Want to cancel an order as an Etsy seller? If yes, you’re in the right place. As you make sales on Etsy and grow your store, you encounter instances where your customers request order cancellation. Yes, things like that happen.
You may not be responsible for a cancellation, but the way you manage it matters. In this article, you will understand how to cancel an order on Etsy as a vendor and learn some practical steps to outwit a cancellation request.
To cancel an order on Etsy as a seller:
- See if You Could First Negotiate With the Customer to Avoid the Cancellation
- Familiarize Yourself With Etsy’s Cancellation Policies
- Differentiate Between a Cancellation Before Shipment and One After Shipment
- See if You Could Replace the Product if This Is a Cancellation After Shipment
- Understand What Could Generally Cause a Customer to Request an Order Cancellation
- Ascertain That the Order Cancellation Complies With Your Store’s Policy
- Learn How to Cancel an Etsy Order
- Understand How Etsy Order Refund Works
- Know Order Cancellation Impacts on Your Etsy Seller Ratings
- Follow up With the Customer Afterwards (if Applicable)
Good to go? Decipher this article till the end.
1. See if You Could First Negotiate With the Customer to Avoid the Cancellation
To cancel an order on Etsy as a seller, see if you could first negotiate with the customer to avoid the cancellation. Find out why your client demands to cancel an order. Can you discuss with the customer and find a better way of solving the issue instead of cancelling the order? Know your client’s pain point and suggest your solution to the patron, perhaps, he or she may decide to not cancel the order anymore.
2. Familiarize Yourself With Etsy’s Cancellation Policies
To delete an order as a seller on Etsy, know the platform’s cancellation policies. Understand the guidelines Etsy outlined that justifies you to cancel an order. Some of the guidelines are:
- The customer fails to make payment. Feel free to cancel an order if the customer fails to pay for the item ordered or you do not receive the payment.
- The patron initiates the cancellation before you ship the item. If a patron changes his or her mind after successfully placing an order for an unshipped product and requests cancellation, you can cancel the order. One more thing, you must refund the customer’s money in full. But before you withdraw the order, find our why the client is no longer interested in the product. Delete the order if the customer insists on cancellation.
- The item a customer orders is no longer available. Initiate an order cancellation if you fall short on delivering the exact product a customer ordered.
- The client didn’t receive the item’s delivery. You patron can demand you cancel an order if he or she doesn’t receive the order delivery. This situation is somewhat tricky as some client may want to defraud you.
In all, an order cancellation on Etsy must fullfill any of the four guidelines above and involve refunding your client in full.
3. Differentiate Between a Cancellation Before Shipment and One After ShipmentU
To grasp how cancelling order works on Etsy, know the different between a cancellation before shipment and one after shipment. If you haven’t shipped an item before a customer requests cancellation, you can cancel the order and refund the customer in full. However, the customer is responsible for the return cost if you cancel an order after you ship it.
4. See if You Could Replace the Product if This Is a Cancellation After Shipment
To know how cancelling an order works as an Etsy seller, see if you could replace the product if this is a cancellation after shipment. Reship the product if you can so you can avoid cancellation in a situation where a patron complains of empty box delivery or not receiving the item at all.
5. Understand What Could Generally Cause a Customer to Request an Order Cancellation
Understand what could generally cause a customer to request an order cancellation as you sell on Etsy. When a client demands you cancel an order, the reason may be the customer doesn’t receive the exact product s/he orders, you fail to ship the product on time, the item encounters physical deformation during ship, or the patron doesn’t receive the order at all.
Avoid any of the factors that can make your clients to initiate order cancellation. Understand that some buyers are scammers. They receive the order and yet claim empty box delivery. That said, use trackable posting or shipping service to avoid claims such as an empty box delivery from your clients.
6. Ascertain That the Order Cancellation Complies With Your Store’s Policy
Before you start selling on Etsy, setup your store’s policies. Then ensure that any order cancellation complies with your store’s cancellation policy. You can create returns and exchanges, privacy, and cancellation policies for your store. To start, login to your store and open Shop Manager.
Click Settings and select Policy Settings. Decline any order cancellation request that doesn’t comply with your store’s policy.
7. Learn How to Cancel an Etsy Order
To cancel an order on Etsy, know how to do it. Follow the procedures below to cancel an order on Etsy:
- Login to your account and open your Shop Manager.
- Click on Order and Shipping.
- Select Cancel an Order.
- Select Cancel and indicate why you’re cancelling the order. Here, the system shows you the amount to refund to the buyer.
- [Optional] Attach a private message telling your customer the reason for cancelling the order.
- Click Cancel Order to conclude the process.
8. Understand How Etsy Order Refund Works
To cancel an order on Etsy as a seller, understand how Etsy order refund works. Refunds on Etsy are straightforward, and the process depends on your payment method. If you use Etsy Payments, the refund process is automated—the system refunds the buyer immediately the cancellation completes.
Assuming you don’t have enough balance on your Etsy account while cancelling an order, the system charges the card associated with your account to complete the refund.
However, if you use other payment methods—PayPal, for example,—you will perform the refund manually. Ensure you confirm from your Etsy Shop Manager the exact amount to refund to the customer. Perform the refund immediately you cancel an order.
Don’t forget that you can’t cancel a processing order on Etsy. Wait between 24 to 72 hours until the processing time is complete before you cancel an order.
9. Know Order Cancellation Impacts on Your Etsy Seller Ratings
Order cancellation on Etsy affects you seller ratings, impacting your store’s visibility negatively. Seek to meet your buyers’ expectations to keep them from opening a case against you. One other thing is that the longer a case against your store lingers, the more it becomes difficult for new customers to discover your store from Etsy search results.
10. Follow up With the Customer Afterwards (if Applicable)
To maintain delighted customers as you sell on Etsy, follow up with any customer that requests cancellation after you approve the client’s request. If a buyer’s demand for cancellation is just, quickly reconcile with the customer after you successfully cancel the order and refund the customer.
The reason is to ensure you keep your clients happy, therefore boosting the likelihood to selling to them again.
Recap
Cancelling orders on Etsy happens here and there on Etsy. The frequency of it depends on your store’s growth. But before you cancel an order, see if you could first negotiate with the customer to avoid the cancellation, and familiarize yourself with Etsy’s cancellation policies.
Know the difference between a cancellation before shipment and one after shipment, see if you could replace the product if this is a cancellation after shipment, and understand what could generally cause a customer to request an order cancellation.
Ascertain that the order cancellation complies with your store’s policy and learn how to cancel an Etsy order. Dare to know how Etsy order refund works and learn how order cancellation impacts on your Etsy seller ratings.
Reconcile with your customer after cancelling an order.
