Etsy's New Year's Day message to sellers advised them to "optimize" their shipping (read: "lower"). In an email message sent January 1st, Etsy revealed that it was prioritizing listings with shipping prices lower than $6, despite the fact shipping *costs* are rising yet again this month.
A reader who forwarded the message said, "Sorry to share this threat letter from Etsy on New Years Day, but Etsy thought it was appropriate to send this today. I can't imagine how anyone can insure or ship furniture or home goods on Etsy for less than $6."
The seller wasn't buying Etsy's message that "Our data tells us that once shipping prices are $6 or above, buyers are less likely to make a purchase." He told us, "Having the shipping as a line item encourages buyers to buy more. Rolling it into the price-per-item drives lower sales, and fewer items per sale. I thought these C suite guys were MBAs."
He was also clearly peeved at the timing of the message: "Would have been nice if Etsy's twerps would have waited until the first business day of the new year to level this threat of invisibility, or essentially a denial of service."
Here's the fulltext of Etsy's New Year's Message:
Subject: Consider optimizing your shipping prices
Lower shipping prices could improve your search - and help lead to more sales
Etsy search prioritizes listings based on shop, customer service, and listing quality - which also includes shipping price for US sellers. To help make sure that high shipping prices don't discourage buyers from making a purchase, US listings with domestic shipping prices lower than $6 are prioritized in search.
Why under $6? Our data tells us that once shipping prices are $6 or above, buyers are less likely to make a purchase. Lowering your shipping prices could help improve the visibility of your items in search, which could lead to more sales for your shop!
A tool to make it easy
Our data shows that shifting your shipping price into your item price can be an effective way to improve your sales. Our tool lets you lower your US domestic shipping prices in bulk, and optionally move some of your shipping costs into your item price - helping you recover shipping costs while keeping your prices competitive.
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