Will you be getting an Etsy Star Seller Badge tomorrow?

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If you sell on Etsy you are probably already aware of their new ‘Star seller badge’ due to be awarded to qualifying sellers for the very first time tomorrow.

What is The Star Seller Badge?

Tomorrow, Etsy will start rewarding sellers with a Star Seller badge – making it easier for shoppers on Etsy to know you have a proven record of providing an excellent customer experience.

On the 1st of every month, beginning in September, Etsy will determine if you’ve earned Star Seller by looking back at the last three months of your shop’s performance. Here’s what they consider:

Response rate: You respond to 95% or more of initial messages from buyers within 24 hours (just the first message, not ongoing conversations).

Dispatch: 95% or more of your orders dispatch within your stated processing time and with tracking* or you purchased a postage label on Etsy. Digital orders will not require tracking information.

5-star ratings: 95% or more of your reviews have 5-star ratings.

Orders, sales, and shop tenure: You’ll also need to have at least 10 orders and $300 in sales (before postage and taxes) within the three month review period, and have been on Etsy’s platform for 90 days since your first sale.

Does The Star Seller Badge come with benefits?

According to Etsy, The Star Seller badge will be shown on your shop, signaling to buyers that they can expect an excellent customer experience when shopping from you. Other benefits include more opportunities to be featured in buyer marketing and the opportunity for increased sales.

Seems easy, right?

Not quite… the badge has caused mixed feelings among sellers because they are required to maintain a 95% 5-star rating to qualify. At first, it seems harmless but it’s more complicated than that, for instance, many buyers will give sellers 4 stars even when they loved a product and Esty seem to be classing 4 star reviews in the same category as 1 star. Oh, and if you are awarded a badge and your feedback drops, Etsy has the right to revoke your badge and you’ll have to wait until the next month to qualify again.

However, Etsy have stated that it’s likely that the criteria for Star Seller may change over time. If you’re an Etsy seller let us know in the comments what you think about this new badge! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

21 Responses

  1. Certainly one issue is Etsy never recognise a holiday day for order dispatch, so all our orders were due to be dispatch on Monday which was a bank holiday. Always been an issue on there and obviously this would effect your dispatch time with this star seller crap.

  2. Mixed feelings? Are you having a laugh? There’s 1000s of forum posts on Etsy and it’s universally hated, that’s not mixed feelings.

  3. Another issue is that they require tracking within UK for orders over £10 or a label puchased from Etsy to qualify for star seller. This is a very low figure given the high cost of sending tracked in the UK – even ebay set it at £20 not £10.

    For small low value items which can be posted as letter or large letter size with Royal Mail, Etsy labels are up to 40% more expensive than using a mailmark franking machine or OBA rates.

    There is no tracking for letters or large letters with Etsy labels so no advantage to customer but yet another cost to seller.

  4. Has anyone seen any of these star seller badges yet? It’s September and thus far I have seen none…

  5. I qualify for star seller, at least this time around. However…They have launched a three month rolling program with one months notice and thousands of bugs in their metrics. They seem to be hard at work fixing them but today’s the day and too many stores are trying to prove their metrics are still off and seemingly unreliable. It makes stores care less. But as we have seen in the past( like free shipping promise of higher placement) not all programs work the way promised. Uk customers are seeing that Etsy doesn’t really care about their unique Royal Mail situation and astronomical tracking expense and are being forced to buy an Etsy shipping label no matter the cost. In reality getting closer to one of the hidden benefits to Etsy of this program. Our customers are either overjoyed are they aren’t. Tracking with Etsy labels shouldn’t be a qualification, I’m in the USA…FYI.

  6. I was qualifying with 100% in all criteria until this weekend.
    However, I didn’t ‘reply’ to a thank you note sent to me during the early hours on Sunday morning by an overseas buyer who was super pleased wth their purchase.
    It was a Bank Holiday here in the UK, so did not pick this up until Tuesday morning.
    Too late!! Not replied to within 24 hours.
    Some messages don’t need a reply, as they are not asking a question.
    Thanks a lot Etsy. Rules is rules eh?

