The holidays are coming and people are shopping earlier and earlier online for those one of a kind Christmas gifts! This is music to the ears of Etsy Sellers, we are ready for that increase in sales! We want customers to know when they should expect our items to show up in their mailboxes. The one thing that I’ve learned over the years is to give yourself enough time to stay sane during the holiday rush! Etsy Sellers need to enjoy the festive season as well. I’ve had so many years where I couldn’t go and get my Christmas tree until the last minute or had to push my own shopping back because I was busy fulfilling Etsy orders and it was stressful because the customers expected their items quickly. The thing is I had set that expectation, I had set the processing and shipping times in such a way that made it nearly impossible to met that expectation. 

There is relief Let’s dig in to your current processing and shipping times! Let’s review what you set and how it displays to the customer. I have my processing times set to 1-2 weeks. What?! You may think… it takes you 1-2 weeks before your item even gets in the mail?! YES, this is because I have the exact same shipping profile on every listing. Some of my items will process faster than that but others make take the full two weeks because there are changes in design, etc. I mark all my listings to have a 2-6 day shipping time as well. In total it could take over 3 weeks for my customer to get their item. It’s okay though because with this shipping strategy I make tens of thousands of dollars in sales each holiday season. 

How Does a Shipping profile look to a customer?

Let’s start by seeing what this looks like to the customer when I set the following Shipping Profile. 

Shipping Profile: 

1-2 Week Processing Time

2-6 Day Shipping Time

If they purchased on October 26, they would receive their item between Nov 4-17. 

Modifying your Shipping Profiles

Let’s review how you can modify your shipping profiles to ensure you have enough time in processing and shipping. 

In your shop manager navigate to Listings and then scroll to shipping. Here’s where you can create shipping profiles and then link them to your listings. You’ll see I offer free shipping and this shipping profile is tied to all of my listings. If you click on edit you’ll see where you can edit this specific shipping profile’s processing and shipping times. 

Once you are in the shipping profile you can modify the processing time and shipping time. I ship from the USA and it takes me 1-2 weeks to design, package and ship my items. I always send my items via USPS First class and that will take 2-6 days. 

International Shipping & Shipping Upgrades

I’m in the USA so for international orders I know it costs me $10 to ship to Canada but for the rest of the world it’s more expensive so I charge $10 to Canada and $15 for the rest of the world. 

A customer can upgrade their shipping… you can set this in the individual shipping profiles. I use Priority mail which upgrades to 1-4 days instead of the first class 2-6 days. 

Here’s where Etsy allows the shipping upgrade option. It will give the customer the view of the estimated delivery date and charges them the fee you set for the shipping upgrade. 

Having a longer processing time like 1-2 weeks instead of 1-2 days might seem a little too long for your taste because, well, it sounds too slow, right? Creating processes that are sustainable requires discipline. If you think about this as a strategy it’s better for you… better for your customer… it’s actually incredibly freeing.

The Big Picture

Your customer won’t expect their item to show up just a few days after they purchased it… this gives you time, a precious gift to yourself. You’ll be going at a momentum towards greater success, joy and balance. Your decision to keep this long processing time will be affirmed when you get reviews like. “Great communication, item arrived earlier than expected, fast shipping.” You can exceed your customers expectations when you set shipping profiles like this and that my friend leads to amazing reviews and repeat buyers. Let me say it again, I make tens of thousands of dollars each holiday season with this strategy and I even have time to bake sugar cookies with my family and enjoy the holiday season while making profits that blow me away each year, you too can do the same! Want to dig in more, check out my ideal etsy listing template, here to ensure your Etsy listings are optimized for search and conversion to sales!