Etsy Returns and Exchanges: Policies and Best Practices

Cassie Johnson emphasizes not offering returns or exchanges initially to simplify starting an Etsy print-on-demand business.

### Handling Returns and Exchanges in Your Etsy Print-on-Demand Business
* 👋 Welcome to my channel! I'm Cassie Johnson, a full-time Etsy seller and print-on-demand coach, here to help you **build a successful business from home**.
* ❓ A common question I've received is about **handling returns and exchanges**, and I'm excited to share my approach and insights on this topic.
* 🛠 In my mock-up store, I do not accept returns or exchanges, but I encourage customers to reach out if there are any issues with their orders, ensuring they feel **supported**.
* 🌍 For international sellers, it's essential to **research if a 14-day return policy is required**, especially when selling in Europe.
* 📊 I've sold over 20,000 items without accepting returns or exchanges, and I recommend offering **clear size charts** and stating your policy in the product descriptions to **avoid confusion**.
* 💬 If a customer requests a size exchange, I calculate the replacement cost and ask them to **cover it**, while still providing **excellent customer service** to maintain a **positive relationship**.
* 📦 In cases of shipping issues or product defects, Printify covers replacements, making it easier for sellers to **manage customer satisfaction without incurring losses**.
* ✨ Remember, focus on the **bigger picture** of your business and don't let small issues overwhelm you; prioritize **building a strong foundation** and **customer relationships** for **long-term success**.

Hello and welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Cassie Johnson, and I'm a full-time Etsy seller and Etsy print-on-demand coach. Here on my channel, I teach all things Etsy plus print-on-demand to help you start your very own successful business from the comfort of your own home. I've been getting this question a ton on my channel, and that is, do you take returns and exchanges, or how do you handle these? So, I appreciate all of you leaving your questions in the comments. I love making videos for people that ask questions in the comments, so keep asking me any questions down below. While my channel is still small, I will answer as many of them in the comments or with a video that I can. And if you haven't already, please take a moment to like this video and subscribe if you've been getting value from my content. I really, really appreciate all of you who have done so far. You're really helping to grow my channel, and I couldn't appreciate it more. So, in this

video. I'll go over whether I take returns or exchanges, how I think you should handle them, and then I'll also go over some of the most common issues that you might have with your store and whether or not you should give returns or exchanges for those as well. So, make sure to stay until the end, and I'll show you how to handle some of those more common issues that you might end up seeing with a print-on-demand business. So, starting here, I'll show you in my mock-up store. So, if you didn't know, I do sell my own mock-ups. There's a discount code for you in the description if you need any new mock-ups. But I'll show you how I handle returns or exchanges in my regular shop, but I'm using this one as an example. I hope you understand, but I don't share my personal Etsy shop since it is my family's main source of income. So, to change your returns or exchanges policy, you'd come to your Etsy store, and you'd click Edit Shop, and then you'll actually go down to the

bottom of the page here to where it says returns or exchanges for your shop policies. You click edit policies and then come down to returns and exchanges. So personally, I do not accept any returns or exchanges in my mock-up store as well as my t-shirt store. But I do have it say in my description that if there are any issues or problems with their order, to please reach out and we're happy to make it right. If you sell in other countries like Europe, sometimes you are required to offer a 14-day return policy. So if you do sell internationally, make sure you do your research on whether or not you're able to not offer the returns or exchanges. I also have that I don't accept cancellations because they are custom printed each time that I get an order. And so sometimes I do offer cancellations if someone reaches out and I still have time to cancel it from the print provider. But I don't have it selected as an option on my screen. I've sold over 20,000 items on Etsy and

