Etsy published advice for sellers from its shipping team on how it calculates estimated delivery dates. Included in the guide was a sample message sellers could use to warn buyers of shipping carrier delays – a somewhat ominous sign that things could get rocky again this year as the holiday-shopping season ramps up.
“Here’s an example of a message you can share with your buyer if you think an order may arrive later than expected:
“I wanted to keep you updated on the status of your order. Due to shipping carrier delays, there’s a chance your package may not arrive on the originally estimated date. Rest assured I’ll keep you updated along the way as I get new information from the carrier. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions.”
One of the topics the Etsy Shipping team tackled: “What happens to my estimated delivery date if carriers are experiencing delays?”
Etsy said when it detects carrier delays, Etsy adjusts transit times. “We have close partnerships with carriers and we frequently are in conversation with them about how their networks are performing.”
It also has technology that analyzes data on millions of packages that detects where carrier delays are forming and make adjustments to transit time estimates.
Etsy told sellers they could set their own transit times by selecting ‘Other’ as the carrier, but said it strongly recommend using the mail carriers in shipping profiles. “That way, we can adjust transit times in case of carrier delays and you can focus on your creative business.”
Etsy also answered questions covering estimated delivery dates, how to set them, how Etsy calculates them, and how the delivery-date information is shown to buyers.
It also answered the questions, “Do estimated delivery dates take holidays and weekends into account?” and “Are estimated delivery dates ever updated after a purchase?”
You can read the full guidance on this page of the Etsy Seller Handbook.
Are you ready for holiday shipping 2021?
Perfect example of a useless team.
They assume sellers don’t pay attention to holiday season and to news within the business world of shipping.
They give us the same information we have known before crooked, rotten, etsy was even a site.
They don’t ship anything themselves, so how would they know?
Suits talking to more suits, and none of them know anything, and I mean, ANYTHING.
Whenever they projected shipping dates (arrival times), that all came from within the etsy platform independently.
But, whenever they expect packages to move slowly, they make it the sellers responsibility to give bad news.
That is a job for the “Shipping Team”.
Pushing off work that they should be taking care of themselves, shows the lazy and greedy mindset of a company who assumes all financial rights to many independent sellers, and offers useless ineffective information that is more known as common sense.
I’ve known many people who do this with the false intent of appearing “helpful”.
Taking all the credit while actually slowing down a project, growth, or success.
It’s that ‘work ethic’ that has destroyed much of economy, and government for our country.
Too many non-helpful’s making the water cloudy.
Do some REAL WORK, you imposters.
“They assume sellers don’t pay attention to holiday season and to news within the business world of shipping.”
If you visit the Etsy forum you will learn that many newer shop owners have no clue how bad the holiday shipping season really is. Currently, all postal carriers are warning about a very tough holiday season which is probably why Etsy is giving the warning flag. Many shop owners are clueless and do not keep up with any current events.
The reality….If packages are not delivered on time, Etsy pays for that. If sellers sell products and then closes down their shop before products are shipped, Etsy pays for that. As a buyer, I’ve called Etsy about late package arrivals…Etsy gave me a refund; whether the shop owner had an active credit card on file or not. Etsy gives refunds for late deliveries.
Right now, UPS Ground is taking on average 7-11 business days to arrive in the Continental US.
USPS Priority Mail is taking 10-14 business days and they are destroying about 30% of my shipped packages.
USPS First Class Mail Packages are taking 10 business days.
And we are just at the beginning of the Holiday shipping season. Hanukkah comes earlier than usual this year, Evenning of Nov. 28th. I would recommend having very early cut-off dates for guaranteed delivery. It is going to be one hot mess