Here’s the dreamed of scenario for any Etsy seller: log on and open your e-mail and lo and behold, there is an Etsy Transaction notification! So. . . What happens next?

Well, it may be a little different depending on the seller, the product, and so on. So I’ll have to shift now to my own limited experience with sales on Beaded Jewelry by Susan. First, I have to tell my husband David:

“David, guess what?”
“What?”
“We just got an Etsy sale!!!”
“That’s great!. Are you going to feed the cats now?”
“Soon.”

Okay, the next step is to see if there is a PayPal payment notification e-mail. If not, I frown and worry a bit and then send off an e-mail (and a convo, just to be sure) to the buyer with instructions about how to re-access the Purchases page and click on the Button for PayPal payment to go through. I also send a “convo” as we call it on Etsy, using their Conversation messenging system. (For additional tips about convos, please see this Handmade Spark post from Febuary.)

Sometimes it seems that buyers do not understand that the checkout for Etsy is a two-stage process: they need to click on the PayPal button. For my shop, I only accept PayPal. I do just two local shows per year and my online sales don’t happen very often [yet, she said—full of hope], so I don’t accept credit cards directly because the companies charge fees every month. However, customers can pay for any of my jewelry using PayPal or the credit cards that PayPal accepts.

Etsy buyers do not have to be PayPal members in order to make a purchase. PayPal does not require them to set up an account to purchase from my Etsy store. They can simply make the payment using their own credit card, and PayPal acts as a go-between.

If there is notification, I smile and send an e-mail and a convo to the buyer. So what’s in the e-mail? First of all, I always include a thank you for purchasing the jewelry (name the item) at my shop (name my shop) and express the wish that the buyer will enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoyed designing it.

Then I tell the person when I will be shipping the item. I usually also ask if he or she would leave feedback on the shop site after receiving the package. I always include the URLs for my shop and my blog.

Next I print out the Etsy transaction e-mail and check to see if the address is the same on the PayPal e-mail. If the addresses don’t match up, I e-mail the buyer again to verify where to ship). Printing out the transaction page gives me a paper copy to use for addressing the mailing package, a place to write a few personal words of thanks, and a copy of the shipping address to enclose inside the mailer in case of postal damage.

I go to my Etsy shop and click on “Sold,” and then I add a quick feedback note of thanks to the buyer, maybe including an “Appreciation Photo” of some more jewelry the buyer might like or maybe a picture of me. If I have time, I might do a quick Twitter note exclaiming about having a sale!

Next I head for my inventory of jewelry and hunt down the lucky item for the lucky buyer and prepare it for mailing, including a business card of course, and lots of bubble wrap. I remember to put a return address label on the mailer and to include the e-mail printout inside with the shipping address. All of my jewelry is shipped without cost to the buyer. I do that partly because I don’t like to pay for shipping when I shop online. But of course that is a personal choice of each seller.

Then we make a trip (sometimes, I admit, a little later in the day when we’re going out anyway to grocery shop or something like that) to the local post office, just a handful of blocks north in downtown Urbana, where David reminds the postal clerk not to put the package through the machine and mash it!

I follow-up with an e-mail letting the buyer know that I have mailed the package. And finally: I can walk around all day (at least) with that warm glow of knowing that something I’ve created has been shared, is probably going to be enjoyed, and has even been paid for! Yeah!

~Susan Campanini