What is a Shipping label?

Hello, Etsy sellers! As you may have read in Chad’s blog post earlier this year, we’re focused on providing more of the tools and services you need to build and run your independent, creative businesses. Today we started releasing shipping labels to US sellers who accept credit cards through direct checkout. This new feature speeds up the shipping process by allowing you to purchase and print USPS shipping labels on Etsy, saving you valuable time and helping you focus on your craft!

Product Details

When shipping labels are active for your shop, you’ll see a Print a Label button on your Sold Orders and Receipt pages. The first time you print a label, you’ll complete a quick on-boarding where you set your default ship from address. If you haven’t signed up to accept credit cards through direct checkout, you’ll need to complete that process as well. The postage you purchase is added to your Etsy bill, and all labels include delivery confirmation and tracking. When you purchase a label, a shipping notification email with the tracking number and an optional custom note is automatically sent to the buyer.

Each shop has a shipping label budget, and when you reach your budget you’ll need to pay your Etsy bill to continue to purchase labels. Your shipping label budget will increase each time you pay your Etsy bill in full. Currently, you can only purchase labels for packages that ship within the US, but we are working to support international shipments.

Release Schedule and Upcoming Improvements

To ensure a smooth release, we are slowly releasing shipping labels only to sellers accepting direct checkout. Shipping labels are one of the most requested features among sellers accepting direct checkout, so we wanted to start with them. We’re working to support international shipments, and we’re also working on ways to better streamline the purchase of shipping labels for direct checkout orders.

We also want to acknowledge and profusely thank the more than 1, 000 current members of the Shipping Improvements Team who have been helping us test shipping labels and other new shipping features. We’ve received a lot of great input from them and there are a number of improvements coming soon based on their feedback. Thank you to everyone who’s helped us build this important new seller tool!