Etsy Sellers Drowning in Shipping Fees
10 posts across 5 communities in the last 60 days; 50% from r/EtsySellers.
“Why does Etsy charge their 6.5% fee on billed shipping if I don't ship through Etsy? The 3% card fee I get, but shipping?”
“I’m wondering if anyone else has run into this. I’ve had two USPS shipping adjustments in September where Etsy says the reason was that the shipping label had already been used/reused. The weird thing is that there was absolutely nothing unusual about either shipment. Both…”
“I’m a U.S.-based seller shipping only within the U.S., but Etsy is displaying kg for Item Weight instead of lbs. Even stranger, when I enter the weight, Etsy displays: “Lbs must be a whole number.” I have already: Confirmed my primary address is set to the U.S. Verified my…”
Etsy sellers are experiencing unexpected and increased shipping fees, particularly 'non-machinable' charges, despite adhering to USPS guidelines. This is causing frustration and financial strain, with sellers questioning Etsy's policies and seeking solutions.
SOURCES (37)
“Shipstation? [re: Is there any shipping software without per-label fees at this point?]”
“Feels like every tool eventually starts charging you per label on top of the postage. At our volume its adding up quick and getting way to expensive. Is there anything left that doesn’t do that or is that just how it is now? submitted by /u/Present_Society661 [link] [comments]”
“Why does Etsy charge their 6.5% fee on billed shipping if I don't ship through Etsy? The 3% card fee I get, but shipping? submitted by /u/Madzdad1 [link] [comments]”
“I just noticed this and am wondering how long it's been happening. Was just quoted $8.07 and only had the option to purchase the label at that price, then after the fact am seeing I was actually charged $12.00. I cancelled it and did it again, same thing. What the heck? submitted by /u/MPagePerkins [link] [comments]”
“I am a seller on Etsy and am noticing a HUGE difference in shipping prices between USPS site and Etsy labels. For instance a sewing pattern to TX, same information on both sites. Etsy wants to charge me $7.85. USPS site wants $2.65. That's a big, big difference. Larger items seem more in line but smaller items, the difference is huge. submitted by /u/Jazzlike_Strength795 [link] [comments]”
“I’m wondering if anyone else has run into this. I’ve had two USPS shipping adjustments in September where Etsy says the reason was that the shipping label had already been used/reused. The weird thing is that there was absolutely nothing unusual about either shipment. Both packages went straight from point A to point B with no reprints, no duplicate labels, nothing. I have no idea why USPS would be flagging either label as previously used. The other frustrating part is that I can’t even dispute”
I just shipped my Etsy order to Canada and I’m a little confused and worried about how this might look to the buyer. The buyer paid $18.48 for shipping . When I…
“[Etsy Seller] ★ 1/5 (v2.5) — The 6.5% shipping transaction fee should be eliminated or a nominal fee of 10-15 cents per label, please address this issue. Shipping costs have increased well over $6, there should not be a listing priority rule for shipments under $6 anymore, sellers that charge less than $6 are losing money. Carriers continue to aggressively raise costs and etsy does nothing to help with the issue. Free shipping at $35 is no longer affordable/working, need to be able to adjust p”
“I have looked through several Etsy fee guides. I have a question about a shipping fee. I want to specifically know this: Does etsy [now] charge you a shipping fee regardless of whether you bought a shipping label from them or not? This was a stressful interaction with etsy, please bear with me. A few weeks ago, I was preparing an order for a customer. I clicked on the order and looked at the shipping label. I left the web page and didn't buy a shipping label from etsy. I closed the web page.”
“it has been at least a month. how do you make your shipping label? I was making all the rural label at easyship because they did not catch on the change.”
