Before you open your shop, you will need to set up and establish your Etsy shop policies. You have to be familiar with these policies so you can effectively implement them in your shop.
Why Setting Up Your Etsy Shop Policies is Important
Some Etsy sellers fail to realize the importance of having shop policies. Although Etsy won’t obligate you to set up your shop policies, it would still be best to do it anyway.
Other people feel having these “terms and conditions” is a bit too formal for something more of a hobby. The truth is, Etsy shop policies are beneficial for sellers and customers alike.
Shop policies are there to protect the seller and buyer. Also, policies will let customers know what to expect in case they have problems.
How To Set Up Etsy Shop Policies
Here are the steps to set up your shop policies:
- Go to Shop Manager.
- Under Sales Channels, click the pencil icon next to your shop
- Scroll down to the Shop Policies section
Shop policies have sections, and each section is a template. Here, you can pick your preferred option for your shop.
When everything is ready, you can click Publish shop policies.
Policy Sections You Have to Update
Shipping Times
You can pick the shipping method you want to use in the “Shipping” box. Here, you should include whether you’ll ship internationally.
This would be helpful for you and your customers as well. Shipping prices can be expensive, and setting this up guarantees that you already considered this.
Payment Policy
This section is where you select the payment options you want your customers to use. Providing several options for your shoppers will likely result in their satisfaction.
Don’t forget to include other information such as cancellation policies, payment deadlines, taxes, etc. In short, provide anything your customers need to be aware of on how you take payments.
Refund Policy
Yes, we are all hoping that nothing will go wrong, but we all know that’s not true. Obstacles are bound to happen with any business. It is crucial that you have returns, refunds, and exchanges policy clearly laid out. This way, your customers know what to do in case they’re not happy with the product.
It’s okay to choose not to accept returns and exchanges. Bear in mind that you are not in any way obliged to refund all the time.
A lot of items on Etsy are made to order, custom-made, and personalized. It is also vital to protect your investment and time because some buyers can be indecisive and careless.
If you opt to offer exchanges and returns, you have to set some criteria.
Privacy Policy
When people order from your shop, they will be providing private information to you – name and address. This section is essential because it lets your customers know how you handle their private info and guarantees them that you will never sell their information.
More Information
You can provide additional information regarding your shop under your shop policies. You can include frequently asked questions and seller details here.
After reading about Etsy Shop Policies, we recommend reading the article Setting Up Calculated Shipping for Your Etsy Shop.
