Offering gift wrapping services on Etsy can be an additional revenue stream and also perform a service that customers will like.
However, you need to make sure that you’re charging enough to account for your materials, your time, and the fees that Etsy charges for the things that you sell!
How to set up gift wrapping options on Etsy.
To offer gift wrap on Etsy:
- Go to your Etsy shop dashboard.
- Click on Settings.
- Click on Options.
- Scroll down to “Offer gift wrapping.”
- Click the button next to “Enable and set price.”
- Choose a price from the dropdown menu.
- Add a photo of your gift-wrapping option if you’d like to show customers what they’ll receive
- (Optional- scroll to the next section and enable gift messages)
- Click “Save” at the bottom of the page.
- Your gift-wrapping and gift message options will show up in the shopping cart.
Setting up a gift wrap option isn’t difficult, but it’s also not for every Etsy seller. Depending on the cost, you might not be able to afford it. Read on for more specifics about that.
How to decide whether to offer gift wrap or not.
When you’re deciding whether to offer gift wrap in your Etsy shop, you need to take the cost of the wrapping materials and the cost of your time into account. You also need to remember that the weight of the gift packaging might increase the cost of shipping, so that’s an additional cost to manage. You’ll also be charged fees on the amount that the customer pays, so you need to account for that, too.
Etsy only lets us choose between a range of $1 to $5 for the cost of your gift wrap, so we’re limited about how much we can charge.
If gift wrap will mean that the package is too heavy to ship, or if the cost of the wrapping paper itself is going to be too much, that price range might not be worth it for you.
If that’s the case you can always turn on the gift message option. That lets people who click the box that says the order is a gift to leave a message that will print out on the gift receipt, or you can write it in handwriting and add it to the package.
The customer doesn’t pay for that, but it will let you offer them something if you can’t afford to do the gift wrap.
What does the customer see when gift wrapping is an option?
When you have the gift wrap options turned on, the customer will be able to check the box that says “this order is a gift” when they check out. When this box is checked, the gift options will show up.
If you have both the gift wrap and gift message options turned on, the customer will see both, but if they choose gift wrap, the message box will close.
If the customer only checks the gift message box, they can add a free message that will print out on the receipt. You should all that to the order so that their message arrives with the package.
If they check the gift wrapping option, they’ll be able to add a message in that box, and the cost that you set for the gift wrap will be added to the order total.
Etsy doesn’t always display that gift wrap is an option on the listing itself, but sometimes they do, so customers might see it as an option while they’re shopping. This can help to make someone decide to buy the listing.
You also need to be VERY careful with gift wrap, because if a customer chooses gift wrapping, pays $5, and has ordered multiple items, you’re expected to wrap all of them!
This is a technicality that people don’t realize until it’s too late, and one viewer of my YouTube channel told me that they had learned that lesson the hard way!
To avoid this happening to you, you can use this alternate method of offering gift wrapping.
An alternative way to offer gift wrap.
If the gift wrapping and the cost of shipping is going to cost too much for you, you can also add a variation for a wrapped item that will cost more than the $5 max that Etsy lets us choose. Add the price into the variation that includes gift wrapping, and you can set that up to be any amount.
This will still let people add a gift message if you have that enabled, and you can price the different variations (with or without wrap) at a price that will cover your costs and your time.
The only problem with this is that if you want to do it that way, you’ll have to add the variation to each listing individually. And if you ever want to take it off, you’ll need to do that on each listing too.
So using the variation method can cover your costs better, but it’s a lot more work as far as going through and setting it up.
If you want to do it that way, you should decide whether it will be worth it to you to go through all of your listings, or if your items aren’t really something that people buy as gifts.
If you don’t sell things that are commonly bought as a gift, it might not be worth the time. My products aren’t really gift-y things, so I just turn the gift message option on, but I don’t offer gift wrapping.
If you do decide to gift wrap, you’ll need to figure out the costs next!
How to figure out how much to charge for gift wrap on Etsy.
To decide what to charge for gift wrap, you need to take the cost of the wrapping materials into account, plus the cost of your time, and the fees that you’ll be paying for the additional charge on Etsy. In addition, remember that if the order came through an off-site ad, you’ll be paying that fee on top of the other fees.
If you charge $4 for the gift wrap, the fees will be around $1 or a little more if the off-site ads brought the sale. Then if your payment processing fee is higher based on the country you’re in, that can increase it.
If the weight of the gift packaging increases the cost of your shipping, you might end up losing money, so you’ll need to estimate the additional postage costs.
And you still have to account for the cost of your time.
Make sure to figure everything out for your own products and shipping so that you don’t end up losing money!
How to cut your gift wrapping costs on Etsy.
To reduce your costs, your best bet is to buy your supplies in bulk if you do a lot of gift wrapping, or to buy inexpensive supplies when you have a chance. Depending on the branding of your shop you might not want to use less expensive supplies, so you’ll need to shop around.
One option is to go to the discount store and buy a bunch of basic gift bags, then use those with a branded sticker, or decorate them with stamps or drawings. Leaving them blank is also fine!
I would use a gift bag and put the item in, then put some tissue paper that matches your branding colors, then tape the bag shut with a sticker and add a gift tag. That’s all that you need to do, and it will look nice and serve the purpose.
If you can get some nice gift bags during the post-holiday clearance sales, you can find some that are a solid color and aren’t necessarily for a single holiday, then use those throughout the year.
You can also get inexpensive gift bags on Amazon or other packaging sources. (I write about some of those paper sources in this article: Shipping Supplies on Etsy)
Think of things that you can use to wrap gifts that will be low-cost and still fit your business personality.
For example, if you sell something that’s on the rustic side, you can use inexpensive butcher paper and twine to wrap your items.
Be creative and you’ll be able to think of ways to do your gift wrapping, and it can also act as a piece of your branding.
To see the full Artisan Shopping Directory sections, including signups for discounts, click here.
Offering gift wrap can add an extra incentive to get people to buy your products, so if you sell something that’s commonly given as a gift, it can be a good add-on. Just make sure that you can afford it in cost and time!
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