so I don't think it's hurt my conversion rates at all since I've never offered returns or exchanges, but it's up to you if you'd like to offer them in your store. I personally don't want to have to deal with having customers ship the items back to my own personal home address and having to remember to ship that back out to the next customer who buys the same shirt in the same color in the same size. And so, those are the reasons why I've chosen to do it the way that I do. So, I make sure to offer a size chart in all of my listings, and I make sure to make a photo card that's one of the pictures in the listing that says I don't take returns or exchanges. So, to double-check their sizing, and I also have it in my description, the same thing, I don't take returns or exchanges unless there's an issue with the item. And then please reach out to me, especially in the beginning of building your business. There's so many things to learn about

and worry about just don't offer returns or exchanges in the beginning just to make it simple for yourself. And you can always reevaluate this later on. I'll go over when I make exceptions though. So if a customer reaches out and says they ordered a size large and it was too big and they'd like to switch to a medium. They say I know you don't take returns or exchanges but will you make an exception. What I'll do in this case is I'll see how much it would cost me for the new medium shirt in that size and that color including Etsy fees. Then I'd actually have the customer pay for what my total cost would be to replace the item. So I'll show you how I'd figure out what to actually price the replacement item at. I'll use my Etsy profit calculator here that's built into my income and expense report. If you haven't seen me show this before this is actually my expense report where I track all of my Etsy fees, advertising, design software costs, and income to see how much money I'm making.

profit per month. It has year-to-date totals, and it also has a pricing calculator as well as a profit calculator, all built in. The link to this is in the description below. It's only twenty dollars if you'd like to purchase this. The link is down below. So, using my Etsy profit calculator, we'd say, Okay, my selling price is normally 24.99, but say the cost for that shirt. So, let's say they had a medium shirt in black that they would like to get a new one of. I'd say, Okay, the shirt plus shipping is 12.87. So, including Etsy fees, which this calculates for you, the total cost for me on that item is 15.69. So, you could change just the size medium price in the listing to 15.69, so they are paying the full cost of the item. Sometimes, I've gone as low as charging only ten dollars and just eaten some of that cost to get them a replacement, but I would recommend charging somewhere close to cost since you have your policies in place that you

don't take returns or exchanges, but you're being nice offering a replacement. So here's an example of a message that I would send to my customer in this situation. I'd say, I'm so sorry to hear that the size you ordered is not working for you. We don't take any returns or exchanges on our items because we've custom printed them once they're ordered. But we want all of our customers to love their items, so we are happy to sell you a replacement in the size medium for only 15.96. Here's a link to purchase that if you're interested. Then you'd post the link to that listing with the discounted size in medium and say, Thank you for supporting our small family business, and sign your name. You always want to include this at the bottom of your messages just so they know that you are a small family-run business. It's kind of like a little guilt trip that they know they're supporting a particular person and not some big corporation. And every single time I've offered this

to a customer. They have just gone ahead and purchased the replacement and been really grateful. Now, let's talk about if there's something that actually goes wrong with the item within the shipping time frame or after it gets delivered. Some of the things that I've seen in my two years selling in print on demand is the shirt will come with a stain on it from shipping. The printing quality every once in a while doesn't come out just perfect. The item can get lost in shipping. It can say that it was delivered, but the customer says that it's not there. Or the shirt is actually smaller than what it actually says it should be for that size on the size chart. Now, these are all reasons why the customer should get to get a refund or a replacement. The great thing about selling print on demand with Printfy is that they actually will cover any of these issues. If there's an issue with the print or the shirt comes with a hole in it for some reason, you just need to get a picture from the customer and send it.

over to Printify. You just go into their chat feature, paste the order number, and send the picture, and ask for either a refund or a replacement, and Printify will be more than happy to take care of that for you. But let's talk about if there's a shipping issue. Every once in a while, items do get lost in the mail. Printify usually requires you to wait seven business days for the tracking to actually update before they send a replacement to the customer. Sometimes they may even ask the customer to reach out to the local post office to see if it was delivered there instead. So, there are just a couple of requirements to wait for and check on, and then they'll be happy to again send a refund or a replacement of the item for you. If the item says it was delivered but it wasn't, same story. You have to wait seven business days, and the customer has to check in with the post office. But again, all customers are really understanding about this, and it usually ends up showing up within a day or two anyways.

