When you connect your Etsy shop to Printful and publish products, shipping profiles are automatically created and assigned in Etsy. These include the country of origin, processing time, and estimated delivery times, which are everything Etsy requires to display delivery estimates to buyers.
Automatic shipping setup
Printful automatically pushes flat-rate shipping profiles to Etsy for every print-on-demand product you publish. These profiles include:
- Country of origin
- Fulfillment time (2–6 business days)
- Delivery estimates based on customer location
Here’s a general overview of delivery times included in Printful-generated shipping profiles:
| Territory | Business days |
| United States | 3–6 |
| European Union | 4–10 |
| United Kingdom | 4–8 |
| Canada | 3–10 |
| Australia | 3–20 |
| New Zealand | 10–20 |
| Brazil | 3–18 |
| Iceland | 5–9 |
| Liechtenstein | 5–9 |
| Norway | 5–9 |
| Switzerland | 5–9 |
| Japan | 3–10 |
| Everywhere else | 7–20 |
Shipping for warehousing products
Printful’s shipping automation only applies to print-on-demand items. If you’re selling products stored at our warehouse, you’ll need to create custom flat-rate shipping profiles directly in Etsy and assign them manually to each product.
If you sync products manually
When you add products on the Etsy side and sync them manually on Printful, you’ll need to double-check the shipping setup:
- Go to Shop Manager → Listings → Shipping
- Assign the correct existing shipping profile or create a new one
- Choose the appropriate shipping category
Don’t edit Printful-generated shipping profiles
Shipping profiles created by Printful are updated automatically. If you manually change these profiles, any edits will be overwritten during the next product update or sync.
To customize shipping, follow these steps instead:
- Create a new shipping profile on Etsy
- Add your custom settings (additional countries, different processing times, etc.)
- Assign your listings to this profile
Tip: To save time, you can also copy a Printful-generated shipping profile in Etsy, rename it, and then make your changes. This way, you don’t have to start from scratch.
Understanding how shipping charges are calculated
Printful charges you shipping per item, while Etsy calculates customer shipping using this logic:
- The most expensive item’s shipping rate is charged as the “first item”
- All other items use the “additional item” rate from your Etsy shipping profile
By default, Printful sets the additional item rate to $0.00, which means customers won’t pay extra shipping for multi-item orders, but you’ll still be charged for each item by Printful. This can lead to lost profit.
Tips to avoid shipping cost mismatches
To make sure you’re not undercharging for shipping:
- Review each Etsy shipping profile, especially the additional item cost
- If needed, create a custom profile where you adjust additional item rates
- Use realistic pricing strategies to make sure shipping costs are covered
This setup helps avoid undercharging, but is something to consider when setting your product prices and shipping strategy.
Live shipping rates are not supported
Etsy doesn’t support live carrier rates from Printful. All shipping is calculated using the flat-rate profiles set in your Etsy account, so it’s important to make sure those rates reflect actual fulfillment costs.
Learn more about setting up shipping with Etsy
- Why Etsy shipping rates may not match Printful flat rates?
- Can I change the country of origin for my Printful-generated delivery profiles?
- What are the delivery details on my Etsy store?
Still need help? Our Support Team is here for you—reach out anytime through our contact form or start a chat with us.