7 minute read

Strategies for Shipping Challenging Items

Explore shipping tips for a variety of products, from oversized furniture to vintage goods and lightweight craft supplies.

Avatar image for Etsy Staff by Etsy Staff
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Some items aren’t easy to ship for free (here’s looking at you, vintage sectional sofa), but that doesn’t mean you need to rule out the option entirely. Research shows that while buyers come to Etsy to find something special, when it comes to shipping options, they still compare Etsy shops to other online shopping sites—where they’ve come to expect free or discounted shipping.

Even if you sell items that make it challenging to offer a free shipping guarantee, there are some things you may be able to do to make it feasible for your business. Read on for tips to help you meet buyer expectations within your category, estimate shipping costs for items that vary by weight and distance, and establish a clear and sustainable return policy.

Understanding your audience

No matter what you sell, make sure to research your competition. Know what your competitors online are charging for items of similar quality and materials, and what unique factors help your products stand out amid the market standards. Similarly, make sure you understand your target audience. Gauging the expectations of potential customers is critical to your larger pricing strategy, including how you approach the presentation of your shipping costs.

Estimating shipping costs

Craft supplies and low-priced items: Offering free shipping on low-priced items such as craft supplies may seem tricky, especially if the shipping cost may be more expensive than the price of the item itself. With a $35 order minimum as part of your free shipping guarantee, you can incentivize multi-item orders that meet the free shipping threshold while ensuring you’re able to recover associated shipping costs and create more value and revenue for your business.

Vintage and one-of-a-kind items: Vintage treasures and one-of-a-kind products come in all sizes and weights. Because each item is unique, it can be challenging to calculate and incorporate shipping costs into your item prices to recover shipping costs when you want to offer free shipping.

To help save time, consider weighing your items as part of your photography process. For instance, after you photograph your item, it may be helpful to place your items into the box you’ll be using along with any packing materials and weigh it on a postal scale.

Rack of colorful vintage clothing
Seller Armanda Colson offers free shipping on the diverse array of vintage clothes and accessories listed in her Singapore-based shop, Thriftionary. Learn more about her business in a recent Seller Handbook interview.

After you’ve weighed and measured your package, you can use your postal carrier’s shipping calculator to get an accurate estimate of how much it will cost to ship your package to destinations near and far. That’s what Jen Fairley does for her shop, Jen's Hens, based in Marion, Texas. Jen, who sells vintage homewares and furniture, began offering free shipping when she realized it was more enticing for buyers. “I know that when I shop online, I like to have the clarity of the final cost,” she says. “I don't like adding things to a cart and then emptying my cart once I realize that I can't afford the shipping.”

After measuring an item, Jen will research how much it would cost to ship it the farthest distance. “If estimating a settee, for example, I'll research what it would cost for me to ship to New York from Texas,” she says. Then she’ll compare rates from multiple shipping carriers. “I use eShipping, uShip, FedEx, USPS, UPS, UPS Freight, and Greyhound,” she says. “I find it exciting to get the best deal.”

Consider keeping a list of common weights and box sizes for the items you sell. Using this list, you can calculate and track your median shipping cost for various weights and sizes. Use these calculations as a quick guide when calculating your prices and creating a new listing. The more you sell, the easier it gets, says Jen. “I've shipped enough chairs by now to have a good understanding of the cost. I know when I buy a chair from an estate sale, for example, that right away I'm going to invest so many dollars into this one piece to sell it.”

Heavy and oversize items: Most buyers realize that large items are expensive to ship, so a free shipping offer can immediately ease their concerns about what the full cost of the purchase will be. But for sellers, it can be challenging to figure out how to account for the costs in your overall pricing strategy. Not only are big items expensive to ship, but shipping costs can vary widely based on the customer’s location.

If your domestic shipping costs vary by distance, consider incorporating the shipping cost for the minimum, maximum, or median distance your item might travel. Some sellers use the median distance a given item might travel to estimate the average cost of shipping that item domestically, with the expectation that costs will balance out between the various distances traveled. As always, how you determine and set prices for your shop is up to you.

A modern media console by Etsy shop Year of None
Hear Mikey Kendrick of Year of None share his approach to offering free US shipping for his furniture designs by listening to How Two Etsy Sellers Honed Their Shipping Strategies on the Etsy Success podcast.

Handling returns

Another potential challenge when offering free shipping can be how to handle returns. If you’re recovering your shipping cost within your item price, giving a full refund can mean taking a loss on those shipping costs, especially for heavier items. If you’re concerned about eating these costs, consider offering a partial refund or charging a restocking fee for returns if it makes sense for your shop. Remember, you’re responsible for complying with all laws, including laws relating to returns, that are applicable to you.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article mentioned including information about restocking fees within your Etsy shop policies; currently this option applies only to sellers using Etsy’s classic shop policies (available for shop policies created before March 2016). If you’re selling to the EU, there are consumer protection regulations that may apply to you. Learn more about EU consumer rights.

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