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Shipping

Understanding Shipping Profiles

Daniela avatar
Written by Daniela
Updated over a month ago

Artelo charges artists for shipping whenever we dispatch an order to your customers. The shipping charge depends on two main factors: the product's weight and the destination country. As an Artelo seller, developing a shipping strategy that works best for your business is essential. Below, we'll explore various shipping options and strategies, including using shipping profiles and templates within Etsy and Shopify.

Understanding Shipping Profiles

Shipping profiles are settings that manage and apply consistent shipping rules across your product listings. These profiles can vary based on your platform, such as Etsy or Shopify. They are crucial in determining how much you charge your customers for shipping.

Key Points about Shipping Profiles:

  • Defines a shipping charge that your customer must pay

  • Charges can differ depending on the destination country

Shipping Profiles on Etsy

On Etsy, shipping profiles are assigned at the listing level. This approach is straightforward, but getting exact shipping rates for each order is challenging, requiring a more generalized approach to shipping costs.

Example Problem: Assume you have a framed print listing with three variants:

  • 8x10 Framed Print (Artelo charges $5.00 for US shipping)

  • 12x16 Framed Print (Artelo charges $10.00 for US shipping)

  • 24x36 Framed Print (Artelo charges $15.00 for US shipping)

Since Etsy allows only a single shipping price per country for the entire listing, customers will always pay the same shipping rate regardless of the variant they choose.

Shipping Profiles on Shopify

Shopify offers more flexibility with shipping profiles, allowing you to assign them to specific product variants. Shipping rates within countries can also vary depending on weight, which is how Artelo has configured shipping profiles for you by default. This setup enables you to charge your customers exactly what you're charged for shipping, ensuring accurate and fair pricing.

Artelo's Shipping Profiles

When you create an account with Artelo, we automatically generate shipping profiles for you. These profiles can be assigned to your listings on Etsy or Shopify and determine the shipping charges passed onto your customers. You can modify or create your own shipping profiles based on your preferences.

Choosing a Shipping Strategy

Choosing the right shipping strategy is crucial for success on platforms like Etsy and Shopify. Artelo's shipping profiles provide a starting point, but you can tailor them to your specific needs and business model. The key is to balance cost-effectiveness with customer satisfaction.

General Recommendation: Always provide free shipping to customers within the US.

Common Shipping Profile Strategies

Here are some commonly used shipping strategies by Artelo artists and other e-commerce businesses:

Strategy 1: Free Shipping in the US, Paid Shipping Worldwide

  • Pros: Offers free shipping in the US where rates are cheapest; limits downside risk in other countries; increased product exposure on Etsy due to Free Shipping Guarantee.

  • Cons: Difficulty in charging exact rates for international customers on multi-variant listings.

Strategy 2: Excluding Certain Countries

  • Pros: Provides flexibility and control over margins; easy to implement; avoids customer service headaches.

  • Cons: May miss out on sales from excluded countries.

Strategy 3: Free Shipping Over a Certain Amount

  • Pros: Encourages larger orders with convenient free shipping; likely to increase conversions on higher-priced items.

  • Cons: Margins may be lowered once free shipping kicks in.

Strategy 4: Worldwide Free Shipping

  • Pros: Highest conversion rates and customer coverage.

  • Cons: Less control over margins as sale prices can't be adjusted by country.

Strategy 5: Partially Charging for Shipping (Partial Offset)

  • Pros: Lessens the burden of shipping on customers; allows for uniform and predictable shipping rates.

  • Cons: Exact margins are uncertain as shipping costs depend on the destination country.

Strategy 6: Fully Charging for Shipping (Full Offset)

  • Pros: Shifts the entire shipping cost to the customer, allowing for exact margins.

  • Cons: Lower conversion rates as some customers may not want to pay for shipping.

Creating New Shipping Profiles

You can create or modify shipping profiles directly on the stores’ platform if necessary.

On Etsy:

  • Go to settings and "shipping settings."

  • Artelo creates two shipping profiles for you to use by default.

  • Modify or create your own profiles based on your strategy.

On Shopify:

  • Go to settings and "shipping and delivery."

  • Artelo creates weight-based shipping profiles that match Artelo's charges for international shipping by default.

  • Create new profiles by clicking "Create New Profile," naming it, and adding your products and shipping zones.

Example Strategy Implementation

For a strategy of free shipping in the US and Canada and an $8 flat rate in European countries:

  1. Edit the "Artelo International Shipping" profile.

  2. Delete non-applicable countries.

  3. Add an $8 flat rate for each EU country and free shipping for the US and Canada.

  4. Save the profile.

Conclusion

Choosing and implementing the right shipping strategy is crucial for balancing cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction. Use Artelo’s tools and features to tailor your shipping profiles and ensure a seamless shipping experience for your customers.

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