my shipping profile information right now!

Oct. 21, 2009 at 6:24 p.m. CrackedGoddess

Great tips!

I used to use endicia back when I was selling on eBay and I highly recommend it. It made processing a high volume of domestic and international shipments a breeze. Their customer service is excellent too (well it was when I used it anyway).

One more tip: Do not use UPS to ship to your customers in Canada or they will be hit with a ridiculously high "brokerage" fee (by UPS) for clearing the package through customs. This is in addition to the normal duties and taxes.

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