Etsy Shop Tips: 3 Reasons You Should Be Offering Shipping Upgrades
Hi, friends!
I hope everyone has been having a great start to 2017. This past week, I wrapped up my busiest season of the year, and as I got closer to the actual Valentine's Day deadline, it got me thinking about a few things..
So, today we’re going to talk about one of the least sexy parts of owning an Etsy shop, and that’s shipping. Specifically, offering shipping upgrades.
This is a question I get from my customers on a daily basis, especially around a busy season like Valentine’s Day:
Do you offer faster shipping?
Can I get this by Valentine’s Day, or Christmas, or next Tuesday..?
It doesn’t necessarily have to center around a holiday. Maybe someone is late buying a birthday present or an anniversary gift. If you offer shipping upgrades, it’s an easy one-click decision on the part of your buyer, and it gives them the peace of mind that they can get their items sooner than they originally thought was possible.
I would say within the past week, probably about 20-40% of my sales involved a shipping upgrade of some sort. And if I didn’t offer those upgrades, it’s possible that I would have lost out on all of those sales! People would come in to my shop, see that the only option I offer gets it there in 3-6 business days, and be like "Oh well, I’ll try someone else, or go to the store and buy a Hallmark card instead!" That's the exact opposite of what I want them to do!
So besides THAT (just consider that your bonus reason), here are 3 MORE reasons why you should absolutely positively always offer shipping upgrades.
NUMBER ONE!
They’re super easy to set up on the front end. All you have to do is go into your existing shipping profiles, add the names of your upgrades and the additional price, save it, and you’re done!
PRO TIP: Just make sure you’ve got your processing times filled out as well, so your buyers won’t think that the shipping time is the time in between when they purchase, and when they get it in hand.
If you don't already use shipping profiles and you’re still manually entering them into your listings, I highly suggest that you look into that. It’s a game changer! You can batch edit them, apply them to all your listings inside the listings manager.. they’re just really great.
Keep in mind that the price you’re putting for your upgrades is IN ADDITION TO your existing shipping charge. So, say you’ve got your shipping set at $3. If you need to charge $7 for priority, you’ll put $4 for your upgrade amount. Super easy math.
NUMBER TWO!
Saying yes to those inquiries I mentioned earlier leads to happy customers. They feel like you’re doing something special for them, which gives them a good feeling about buying from you. And every time somebody convos you about a shipping upgrade, all you have to do is tell them "Yes! I do offer those!" Since you’ve already got them set up, it’s not something you’ll have to do on a case by case basis.
PRO TIP: You can even set up a saved convo snippet to paste in your answer, which saves you more time.
NUMBER THREE!
They’re super easy to fulfill on the back end. (Yes, two out of my three reasons involve the word "easy".) They legit involve ONE extra step, mayyybe two if you’re using different packaging than you normally use.
Etsy will show you a notification on your sold orders page as well as on the actual shipping label page when someone has chosen one of your upgrades. It’s highlighted in yellow, so it’s easy to see. You’ll click "print shipping label" just like you always do, and instead of leaving it as the default first class setting, you’ll use the dropdown menu to select the upgrade they chose. If you’re using the same packaging you always use, you’ll leave that next area the same, or if you’re using a USPS provided box, you can select that instead.
Okay, so basically..
Number one. EASY.
Number two. HAPPY CUSTOMERS.
Number three. EASY.
Have I convinced you yet?
xo, Christen
Have you joined my FREE Facebook group specifically for Etsy sellers who want to rock their creative biz? If not, I'd love to see your pretty face inside. Just click below to request acceptance!