Free shipping is definitely a hot topic for Etsy sellers. It can be stressful to include free shipping in your shop and keep your business profitable at the same time. So does free shipping increase sales on Etsy? It definitely can! Let’s learn why.
The Etsy Algorithm
The first thing you want to consider when determining if you’re going to use free shipping is the Etsy algorithm. Using free shipping or the Free Shipping Guarantee in your Etsy shop does help your placement in the algorithm. This is important to help you rank in buyer searches on the platform. Learn more about the algorithm here.
Customer Behavior
Free shipping also helps increase sales due to buyer behavior. If a buyer finds your listing, adds to cart, and then sees that shipping is free they are more likely to actually purchase your listing. That means a higher conversion rate which means you get more sales. A higher conversion rate also helps you get even more traffic because Etsy will move you up in search results when they know your listings are likely to convert to sales.
How to use free shipping
Free shipping helps increase your conversion rate and sales on Etsy, but you want to make sure that you’re still profitable in your business. Make sure to include the cost of shipping in your listing price to make up for the lack of shipping charges with each sale.
If you’re using the free shipping guarantee on Etsy, you’ll want to increase the cost of each listing by a smaller amount to make up for the orders that are over $35. Etsy has a calculator you can use if you turn the guarantee on following this steps.
