Etsy Purchase Protection with your own label
Every order you ship meets the four conditions Etsy sets, so a lost or damaged parcel is covered up to $250.
Checked against Etsy's What is Etsy's Purchase Protection for Sellers on September 13, 2026.
Before you start
- Your shop processing time, as the listing states it
- A tracked service on every order, whoever sells you the label
- The Help with Order inbox checked daily
Steps
-
Ship inside your processing time
Get the parcel to the carrier within the processing time the listing promised. This is the condition sellers fail most often, and it is not waived by messaging the buyer.
You should see the parcel accepted by the carrier on or before the last day of your processing time.
-
Complete the order with valid tracking
Add the carrier and the tracking number, then select Complete order. Etsy's condition reads "Valid tracking was provided and/or it was mailed out with a shipping label purchased through Etsy", so tracking alone satisfies it.
You should see the order in the Completed tab with the number on it.
-
Leave third-party insurance off the parcel
Etsy makes an order ineligible when it is insured through a third party. Choose one route per order: Etsy's cover, or your own insurance.
-
Answer a Help with Order request within 48 hours
Once a buyer opens a case, the 48 hour reply is part of eligibility. A reply that asks for photographs still counts as a reply.
You should see your reply on the case, timestamped inside the 48 hours.
If it goes wrong
- Assuming Etsy labels are required
They are not. The wording is "and/or", so valid tracking on a label bought anywhere keeps the order covered (help.etsy.com, checked 13 September 2026).
- Expecting the cover to scale with the order
It does not. Etsy states that "Etsy will cover up to $250" and says so even where the order total is higher. Above that figure the exposure is yours, and insurance is a per-parcel decision.
- A completed order with no tracking
Completing an order under a documented exception leaves nothing for Etsy to verify. On anything you cannot afford to lose, buy the tracked service instead of using the exception.
What happens next
The one real cost of an outside label is the Star Seller shipping score, because Etsy says its own labels "positively impact your Star Seller shipping score" and the measure is "95% of orders ship on time, with valid tracking or a shipping label purchased on Etsy (when required)". Valid tracking satisfies that measure too, so the score follows your on-time record rather than where the label came from.
Tracked USPS and UPS, so the condition is always met
Every label we sell is a tracked USPS or UPS service, and the number is ready to paste into Tracking information. Insurance is a per-parcel choice at purchase, which is the point to remember on anything worth more than $250. Weight comes from your saved product presets or from what you type once.
Related questions
No. The condition is "Valid tracking was provided and/or it was mailed out with a shipping label purchased through Etsy", which valid tracking meets on its own.
Up to $250 per order, and Etsy states the figure holds even when the order total exceeds it.
No. Etsy treats an order insured through a third party as ineligible, so pick one route per parcel.
Then nothing is triggered. The 48 hour rule only starts once a Help with Order request exists, and missing it is what costs eligibility.