Recently, Etsy sent sellers an email that mentioned that merchants may want to consider optimizing/lowering their shipping prices. It also said that the platform prioritizes US listings with lower shipping prices in the search, to make sure that high shipping costs don’t stop buyers from making purchases.
This comes at a time when shipping costs for businesses are increasing, which makes it incredibly difficult for some merchants to lower prices without losing money or increasing prices to compensate.
Lower Shipping Prices on Etsy May Improve Search Visibility
In the email sent to sellers, Etsy started by saying that the platform’s search prioritizes listings based on factors like customer service and listing quality, which the company says includes shipping price for US sellers.
Etsy also adds that, in an effort not to discourage shoppers from making a purchase, the platform prioritizes US listings with domestic shipping prices lower than $6 in search.
The email goes on to say that the company chose this $6 limit due to data that shows that when shipping prices are $6 or higher, buyers are less likely to make a purchase.
Rising Shipping Rates Make It Difficult for Merchants
While some sellers may be able to lower shipping rates to $6 or less to get better visibility and priority in search results, it’s becoming more challenging. This is due to the rising shipping rates for businesses.
First, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has filed notice for the following shipping price changes to take place on January 18th, 2026:
- A 6.6% increase for Priority Mail service
- A 5.1% increase for Priority Mail Express service
- A 7.8% increase for USPS Ground Advantage
- A 6% increase for Parcel Select
FedEx package rates are also increasing in 2026, as package standard list rates for US, US export, and US import services are rising by an average of 5.9%.
As a result, it’s not great that Etsy is choosing now to make these suggestions, as merchants across the country are currently trying to navigate these higher costs.
It’s hard to ship almost anything for $6, and as a result, many merchants are going to have to either increase their prices to make up for it or simply eat the extra costs and lose money on shipping.
This is especially tough for merchants that ship large or oversized orders, as it may be difficult (if not impossible) to bring shipping prices down to this $6 level.
How Should Ecommerce Sellers Respond
So how should ecommerce brands and sellers on the platform respond to this news? Well, there doesn’t seem to be many great options. You could keep your shipping as is, but you may notice you’re not appearing in search results as much as you’d like.
On the other hand, you could decrease the shipping to under that $6 threshold, but you may have to lose money on shipping to do so. You could also bake the shipping into the cost of the item and offer lower shipping as a result, but doing so means that your items are more expensive, and potential customers may turn to competitors due to this price increase.
As a result, each seller needs to evaluate their own needs and decide what makes the most sense for them.
But whether you’re interested in lowering your shipping costs in response to this move by Etsy or not, it’s not a bad idea to identify ways for your business to optimize your shipping costs anyway. Some ways you could potentially decrease your shipping costs include:
- Using right-size packaging, as choosing packages that are larger than you need may lead to higher costs.
- Finding lightweight packing materials to keep the weight of your shipments low.
- Using rate-shopping tools to find the cheapest rates for each shipment.
- Negotiating with carriers for a better rate, though this may only work if your shipping volume is quite high.
However, while there are ways to potentially reduce your shipping costs as a business, or get your offered shipping price to below that $6 threshold, it’s not surprising that much of the feedback and conversation around this news has been negative.
During a time when many companies are stuck with rising costs, it’s unfortunate to have a company make a suggestion like this.
