Etsy fees

[Deleted]

If anyone gets a chance and has the inclination to help me figure this out, I would be grateful.  (I am pretty bad with numbers. Challenged, shall we say?)

My tiny etsy shop is doing ok and I've had it since Oct.  I don't put a lot of work into it but here goes...

Revenue       $129.32 as of Jan. 1
Paid to etsy   $108.49 as of Jan. 1

sales by month=$5.71, $19.19, $66.84, $16.75

20 cents to list (usually have 40 items average) 3.5% transaction fee.  whatever the PP shipping fee is.

Apparently I'm not making much money for my trouble.  I did lose out on shipping twice--once, I was being nice by sending something Express for Christmas. It came to about $24 but I let them pay $20 for shipping.
The other time I lost out was with an afghan that I calculated wrong on the shipping & lost a lot, maybe $10 even.

Any genius (would be a genius compared to me) see a pattern here?  Do I need to pad my shipping? Is it PP that's killing me?  I print labels through etsy and I think there's a discount.  

For comparison, on ebay I am TRS+ and I know I get discounts for that.  Also, I use the 50 free listings and that is all.  But no matter what I did on ebay I was always ahead of the game, not like this.

I'm too embarrassed to ask on an etsy forum but maybe I'll call etsy and ask if no one here can straighten me out.  I think I am LOST.  I can't find the answers in the etsy sellers handbook.

[SA]

I'm not on etsy so hopefully another etsy-er will be able to help better.

Is there a breakdown of fees on your invoice? Does it break it down for you to show you where your $$ went?

[RetroMonde]

That seems awfully high to me too but I'm not a number cruncher either. You didn't somehow get opted into their "free" website, did you? When they first offered that service there was a problem with people clicking to check it out and getting signed up without knowing. You need to go over your invoices with a fine-tooth comb and maybe you'll see something obvious you missed. Good luck!

[Deleted]

Jan 1, 2017 23:49:03 GMT SA said:

I'm not on etsy so hopefully another etsy-er will be able to help better.

Is there a breakdown of fees on your invoice? Does it break it down for you to show you where your $$ went?

Not a breakdown that I can see.  Just the amount of each sale and shipping amount. I can't figure out why I had to pay so much.

Maybe I will have to look for a phone number to call etsy.

[Deleted]

Your shipping labels get charged to your invoice vs coming out of your Paypal. Are you accounting for that?

[Deleted]

Well, I have swallowed my pride and posted on their forum:

Wait...now I see the breakdown. On Dec. 27th I had to pay $50.09 to PayPal when I needed to print a label for $16.35. It said I didn't have enough money to print a label until I paid the $50.09.

It says "Payments & credits: - $58.22 Credits and payments you've made"

Maybe that ^^^ is what I'm not understanding?

Then today my bill was due and I paid around $16 more I think.

[chapeaunoir]

Jan 2, 2017 1:17:36 GMT @fashionboulevard said:

Your shipping labels get charged to your invoice vs coming out of your Paypal. Are you accounting for that?

Yes, everything is bundled onto your Etsy account under 'fees' as you actually purchase your labels through Etsy.

Go to dashboard -----> your bill ------> select month.  It will show you a complete breakdown.

For instance, my fees in Dec. were $410, but that included shipping on everything I sold that month, which was 23 items, plus listing fees and FVFs.

ETA: I don't have anything coming in to or out of paypal for Etsy.

My fees come out when they've hit $500 - that's about every 6 weeks or so they're charged to my CC and I just pay it all off then. When I started it was $300 ceiling.

[Deleted]

Thanks. If I look at it again tomorrow with the above explanations I MIGHT be able to wrap my brain around it.

So I probably have nothing to worry about. whew. Thanks. xxx

[dutchjazz]

I'm confused by this -

Revenue $129.32 as of Jan. 1
Paid to etsy $108.49 as of Jan. 1

sales by month=$5.71, $19.19, $66.84, $16.75

You say 'sales by month', but when I add those numbers, it equals the paid to Etsy figure. So those are your monthly fees then and not sales?

If you only took in $129.32 and paid to Etsy the $108.49 and this figure doesn't include your shipping, it looks like you are losing money.

[dutchjazz]

I just looked at your store and your shipping seems fine to me. So it doesn't make sense that you would be losing money. The cost of the item should cover the fees since the buyer is covering the shipping.

Have you looked at your "Payment Account Info." That's where you'll see your sale minus the fee. That sale figure includes what the buyer paid for shipping also.

Then you can go into your completed orders and get the shipping totals.

With these figures, you should be able to figure out how you are doing.

Take the sales figure and subtract your fees and your shipping totals and you'll see your net profit.

(This doesn't take into account any listing fees.)

[unknown]

Revenue $129.32 as of Jan. 1
Paid to etsy $108.49 as of Jan. 1

Where did you get those figures from? I don't do labels through etsy so my 'payment history' just shows the amount I received, fees paid to etsy, amount sent to my bank.

There's also a link at the bottom of the 'payment history' so you can download your whole history if that'll help.

[Deleted]

Well, this is advanced mathematics to me. duh.

But it's starting to make sense that they are including the shipping that I paid into my fees. But that's not really the way it is because if I subtracted what the buyers paid for shipping, it would come out right.

Also, a couple of people on the etsy forum explained that new shops have a threshold, a set amount that you cannot exceed until you pay in. That explains why the other day I was trying to print an Express label for $23 and this thing popped up saying that I did not have enough money in my account to print a label.

Here's where I'm still lost. I think I had enough money in PP so there must be some etsy escrow type account! They said that after a while your threshold is raised. It just works differently from ebay that I am so accustomed to. OH--they said the total fees on etsy are only 7%, lowest of any place.

dutchjazz, I'll do what you suggested. Later. (brain is not awake yet). Unknown, those figures are on my Billing pages on etsy.

[unknown]

Ok, the 'threshold' they have on me is $25. But since I don't do labels with them, it may take a whole year to get up to owing them $25. I just paid 'em $4 yesterday. That was my bill.

What I think is borked is your setup with etsy and labels. They're not taking your label money out of paypal, they're adding it to your 'fees' and that counts against your threshold - and then they prolly take a chunk out of paypal if that's what you use to pay your fees.

Go and doublecheck how labels are paid - betcha $.25 it's through etsy and not paypal

etsy only fees are 3.5% IIRC - plus the $.20/item cost. WAY cheaper than ebay

[chapeaunoir]

Your labels are paid through Etsy if they're printed through Etsy.

[Deleted]

Yeh, they're printed through etsy. It's confusing going between ebay and etsy but I like the etsy site SO much more. Its format is intuitive and the appearance is attractive and uncluttered.