  7. Its Sept 1st, mid day here in Florida, and no badge yet!
    Even though I qualify, I think this is the worse one yet by Etsy!
    Extremely unfair to most hard working creatives and shop owners!
    I don’t need them to baby me, or my business… reminds me of Dr. seuss’s Sneetches story with the ones that had starts and the ones that didn’t and the superiority complex. Etsy is trying to keep up with other platforms, forgetting that being different is actually good… I feel sad for Etsy 🙁

  8. I hustled to hit all the metrics because I was dragged down by a local order that I hand delivered because it was the next town over. No tracking number meant it dropped my on time score. Met all criteria and as of 2:00 PM still no badge.

  9. Not happy at all, I had 100% on replying to messages but then dropped suddenly to 88% after not responding to a spam message!
    Not sure how long it will take to even reach 95%☹️☹️

  10. It’s obvious that if you don’t already have a star seller badge the only way to get one will be to pay for it through marketing. I’m sure that is the plan on Etsy’s side. If you’re not pulling in $300 a month already when this new badge takes effect than clearly you never will unless you up your marketing budget drastically. From where I’m sitting it looks like the end of Etsy. At least the Etsy that advocated for artists and the micro business.

  11. The star seller program is a joke. There are too many variables that are out of sellers controls.

    Buyers will leave a 4-star review even if they say they love the item. I have reached out to the last two people who left me one asking what I could have done better. The response was they rarely leave 5 stars unless they feel the seller has gone above and beyond. They loved their item, it arrived on time and was just as advertised. Buyers don’t have any idea how their ratings affect us.

    I had delivered a couple items not knowing that the star seller thing was coming. They go three months back to figure if you earn it so those hand deliveries count against me for not having tracking.

    There are so many more. Take a minute to peruse the Etsy forums and you will see a ton of very unhappy etsy sellers. Oh and I have over 5,000 reviews with a 5 star average but the two 4 star ones I got in the last 3 months mean I don’t qualify. Idiotic.

  12. So now I have to make my low vallue items, which I ship worldwide, twice as expensive so I can ship them tracked? As it is 98% gets delivered, 2% gets refunded and I have nothing but 5-star reviews.

    What’s wrong with the star review system? Why not let the customer decide if they are happy with the seller?
    Why this badge with metrics which may work on average but obviously not for many buyers and sellers?

  13. I have not received the star seller badge as I’ve not responded to 2 messages within 24 hours. I have been working hard on my handmade business for 3 years and to be told this is very disheartening especially when I feel these messages were junk messages. I pay Etsy plus £100 a month in fees and they can’t even respond to a complaint within 48 hours. How can they judge sellers on a criteria they can not meet

  14. I just about managed to get one, literally by the ‘skin of my teeth’ but as for October’s list I now see that I don’t qualify to be a star seller as I received a 2 star rating on an item the customer ‘really liked’!! It will take ages to get my ratings up again.
    So…. yes… you are quite right when you say some of these ratings are completely out of the seller’s control when you can do absolutely nothing about the star ratings no matter how hard you try.

  15. For any of those are worrying about not getting the badge – don’t!
    I received mine, it’s a tiny little thing that not all buyers will even notice and since having it my sales have plummeted. (I will be taking this up with Etsy) I had to run a sale to get the numbers back up to near normal rates. At this stage you may even be better off not having it!

  16. As an online consultant and someone who owns and operates multiple online it’s never advisable to have to much riding on any online marketplace, you can be suspended over night for no real reason, sales can drop off for no real reason etc…

    Etsy firstly implemented offsite ads despite many complaints and seller didn’t have the option to opt out, this meant many sellers profit margins decreased dramatically. This star seller business is yet more poorly thought out implementation and despite thousands of complaints Etsy have implemented it and stuck with it!

  17. I’m having issues with the messaging system. I respond to every single person who contacts me within 24 hours or less. On my cell phone I have six messages that seem to be stuck and won’t clear. When I tap the message button on my cell phone no message comes up that says I did not respond. Something is wrong with this system and it’s not working properly. I have complain to Etsy numerous times but they seem too. Understand.

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