Lastly, let's talk about what to do if the actual shirt itself is smaller than advertised. So, what you do is have the customer leave the shirt flat with a tape measurer going from the corner of the armpit to the corner of the armpit and take a picture with the tape measure on top. And if the shirt is more than one inch difference than the size charts for, say, the Bella 3001, then PrintFi will also cover a replacement to get sent out to your customer. Now, if you actually mess something up, let's say you put the wrong design in, you spell something wrong, you do the wrong color ink on a dark shirt, and it just doesn't quite look right, then these are all times that I would recommend letting the customer get a replacement or a refund and you covering the cost because that's just good customer service. And we do really want to aim to get all five-star reviews since, especially in the beginning, that is a great way to help get social proof and build your business faster.

and if you missed my customer service video, I will put the link down in the description. I do have a script for you to send your customers after every time they order that covers that if they think you deserve anything less than a five-star review, to talk to you first since you want to make sure they are completely happy with their items. So, if you missed that video, go ahead and watch that one down below in the description. And I do have a full script for you to send every single customer, and you'll get way better reviews and way happier customers using that. It's really easy in the beginning to overthink things and stress out more over these little things than you need to. Please, please let returns and exchanges be this easy thing that you don't ever worry about until someone messages you. And when something goes wrong, just take care of it right away and move on with your day. Don't let the little things get to you and bog you down. And if you get a really angry customer, don't be afraid to just cancel the order.

altogether, give them a refund and actually cancel it. So, when you do cancel an order, they only have three days to leave you a review, and after that time, they will be locked from it and not be able to leave you a review at all. Instead of worrying about these little things, I really want you all to be keeping the big picture in mind and really think about what types of freedoms building this business can afford you in your everyday life. There is a really amazing future ahead of you if you can just focus on what's actually important and not let little details like this scare you off or overthink them. You really can do this. Hopefully, this video was helpful to you. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them down in the comments. I also have one-on-one video coaching calls available, as well as shop reviews, if you'd like to see if your shop is on the right track or if there's anything you can improve upon. The link to that is down in the description, and we'll see you in the next one.

How To Handle Returns & Exchanges For Etsy Print On Demand For Beginners

Cassiy Johnson

Cassie Johnson, an Etsy seller and coach, addresses the common question of handling returns and exchanges in her video.

She shares her personal policy of not accepting returns or exchanges in her mock-up and t-shirt stores, while encouraging customers to reach out for any issues.

For international sellers, she advises researching the legal requirements for offering returns, and mentions her approach to cancellations on custom printed orders.

Managing Returns and Exchanges in Your Store

The author does not offer returns or exchanges, opting instead for a simple process and clear communication with customers.

They provide a size chart and a photo card in listings to reinforce their policy.

When making exceptions for size changes, they calculate the replacement item's cost and charge the customer accordingly, using an Etsy profit calculator to determine pricing.

The business does not take returns or exchanges but offers a replacement at a discounted price.

Common issues like stains, printing errors, lost items, and size discrepancies are covered by Printify, which provides refunds or replacements.

For shipping issues, customers are required to wait seven business days for tracking updates and may need to check with the local post office before a replacement is sent.

If a shirt is smaller than advertised, have the customer take a flat photo with a tape measure from armpit to armpit.

PrintFi will cover a replacement if there's more than a one-inch difference.

For any mistakes made, such as wrong designs or colors, offer the customer a replacement or refund to ensure good customer service and aim for five-star reviews.

Building Your Business: Focus on the Big Picture

Canceling an order gives customers three days to leave a review, after which they are locked out.

It's important to focus on the bigger picture and the freedoms that building a business can provide.

The speaker offers one-on-one video coaching calls and shop reviews for those seeking guidance.