“Earlier today I was getting some packages shipped and I buy my labels from Etsy directly. I bought a a shipping label for $6.95 but when I went to see my order earning Etsy actually took $8.13 Shocked because why tf would it be more and obviously the buyer paid 6.95 not 8.13 and I purchased the label for 6.95 NOT 8.13. Is this a new thing has anyone noticed that and should I contact Etsy asap? It was done on some orders but not all. submitted by /u/anonalien- [link] [comments]”
“I’ve not changed anything in my delivery setting or any of my prices, but no for some reason all my international orders are generating CN23 customs cards instead of CN22. My items are generally quite low priced, between £15-£50 and all weigh well under 2kg so I can’t understand why it’s started generating the wrong customs information? Any advice would be appreciated please. Already shipped a handful of items today before I realised the customs information was wrong. submitted by /u”
“I’m a U.S.-based seller shipping only within the U.S., but Etsy is displaying kg for Item Weight instead of lbs. Even stranger, when I enter the weight, Etsy displays: “Lbs must be a whole number.” I have already: Confirmed my primary address is set to the U.S. Verified my Shipping Profiles Cleared my browser cache Has anyone else experienced this and found a way to switch the listing editor back to lbs/inches ? (FYI I've reached out to Support a few days ago and am hoping they have a resolu”
“[Etsy Seller] ★★ 2/5 (v2.3.1) — The 6.5% shipping transaction fee should be eliminated or a nominal fee of 10-15 cents per label, please address this issue. Shipping costs have increased well over $6, there should not be a listing priority rule for shipments under $6 anymore, sellers that charge less than $6 are losing money. Carriers continue to aggressively raise costs and etsy does nothing to help with the issue. Free shipping at $35 is no longer affordable/working, need to be able to adjus”
“I bought this label on Etsy. I provided the exact dimensions and gave a weight of 1oz, even though the envelope is less than 1oz. They seemed to have crossed out the $0.74 LFP portion for some reason and want $0.57 more? Anyone else experience this? submitted by /u/ssa1nt [link] [comments]”
“I had a person purchase 2 items, 1 had the "Etsy Calculated Shipping" setting and the other had a "Custom Setting" set to $25. In the past each time I had 2 items bought at the same time the shipping charge would be double and I would have to refund the difference once I got the label. Today I went to create the label and I noticed the "Calculated Shipping" item was charged at the full price but the item with the "Custom Shipping" setting was charged $4.00”
“I sold an item to be sent to the USA from the UK. The buyer has paid the tariff to Etsy so I am trying to buy a label which will be for a medium parcel but when I tried to buy an etsy label the drop down box only shows envelopes or small parcel. I put the package dimensions in thinking it would automatically change to medium but the delivery options are greyed out. I went on the Etsy help which is a Bot and it just said I could not buy a label and I would have to buy one from direct from another”
“Yesterday I noticed that a few of my orders had way higher shipping prices than usual. I was printing 22 labels and 3/22 had 10% discount vs the usual ~30%. I reached out to etsy help and they gave me a bunch of reasons that don't match up with the issue. Every package is the same size and weight. These are not especially long shipments--in fact, items going across the country are cheaper than ones going one state over. Two things going to the same region were two different prices. Did I jus”
“Someone said if I enter the weight , I wont have to manually select the shipping label preset for every single order, however I cannot find that option anywhere. also, bonus question, when I select labels from phone, there is no way to download it as a pdf on phone? am I stuck screen shotting the labels?? submitted by /u/Bring_the_light_ [link] [comments]”
“I’m sure this has been talked about to death, but I’ll post anyway. Just turned off the whole EU because it appears all my packages are bouncing due to the 3 euro flat fee. Etsy isn’t integrating it into IOSS as far as I know. How is everyone handling this? submitted by /u/Broken_Token_Gear [link] [comments]”
“I had an order from France and I was going to buy a label until I saw how much I was going to be charged for duty paid shipping! Is everyone adding 20% of tracked mail plus £1 handling charge to their shipping profiles? Or are you buying shipping directly from Royal Mail? Will we still be protected from a refund if the order is delayed? I would love to hear how people are handling this. Just seems to make a difficult position even more complicated. submitted by /u/OurBoudoironEtsy [l”
“I got an order from Canada today. The buyer paid $24.49 for Standard International shipping, but when I went to purchase the shipping label, Etsy only gave me Priority Mail International as an option for $45.51 . The item itself only sold for a little over $9 , so the shipping label would cost several times more than the item. Has anyone else run into this recently? Is Etsy no longer offering First-Class/Standard USPS options for some Canada shipments? I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!  ”
