Etsy to Help Sellers Provide Accurate Delivery Estimates During Holiday Season

Last year was a challenging year for many online merchants as shipping carriers such as USPS, UPS, and FedEx struggled to maintain estimated transit times.

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Most carriers have already withdrawn on-time money-back guarantees in anticipation of another very busy shipping season. The good news is that many in the industry believe that carriers are much better prepared and hopefully the shipping chaos from last year will not be fully repeated in 2021.

Yet, there are still concerns, and with that, Etsy has reassured sellers how it will handle shipping delays and that they will make adjustments to estimated transit times shown to buyers as is necessary.

“Similar to last year, we’ll start making those estimates even more accurate by looking at how long packages are taking to arrive between shipping and delivery zip codes at a more granular level. If there are delays on that specific route, we’ll update estimated delivery dates on listings that use calculated shipping profiles to let your customers know. Showing these delivery estimates at the listing level means we can give shoppers more up-to-date estimated info they need before making their purchase (without turning away holiday shoppers who aren’t seeing delays in their zip code).”

Etsy Statement in Community Forum

Etsy Sellers Should Not Manipulate Handling Time

Etsy requests that sellers set handling times that are in line with the actual processing times they can manage. See these suggestions from Etsy here.

For automated transit time adjustments to work, Etsy sellers must choose a carrier in their shipping profile. Most sellers won’t need to make any changes as many will already have a carrier selected in their profile.

But with the peak of the holiday season starting now in earnest, it’s a good practice to double-check all settings so that buyers are shown the most accurate delivery time possible.

As always, if a shipping delay occurs, it’s always best practice to communicate with the buyer and not go silent on them. That will help build confidence and should avoid Etsy having to get involved.

Also, for sellers mailing items internationally, please check our post with the latest information about service issues globally when using the US Postal Service to send orders. We update this post regularly with the latest information not just from USPS, but other postal operators.