If you’re a buyer on Etsy, there might come a time when you need to contact an Etsy seller about something.
There are a few places on Etsy where you can contact a seller. and in this article I’ll show you the easiest ways to do it on desktop and on the app.
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Sending a message to an Etsy seller using a desktop or laptop computer.
If you’re using a desktop or a laptop computer, it’s pretty easy to find places where you can contact a seller and send them a message. Here are a few ways that are easily available on Etsy.
Send a message from the shop’s homepage.
The easiest way to contact a seller on Etsy is to go to the shop’s homepage and click the contact button under the profile picture on the right.
That will bring up a contact form that you can type into, and Etsy will send the seller the message for you using the Etsy messaging system.
Be aware that this is not an instantaneous conversation, even though it looks like a support chat message.
Some Etsy sellers don’t check their messages more than once or twice a day, so you have to give them time to respond because you might not get an instant answer back.
I try to respond as soon as I can, but a lot of people have full-time jobs and do Etsy as a part-time job, so they’re not checking their phones as often as I am.
Send a message from the Etsy listing page.
Another way to send an Etsy seller a message is to go to the specific listing that you’re looking at, and scroll down to the place where it has the shop logo.
There’s a message button right there, and you can use that to send a message the same way that you would from the shop’s homepage.
Again, this uses the same text-like message system, but the seller isn’t guaranteed to get the message right away, so you might need to be patient when you’re waiting for a response.
Etsy’s Star-Seller category ratings require that sellers respond to messages within 24 hours, but a lot of sellers take the weekends off, so you might not get a response back immediately.
To see the full Artisan Shopping Directory sections, including signups for discounts, click here.
Sending a message if you’ve placed an order and need to contact the seller.
If you’ve placed an order and you need to contact the seller about something, like canceling the order or sending a photo to personalize it, you can go to your purchases and reviews section in your Etsy profile.
Click on your profile picture, and that will open up a menu of choices that you have there.
Click on “purchases and reviews,” and that will take you to a page that has a list of all of the things that you’ve ordered on Etsy.
You might think that you need to click the “messages” button here, but that’s only to see messages that you already have.
If you’ve sent the seller message before now, you’ll be able to click on “messages” and find that conversation to ask your question.
But to send a new message about an existing order that you haven’t messaged about before, click on “purchases and reviews.”
Choose the order that you want to message the seller about by clicking “help with order” on the right side of the page.
The downside with this method of contacting a seller is that it doesn’t give you many options other than complaint-type choices.
If what you need help with isn’t a problem with the order, just choose “I want to message the seller about something else” at the bottom of the choices, and then click “Send help request.”
That will send the seller a message through the Etsy messaging system exactly the same way that they would receive a message through the other two methods above.
The difference here, though, is that it makes it look like an official complaint from a customer, so it throws a lot of Etsy sellers off because of that.
I would suggest that if you just want to contact a seller about something that isn’t a complaint, use one of the other two methods above, because it’s a little less terrifying for us as sellers.
Sending a message to an Etsy seller using the Etsy app.
If you’re using the Etsy app there are also a few ways that you can contact a seller to send them a message.
Send a message from the Etsy shop’s homepage.
If you search for the Etsy shop and go to their homepage on the app, there’s a little chat box icon at the very top of the app that you can tap to send that seller a message.
To find a shop, you can search for the shop name and click the little icon on the left of the search bar to choose search by shop.
Once you’re in that shop tap the the icon at the top right to send a new message.
That will open up a text box where you can enter a subject and type your message. Click “Send” when you’re done, and Etsy will send that seller the message.
Sellers check their messages on different schedules, so just be aware that it might take a while for them to get back to you.
Send a message from the listing page on the app.
If you’re on a listing page on the app, there’s also a chat box at the very top, so if you click that icon you can send a message to the seller.
If that icon doesn’t appear, you can also scroll down on that listing page, and click “message seller” button directly under their profile picture on the listing page.
Again, just remember that sellers don’t necessarily answer questions immediately, so don’t expect an answer right away.
Etsy’s messaging system for Etsy as a business uses chat bots to answer questions right away.
However, every Etsy shop is run by a different person who might not have they’re full attention on their messages on Etsy at every given moment.
So if you don’t hear back right away don’t be surprised, because most people will answer as soon as they can, we just might not see the message immediately.
Send a message from your purchases and reviews on the Etsy app.
To send a message from your purchases and review section on the Etsy app, click on the “You” icon at the bottom of the app page.
This will take you to your personal profile page, and you can click on the “purchases” button there.
Scroll to find the item that you want to send a message about, and click on that to open up the order information window.
Look for the name of the shop on that page and right underneath that, there’s a “message seller” icon that you can tap to open up the Etsy messaging system.
When this window opens up you’ll be able to send a message and it will reference the order number that you’re talking about, so the seller will be able to see what the order was.
Should you email an Etsy seller directly?
Sometimes you might try to email an Etsy seller instead of sending them a message on Etsy.
However, it’s better to keep all Etsy communications on Etsy in the message system there.
It helps Etsy to monitor conversations in case there is a question that comes up with an order, and it also helps Etsy sellers to keep everything in one place.
If there are emails going one place and Etsy messages going another place it’s easy to lose track of details, and orders can get messed up pretty easily that way.
To see the full Artisan Shopping Directory sections, including signups for discounts, click here.
How should I contact an Etsy seller about special orders or wholesale questions?
If you want to contact an Etsy seller about doing a custom listing that you don’t see on Etsy in their shop, don’t send them a message on Etsy about it.
If an Etsy seller has a website, they generally have a contact form there that you can use to contact them about sales on their website and custom orders.
Etsy has strict rules about taking sales off of Etsy, and if you send an Etsy message it can cause problems for the seller if they don’t sell those items on Etsy and only sell them on their website.
If you want a custom order, or anything that isn’t sold on Etsy, it’s always better to contact that seller through their website contact form or through other types of social media if you can send them a message that way.
Unless you’re contacting them specifically about buying something that’s in their Etsy shop, Etsy shouldn’t be the first method that you use to send a message to a seller.