How Long Does Etsy Take to Ship?

Etsy is known to provide authentic products, speedy delivery, and good customer service. Still, new customers who intend to shop on Etsy may find themselves faced with the question: How long does Etsy take to ship? And it’s a valid question asked. 

However, it’s not an easy question to answer. Because the time Etsy takes to ship and deliver depends on several factors. And so, one needs to learn those factors as well as understand their distinctive working procedure to get to the bottom of it.

And that’s exactly what we intend to do in this article. So, keep reading…

Etsy store

How Long Does Etsy Take to Ship? : etsy shipping estimate

Generally speaking, Etsy takes 3 to 7 days for domestic shipping and can take over 10 days for international shipments. 

However, the vendor might take longer to ship and deliver if the customers opt for certain customized products.

Plus, if there are any weekends, holidays, or strikes that fall during the delivery process, then there may be delays. Also, any unforeseen circumstances like weather troubles or the current pandemic situation can cause unpredictable delays too.

Technically, Etsy has no direct control over the delivery time. It depends on the processing time of the vendors selling the products as well as on the speed of the courier companies responsible for product delivery. 

The fact is Etsy doesn’t ship anything at all. They just act as the middleman between the seller and the buyer. The responsibility for shipping the orders lies entirely in the hands of the individual vendors who have different shipping policies and schedules as well as different courier companies.

All Etsy can do is communicate with the vendors, establish their processing time and estimate the delivery time based on that information. That’s all.    


Factors Determining Etsy’s Shipping Time 

As mentioned earlier, several factors determine Etsy’s shipping time. Here are a few of them: 

Etsy design for a mobile
Factors Determining Etsy’s Shipping Time 
  • Type of shipment: Domestic or International. Needless to say, international shipments will take more time than domestic ones.
  • Speed of the vendor from whom the customers are buying the products.
  • Speed of the courier service (UPS, USPS, DHL, FedEx, etc.) that the sellers use to ship their products.
  • Processing time of the vendors or how long the company needs to prepare the ordered items for delivery.
  • Elements of customization as requested by the customers.
  • Processing time for the handmade products which are crafted only after the orders are confirmed. This might take a while to prepare and ship—days or even weeks.
  • Plus, certain unforeseen circumstances might pop up suddenly to influence the shipping time.

Understanding How Etsy Shipping Works

 So, firstly this is how Etsy works: It allows different sellers to list their products (usually handmade and vintage items). The prospective buyers can view the products on Etsy, choose the ones they like and place their orders—customized or otherwise. 

Etsy then receives the order details and communicates the same to the respective vendor. Now, the vendor prepares the orders as per the requirements. And then, finally contacts their preferred courier company to ship the products to the customers.

Hence, as you can see Etsy isn’t directly in charge of the shipping procedure. Thus, Etsy does not determine shipping time themselves but completely relies on the information provided by their vendors and the carrier companies.

So, let us now understand the different aspects of Etsy shipping times and how they are calculated.   


Etsy Estimated Delivery Time

This is an estimation of the delivery time as provided by Etsy to their customers to let them have some idea of the date on which their item might be arriving. 

It is calculated by taking into consideration the processing time of the seller and the transit time of the courier company. The formula for calculating Etsy estimated delivery date is:

Estimated Delivery Date = 1 Day + Processing Time + Transit Time

If the vendor manages to prepare the product quicker and ship it faster than expected or if the seller, unfortunately, encounters any delays in shipment, then Etsy automatically recalculates the estimated time based on the new information.


Etsy Processing Time: how long does it take for etsy to ship?

Processing Time is the time which is reserved by the vendor to prepare an order before handing it to the courier company for shipping. Usually, it takes about 2-3 days for most products, with a few exceptions.

Exception 1

The customer requests some special customization. Customizing the colors, monograms, designs, etc. as per creative inputs of the customers certainly requires some extra time to prepare. So, this may increase the processing time depending on the level of customization requested by the customers.

Exception 2

The customer chooses to purchase the made-to-order items. Made-to-order products are the ones that are crafted only after the customers have placed their orders. 

Since Etsy sells mostly handmade products, one can find many such items here which are created only when they are paid for and are not prepared ahead of time. This enables the customers to purchase products especially made for them, but it takes much longer processing time.

Many sellers at Etsy carry a stock of ready-to-ship items and they can quickly prepare the shipments as soon as they receive the order. 

However, some vendors of handmade goods prefer to add some level of creativity and even certain levels of customization to their products before shipping them. They are the ones who require a little extra time to have their orders properly prepared and shipped.

So, you must check out the processing time of a vendor first before placing your order with them. But there may be delivery exceptions in some cases that you should always keep in mind.


Etsy Carrier Transit Time : when will my etsy order arrive?

Last, but not least, the carrier transit time is an important component in determining how long Etsy takes to ship orders. 

Carrier transit time, as the name suggests, is the time taken by the shipping company to transfer the product from the vendor’s stop to the customers’ doorstep.

The exact number of days solely depends on the policies and schedules of the courier company chosen, combined with a lot of other crucial factors like domestic or international delivery, type of shipping service, unforeseen circumstances, etc.


Final Thoughts on how long does etsy take to deliver:

So, as it turns out Etsy is an online marketplace run by individual shop owners who sell their handmade and vintage products to customers all over the globe. Hence, Etsy acts merely as a connection between its clients and its vendors and isn’t directly involved with the shipping procedure.

However, it has its system of estimating shipping time to ensure that the customers at least have an idea of when to expect the delivery of their orders. And we hope that this article has succeeded in providing you with all the clarity you needed on how long Etsy takes to ship.

I hope you got all the information for your question “How Long Does Etsy Take to Ship?”, if you still have any confusion, let me know in the comment box.

Avatar for Jaren Helms

Jaren worked for over a decade in the industry as a Package Handler. He started his career with FedEx but he later also worked with companies like USPS and Deutsche Post.

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