One of my old Etsy shipping profiles was still live on about 160 listings, quoting buyers $23 to ship when Printify's real cost was closer to $9. It wasn't losing me money on each sale. It was probably losing me the sale altogether, because a $23 shipping charge on a t-shirt is exactly the kind of number that sends a buyer back to search.
Shipping profiles go wrong in both directions, and both cost you.
Two ways a shipping profile costs you money
Charging less than Printify charges you
Every dollar of shipping you undercharge comes straight out of your profit. Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee also applies to the shipping you charge, so even breaking exactly even on shipping leaves you slightly behind.
For example, say Printify charges $8.50 to ship a hoodie within the US and your profile charges $5.99. You lose $2.51 on the shipping, plus $0.39 in transaction fees on it: about $2.90 gone on every order before the hoodie itself is counted. To cover the cost and that fee, the rate needs to be about $9.10.
Charging much more than it costs
This one doesn't show up as a loss anywhere, which is why it survives. Buyers see the shipping total before they check out, and an inflated one makes a fairly priced item look expensive.
Why profiles drift
- One profile, very different products. A profile shared by stickers and hoodies can't be right for both. Set it for the stickers and the hoodies lose money; set it for the hoodies and the stickers look overpriced. Heavy and light products usually need their own profiles.
- Printify's rates change. Shipping costs and print providers change over time, but your Etsy profile stays exactly as you set it.
- Destinations you didn't set separately. Anywhere you haven't given its own rate falls under your profile's "everywhere else" rate. Printify often prices regions separately, the EU being a common one, so orders to a region you didn't break out can ship for well under what they cost you.
- Additional items. Etsy lets you set a separate "each additional item" rate, and Printify charges less for extra items in the same order. If the two don't line up, multi-item orders quietly lose money.
- Forgotten profiles. Old profiles stay attached to listings long after you've stopped thinking about them. That's how mine ended up on 160 listings.
How to check by hand
- List your shipping profiles from the shipping section of Shop Manager's settings, and note which listings use each one.
- For each profile, find the products on it and look up what Printify charges to ship each of them (first item and additional item) to each destination you sell to.
- Use the most expensive product on the profile as the benchmark for each destination, since the profile's rate has to cover it.
- Compare your Etsy rate for each destination, including "everywhere else", against that cost plus 6.5%.
Rate needed to break even on shipping = Printify's shipping cost ÷ 0.935. That covers the cost plus Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee on the shipping you charge.
How to fix it
- Raise rates that are below cost, using the formula above. Change one profile and it updates every listing on it at once, so double-check which listings use it first.
- Split profiles that mix heavy and light products, rather than raising one rate that overcharges half of them.
- Add separate destinations for regions Printify charges more for, instead of leaving them on "everywhere else".
- Lower rates that are far above cost, or fold the shipping into the item price and offer lower or free shipping. If you do, make sure the price really covers it (the profit calculator shows this quickly).