Selling internationally on Etsy

Etsy is a popular marketplace for handmade, crafty and unique gifts - products that will appeal around the world to shoppers. Opening up your retail business to international shoppers will enable you to target a much larger customer base, capture seasonal trends and holidays in other countries and ultimately increase sales, growing your business.

We take a look at the best ways to sell on Etsy internationally, and how to manage international shipping on Etsy.

How to sell internationally on Etsy

Setting up your Etsy shop for international sales is relatively straightforward as you just need to set up shipping rates for other countries and areas, and translate your listing titles and descriptions.

Etsy international shipping

Etsy’s search filters will allow shoppers to only view listings that ship to their country, therefore it’s essential that you set up international shipping so you appear in search results outside of the UK.

You can add international shipping rates when you set up your shipping profiles. You can find this under ‘Shop Manager’ then ‘Settings’, ‘Shipping settings’ and click on ‘Add a shipping profile’ - this will allow you to set shipping rates for both domestic and international orders that can be applied to product listings. Find out more about setting up shipping profiles here.

Alternatively, you can specify your international shipping rates for different destinations on each listing. You can manage shipping destinations for existing listings by following the below:

1. ‘Shop Manager’ > ‘Listings’ and then select the listing you want to edit
   
2. Within the ‘Shipping section of the listing, next to ‘Fixed shipping costs’ click ‘Add location’
   
3. You can choose the countries that you want to ship to and fill in the cost for each one under ‘Shipping costs’. You can also select European Union or Europe non-EU to set shipping costs for all countries within those categories (rates set for specific countries will override the cost you’ve set for the region). 
   

‘Everywhere Else’ allows you to specify a flat-rate shipping cost for all countries that you haven’t set up with specific shipping costs. You can remove ‘Everywhere Else’ from your shipping destinations if you only want to ship to a few selected countries.

Find out more about setting up international shipping rates here.

Translating Etsy listings

Listings are automatically translated on Etsy - shoppers searching the site in a different country will see listings in their preferred language. With automatic translations enabled your listings will appear in searches by shoppers using another language. If you disable it, then your listings will only appear if you’ve provided a manual translation for that language. You can control whether or not your listings are automatically translated:

1. Go to ‘Shop Manager’, click ‘Settings’ and then ‘Options’
   
2. Under ‘Automatic Listing Translation’ choose to enable to disable it then click save. 
   

Manually translating Etsy listings

Etsy has recently enabled sellers to manually translate their listings into different languages. If you’re able to write fluently in another language, entering a manual translation will ensure that everything is translated correctly, optimised for search engines and makes sense.

1. Go to ‘Shop Manager’ > ‘Settings’ > ‘Languages and translations’, then click on ‘Manage languages’
   
2. Add the language that you want to use. 
   
3. Then go to your ‘Listings’ section in your Shop Manager dashboard and select one to edit 
   
4. Scroll down within the listing to the ‘Translations’ section. You’ll find designated language fields where you can enter your title, description and tags (optional) in the language you’ve selected. This will override automatic translations. 
   
5. On your shop page, you should translate your shop title, shop announcement, the message to buyers, shop sections, about your shop section and shop policies. 
   

Find out more about translating your Etsy listings for international shoppers here.

Shipping international Etsy orders with Zenstores

Setting up your Etsy shop to enable international orders is simple, but dispatching your parcels overseas can be complicated and expensive. It’s common for online retailers to use a number of different couriers to ensure that they can utilise a range of services and always find the best value, especially for international orders.

You can connect your Etsy account, as well as multiple couriers, to your Zenstores account, making it simple to create shipments and dispatch your parcels with a range of couriers and services.

Zenstores integrates with Royal Mail, Parcelforce, DPD, DPD Local, APC Overnight, MyHermes, Yodel and postage comparison service, Parcel2Go. Find out more about how Zenstores can help you dispatch your international Etsy orders here.

Learn about making the most of international shoppers here.