Said It Here

Deciding whether to include shipping in item prices

Etsy sellers struggle to decide whether to roll shipping costs into their item prices or use calculated shipping amidst constantly rising carrier rates and platform visibility concerns.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Using calculated shipping instead of bundling shipping into item prices
  2. 2
    Keeping free shipping only for low-value local options while testing separated shipping for a month
  3. 3
    Searching online or asking communities for data or opinions on inclusive pricing
  4. 4
    Relies on the standard US practice of adding sales tax at checkout

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Etsy2 people · September 2026

“Hi I’ve gone back and forth on this and I currently have some of the shipping cost in the price of my items and put shipping at $3.50 to keep shipping under the $6 Etsy states will cause less people to see your item (or something like this).”source ↗

“It makes me look less competitive on price and I think it is hurting my sales.”source ↗

Fireinmyplace · r/Etsy · 1 upvotes

“with shipping proces going up and up, its less of a good tactic, as it will make the product price look excessive before people even get to the line that says free shipping.”source ↗

Few_Mention8426 · r/Etsy · 1 upvotes
r/smallbusiness1 person · October 2026

“I want to add sales tax to price tags in my future retail establishment, my Dad(partner in the business) doesn't. I'm looking for data to show which way is actually better.”source ↗

“The problem is I can't find any data that says either way is correct or incorrect.”source ↗

Daratirek · r/smallbusiness · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/Etsyr/smallbusinessbusiness partnershipecommercepricing strategyshipping costssmall business

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