The Message response rate section of your Star Seller dashboard shows information about your response time in Etsy Messages. 

You’ll see the percentage of messages that received a response to the initial message within 24 hours. “Initial message” means the first message in a single conversation with another member, also known as a “thread.” Responding to 95% of all your initial messages within 24 hours will earn you the Speedy replies customer service badge.

Message response rate is calculated by dividing the number of new messages you’ve responded to within 24 hours by the total number of new messages you've received during the calculation period.

Messages sent on the last two days of the 3-month review period may be excluded from the current review period and counted towards the next period instead. This is to allow Sellers a full 24 hours to respond and not be penalized for messages received late on the final day of the review period

How can I tell which messages count towards my progress towards Star Seller? 

What if I haven’t received any messages in the current review period? 

If you don’t receive any messages during the review period, the message response rate won’t be counted towards your Star Seller eligibility. You can still become a Star Seller based on the other Star Seller criteria. Once you receive an initial message, the message response rate will be applied toward your Star Seller eligibility, so be sure to reply within 24 hours.

What happens if I mark a message that I’ve already replied to as unread?

Marking a message as unread after you’ve replied to it doesn’t restart the 24-hour response time window and doesn’t make the message you’ve replied to “new” again. 

What happens if I receive a message that I consider is spam?

Messages marked as spam don’t count towards your response rate. 

What if I can’t respond to a message within 24 hours?

If you can’t respond to a new message thread within 24 hours, you have a few options: 

• You can set up an auto-reply.
• Use Saved Replies to respond quickly to questions you get commonly asked.
• Download the Sell on Etsy app to respond to messages on the go.
• Go on Vacation Mode if you’re taking a break from selling on Etsy. 

The On-time shipping & tracking section shows a percentage of how many orders were shipped on time. On-time shipping means that orders were shipped according to the processing times you set in your listing description. You can also see a breakdown of your shop’s shipping performance. Star Seller is about meeting customers’ expectations, and these vary according to each market. Shipping at least 95% of your orders on time with tracking will earn you the Smooth shipping customer service badge. Learn more about how to set processing times and “ship by” dates. 

Orders of a certain value will need to have tracking or a shipping label purchased on Etsy. The requirement values are based on currency. 

We use the total value of the items purchased before any discounts, not including shipping and taxes.

On time shipping & tracking will be reviewed on sales of physical items only. Digital download orders aren’t taken into account for on time shipping & tracking for Star Seller, but will still count towards your other metrics. If you’re listing a made-to-order or custom digital item, follow the steps in our guide to ensure that your listing is, in fact, listed as a digital item.

I entered tracking for an order but it’s not reflected on Etsy

Tracking may not be visible for one of these reasons: 

• The shipping carrier may not be supported on Etsy. If Etsy cannot process your carrier’s tracking events, you can consider using an alternate carrier.
• The number being entered is not the tracking number, or a slight error was made in entering the number. 
• There may be an occasional technical issue beyond your control. While the on-time shipping metric won’t recognize tracking added after the shipping date, remember that orders older than three months will not count toward Star Seller metrics.

What if I offer local pick-up or delivery for my items?

At this time, orders that don't have tracking because they are delivered or picked up in person will be considered shipped without tracking, and will not meet the Star Seller criteria for shipping. 

In the Ratings section, you can see your shop’s rating average for reviews over a period of time. The goal is for your completed orders to have an average rating of 4.8 stars during the review period. This will earn you the Rave reviews customer service badge, and get you one step closer to Star Seller.

Your ratings average is calculated by adding up all of the ratings you’ve received during the review period, and then dividing that by the number of reviews you’ve received.

The Orders section shows the number of orders you have completed within a Star Seller review period.

To be a Star Seller, you need to have received and fulfilled at least 5 orders within a review period. Orders that are canceled will not be counted toward Star Seller. This section will not appear in your dashboard if you've already met the 5 order minimum. 

The Sales section calculates the sales you made within the latest review period. This will not include shipping or any additional taxes collected. The items sold must meet certain thresholds, shown in the table below, within a review period. Canceled orders aren’t counted. This section won’t appear in your dashboard if you have already met the sales criteria. 

You can track your progress towards earning Star Seller in your Star Seller dashboard.