Processing times and “ship by” dates help buyers know when you’ll ship items in your shop.
Jump to a section:
- What are processing profiles?
- How do I create or edit processing profiles?
- What is the processing time for an item?
- What is the "ship by" date?
- How do I assign processing profiles in bulk?
- How do I assign a unique processing profile to a product variation?
- How do I set my order processing schedule?
- What if I ship faster than my processing times?
- How do I update the "ship by" date for an order?
What are processing profiles?
Processing profiles give you the flexibility you need when preparing an order, and help buyers get more accurate delivery dates.
Processing profiles consist of:
- Processing time: How much time you need to get an order ready before handing off to a mail carrier. Processing times can be set at either the listing or listing variation level, based on the unique needs of your inventory.
- Made to order or Ready to ship label: How ready your item is to be sent to a buyer. This will not be visible to buyers, but can be unique for each listing variation.
When creating a new listing for a physical item, you will assign it a processing profile. Digital listings don’t have processing profiles.
How do I create or edit processing profiles?
- Go to Shop Manager.
- Go to Shipping settings.
- Under Shipping profiles & processing, scroll to Your processing profiles.
- Select Create new or select the processing profile you wish to edit.
- Select if the item is Made to order or Ready to ship.
- Choose the processing time from the How much processing time do you need? dropdown.
- Select Save changes.
- Go to More.
- Go to Shipping.
- Go to Your processing profiles.
- Select the plus sign to create a new profile, or tap the processing profile you wish to edit.
- Select if the item is Made to order or Ready to ship.
- Choose the processing time from the How much processing time do you need? dropdown.
- Select Save changes.
If you edit a processing profile, all of the listings and variations associated with it will update as well.
What is the processing time for an item?
The processing time is how much time you need to get an order ready to ship. Processing times help set expectations with buyers, and help you reliably ship your orders.
If an order is custom, the processing time will include the amount of time it takes to create the custom item. If an order is already made, it is the amount of time you need to package the item and bring it to the shipping service.
The processing time also affects when the buyer can open a case about an order and when they can leave a review.
Processing times begin the day after your item is purchased by a buyer. For example:
- A listing of yours is purchased by a buyer on Wednesday. It has a 5-day processing time and a processing schedule set to Monday - Friday, so the "ship by" date would be the following Wednesday.
- If the same listing included Saturday and Sunday in your processing schedule, then it would have a "ship by" date of Monday instead.
What is the "ship by" date?
The “ship by” date is the date that you commit to ship an order to the buyer. This is the date at the end of the longest processing time for an order. The “ship by” date is visible on the Orders page for each order. Buyers can view the “ship by” date on the receipt after they purchase an item.
For sellers in the US and Canada, if you have set holiday preferences, this schedule will be reflected in the “ship by” dates that are shown to buyers, as the calculation will be adjusted. Removing a holiday from your schedule means you’re not able to package or prepare orders on that day, and it won’t be counted as a processing day.
If you don't set a processing time
Having a processing time set for your items helps set buyer expectations. If you don’t specify a processing time for an item, the buyer won’t see a "ship by" date during the checkout process. If the buyer places an order for multiple items and one doesn't have a processing time, then the whole order won't show a "ship by" date, even if other items in the order do have processing times.
Processing times and “ship by” dates are determined by your order processing schedule, which can be set to include weekends and holidays.
If a “ship by” date falls on a day when post offices are usually closed - such as Sundays or postal holidays - we’ll move it to the next business day for you.
“Ship by” dates are calculated in your shop's time zone which can be set from your Shop options. You'll need to mark your item as shipped by 11:59pm on the ship date.
How do I assign processing profiles in bulk?
- In Shop Manager, select Listings.
- Check the boxes of the listings you wish to update.
- Choose Change processing profile from the Editing options dropdown.
- Select the listing variants you wish to update.
- Choose the processing profile you wish to assign to the listings.
- Select Apply.
How do I assign a unique processing profile to a product variation?
- In Shop Manager, select Listings.
- Find the listing you want to change, or create a new listing.
- Find the gear icon and choose Edit.
- Go to Variations and select Manage variations.
- Toggle on Processing varies and select Apply.
- Select the processing profile with the correct processing time for your variants.
- Choose Publish changes.
- Go to Listings.
- Select the listing you want to update.
- In the Listing section, go to Variations.
- Select All variations, then Manage variations.
- Select the pencil next to Pricing and inventory settings to edit.
- Under Processing profile, select the type of variation the processing varies by (ex. color, size). Select Done.
- Select Save, then assign processing profiles to variants when prompted. Select Save again.
How do I set my order processing schedule?
You can make changes to your processing schedule at any time.
- Go to Shipping Settings.
- In Order Processing Schedule, select Edit.
- Select if you only process orders Monday through Friday, or if you want to include Saturday and/or Sunday in your processing times.
- Select which holidays you’ll process orders on (US and CA only). You can select All holidays or choose individual holidays you'll be available to package or prepare orders.
- Select Update.
What if I ship faster than my processing times?
Having fast processing times can lead to shorter estimated delivery dates, which can help encourage customers to buy items from your shop. If you have a history of completing your orders faster than your listed processing times, buyers may see estimated delivery date ranges with your actual processing times reflected.
How are the actual processing times calculated?
Your actual processing time is based on your processing times over the past 120 days for orders that shipped, with a minimum of at least 5 orders shipped.
To make sure that the processing times are accurate, the ship date you set when completing your order should match the date you plan to hand off the order to the shipping carrier.
How do I update the "ship by" date for an order?
You can edit the "ship by" date once, before the original “ship by” date has passed, and it can be extended up to 21 days. Confirm with the buyer that the new "ship by" date works for them before changing it.
- Sign in to Etsy.com.
- Go to your Shop Manager.
- Select Orders.
- Find the transaction you want to change.
- Choose the … (ellipsis) icon.
- Choose Update ship by date.
- Select your new ship by date.
- Add a note to the buyer explaining the new ship by date. The buyer will automatically be sent an updated estimated delivery date for their order based on the new “ship by” date.
- Choose Update & notify buyer.