Understanding Etsy Payments

Etsy recently announced that they will be requiring all sellers to set up and offer Direct Checkout to receive payments by May 17. Sellers that haven’t setup Etsy Payments by that deadline will have their selling privileges suspended on May 18. Direct Checkout is also being rebranded as Etsy Payments. We take a look at what this means for Etsy Sellers, how to setup Etsy Payments and what fees are involved.

What is Etsy Payments?

Etsy Payments (previously called Direct Checkout) is Etsy’s own payment system that allows you to offer a number of different payment options to buyers: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, integrated PayPal, Sorfort (Austria and Germany), iDEAL (Netherlands), Apple Pay, Android Pay and gift cards. It also lets buyers pay in their local currency and means that you’ll be included in multi-shop checkout and other Etsy-wide promotions.

Sales will be deposited into your bank account in your local currency, regardless of how the buyer has paid. You can create your own schedule for bank deposits either daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly, as well as requesting additional deposits at any time. Most sellers choose to get paid weekly, which means that payments are sent to your bank account every Monday, then it usually takes 2-3 days for the funds to become available to you. For daily deposits you need a minimum of £15.

Using Etsy Payments also means that you will qualify for Etsy’s Seller Protection Policy, find out more here. 

How much does Etsy Payments cost?

You’ll be charged a fee for each transaction made through Etsy Payments. For UK sellers this fee is 4% of the total sale price (including shipping fees and any applicable sales tax) plus a flat fee of 20p for each order.

These payment processing fees will appear in your Etsy payment account and will be deducted from the money you’ve taken before it’s deposited into your bank account - they won’t appear on your Etsy bill. Payment processing fees are separate from Etsy’s transactions fees, you will be charged both.

How do you setup Etsy Payments?

To add Etsy Payments to your shop before May 17 you can go to ‘Payment settings’ under ‘Finances’ within your account. You’ll be asked for your credit card, bank account details and address, and to verify your identity.

You can view your payment account by going to ‘My shop’ then ‘Finances’ and then ‘Payment account’, and you can manage when you receive deposits under ‘Finances’ then ‘Payment settings’.

How does Etsy Payments work with PayPal?

If you currently already accept PayPal payments without using Etsy Direct Checkout (standalone PayPal) you can continue to keep your PayPal sales separately. If you choose to use PayPal integrated through Etsy Payments any PayPal payments will go into your payment account and won’t appear in your own PayPal account. You won’t have to pay a separate PayPal fee for using PayPal through Etsy Payments, but once you have switched to using integrated PayPal you won’t be able to be able to go back to standalone PayPal.

Find out more about Etsy Payments here and find out how you can use Zenstores to save you time shipping Etsy orders here.