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Seller Profit Doctor

Etsy shipping gap

If the label and packaging cost more than the buyer pays for shipping, the difference comes out of every order. Here's how much, and the ways to close it.

Before shipping.

On an order that isn't free. 0 if shipping is always free.

Shop Manager > Finances > Payment account.

Box, tissue, tape. Blank uses a typical $1.

Shop Manager > Stats > Orders.

Blank means none.

Your Offsite Ads rate

Etsy sets it by your sales in any 12 months.

Marketing > Offsite Ads. Blank uses Etsy's typical 10%.

Shows how far orders could fall before a fix stops paying.

Your numbers stay in this page. Nothing is sent or stored.

Worked example

Shipping costs you

$300.00 a month

$3.00 on every order goes missing, about $3,600 a year at your numbers.

One order

  • Label and packaging

    what one order costs to ship

    $8.00

  • Shipping the buyer pays

    $5.00

  • Gap on each order

    $8.00 − $5.00

    −$3.00

A month and a year

  • A month

    the gap on each order × 100 orders

    −$300.00

  • A year

    $300.00 × 12

    −$3,600.00

The fixes

  • Put the gap in the item price and keep shipping under $6

    Worth about $300 a month, if orders hold

    Raise the item price from $30.00 to about $33.36 and keep shipping at $5.00, under Etsy's $6 search line. If orders hold, you'd keep about $300 more a month. Orders could fall by about 17% (about 1 in 6) before this fix leaves you worse off. A higher price can lose orders.

  • Switch to calculated shipping

    Worth about $268 a month, if orders hold

    Charge buyers what shipping costs you, about $8.00 an order, with calculated shipping, which Etsy's $6 search rule leaves out. Etsy's fees apply to shipping too, so if orders hold you'd keep about $268 more a month. Orders could fall by about 15% (about 1 in 7) before this fix leaves you worse off. Buyers see a higher shipping price, which can lose orders.

Good to know

  • Etsy favors US listings with shipping under $6.00 in search (calculated shipping is left out of that rule).
  • We assumed: Packaging per order: $1.00. Typical, weakly sourced; change it.
  • We assumed: Share of sales from Offsite Ads: 10%. Etsy's typical 10% (2020); check yours at Marketing > Offsite Ads and change it.

Etsy fees as of October 5, 2026 (Fees & Payments Policy) and July 31, 2026 (Payments Policy), checked October 13, 2026. Fixed formulas; no AI computes a number.

The rates this uses

Each one links to where it comes from, with that page’s date and the day we checked it. See every rate we use.

One number at a time, or the whole shop at once

The free check-up runs these same sums on your whole shop and shows where the money leaks, each leak with its fix and what it’s worth. About a minute, no sign-up.

Start the free check-up

More free calculators

AI agents can run the same calculators through our free MCP server: this one is the tool sellerprofit_shipping_gap.