I'm shipping 3 to 4 ounce item with bubble padded envelope. So far since 12th of July, I was happy that shipping fee hasn't changed via USPS(None that I noticed). But I…
“[Etsy Seller] ★ 1/5 (v2.2) — The 6.5% shipping transaction fee should be eliminated or a nominal fee of 10-15 cents per label, please address this issue. Shipping costs have increased well over $6, there should not be a listing priority rule for shipments under $6 anymore, sellers that charge less than $6 are losing money. Carriers continue to aggressively raise costs and etsy does nothing to help with the issue. Free shipping at $35 is no longer affordable/working, need to be able to adjust p”
“I have been shipping via the Etsy/PirateShip integration for years, last I checked rates for PirateShip were very similar but slightly cheaper than Etsy. But even if PirateShip were slightly more expensive, I would still use PirateShip due to them having actual customer service and being able to print packing slips on 4x6 labels. But with the new USPS rates that went into effect, things seem very different. I got an order to Hawaii, postage would have previously cost around $5.50 for a 4oz bubbl”
“Hi all, I have my labels set to first class mail (unless buyer purchases otherwise). Sometimes Etsy will change it to automatically pick Priority when that’s not what the buyer paid for. I catch it most of the time, but it does get past me sometimes. Is there any settings I can do to change this? submitted by /u/birchtreeblossom [link] [comments]”
“Wondering if anyone else is getting this. The orders that would be due today (July 3rd) are due tomorrow (July 4th) The orders that would normally be due on July 4th are still due on July 4th, and are not being shown as being adjusted to Monday, July 6th Lame... lol submitted by /u/pressurechicken [link] [comments]”
“Had my first order for the EU today after the new fee came into force I adjusted my postage cost with a extra €3 on top to cover this fee on my Etsy shop The buyer ordered 3 items all the same thing in the same Tariff Code around £20 value The parcel is being sent standard delivery by Royal Mail Weighs 80G large letter The buyer has paid the IOSS charge When I went to checkout the customs duties was way more than €3 plus handling fee see photo What’s gone wrong ? I checked a different order for”
“Just got charged extra on this package I mailed out…tracking confirmed that I did mail it from the original 48383 zip code, so I don’t know why it’s saying it adjusted to a different one (and even if it was, that’s close enough that it shouldn’t have warranted an additional $5). Everything else is the same. 🤦♀️ submitted by /u/bali217 [link] [comments]”
“Hi all, I got an email from Etsy saying I had a label adjusted. I am wondering if the glitch from before is still a thing or if it is actually real this time. No big deal, it was 1 label and $2. Just curious! submitted by /u/kelsien [link] [comments]”
“Hi! For some reason some of my stickers are marked as free shipping even though I have separate shipping profiles (only my individual stickers should have free shipping, sheets and bumper stickers should not) I think Etsy got confused cause I named the shipping profile “stickers” but the other two are under my normal shipping profile and are not marked for free. Also not enrolled in that 35+ free shipping thing (just found out about it today) Any help? (For context only offering free shipping fo”
“Is this a glitch or the new standard? I’m leaving Etsy if it’s the new norm. submitted by /u/AdMotor1654 [link] [comments]”
“My shop shipping policy is free shipping within the United States. Twice, in two days, I’ve had International orders and the buyer has been able to choose free, standard shipping. In the past, Etsy has automatically matched shipping and customs forms which provided the buyers with accurate shipping costs. Is this happening to anyone else? Other than regretfully cancelling orders, what can I do? submitted by”
“Just chiming in to say this just started happening to me as well. After a frustrating chatbot experience, they finally seemed to acknowledge the issue and I got this response: "Thanks for providing that screenshot. I see exactly what you're describing, and I’m sorry this is happening on every label. Since your settings are correct, I'm investigating this further now. Thanks for checking all the steps. I will escalate this to my relevant team. They can approach y”
“I have it happening too, but yeah I figure it was because I wasn’t using my name in the return address also.”
“regarding the new shipping label format: does anyone know how to remove the shop name that's suddenly being printed above the return address? I keep my shop name off the shipping label on purpose, so an opportunistic thief cannot look up what the contents might be. i went to shop settings but there doesn't seem to be a field i can delete or a switch i can toggle off for this submitted by”