Etsy Sale Marked as Gift by Buyer

Some time has passed since I, a shop owner, opted out of offering gift wrap services at Etsy, so I was stumped when I recently received my first "marked as gift" order.

Did the buyer expect me to wrap this gift? I couldn't recall having enabled the gift wrap option, and didn't see any clear indication of how to proceed. There were no notes from buyer, and a quick web search only led to a few old Reddit threads. Eventually, the Etsy help page appeared in my search and of course had the answer I was looking for.

There are two "gift" order circumstances a seller may encounter on Etsy, so the first time a seller gets a sales notification that indicates a buyer "marked" an item "as a gift", they may encounter confusion. However, Etsy makes it pretty simple.

Here's what it looks like to a seller when a buyer (ID hidden, below) has purchased an item and, prior to checkout, "marked as gift":

According to Etsy, when a buyer marks an order as a gift on their end, "the slip will automatically omit the breakdown of what the buyer paid."

That's it. When a buyer marks an item as a gift, they should do so with the understanding that there are no special, manual requirements on the seller's end. The buyer is able to tick a box specifically because they don't want a packing slip with pricing information (as they're normally printed). The gift icon notification that a seller sees serves as a flag to expect, and deliver, a different kind of packing slip. In fact, Etsy automatically substitutes an appropriate packing slip for sellers when a buyer has marked an item as a gift.

The other gift order circumstance involves a shop owners who have programmed via account/item settings to offer gift-wrap services in addition to their product/item sale. If your shop or item hasn't advertised that gift wrapping is included for free, then it's not a task to undertake.

Sellers Sometimes Will Wrap Regardless of Buyer Need

Some sellers always wrap their items as a gift, free of charge, and there are certainly circumstances that fit the practice. Overall, however, if a seller performs extras for a buyer (like gift-wrapping a gift that a buyer hasn't requested them to wrap), then any related business cost of wrapping is unduly resting on that seller. Over time, that friendly business favor will add up exponentially. Plus, a seller offering such freebies may limit themselves to providing the service indefinitely.

While a shop owner may be comfortable and enjoy going this extra mile for customers, they may also want to consider the direction that mile may lead. Are they giving it away because it's actually an affordable business practice that leads to more sales, or only because they have the time and money to spare personally, for now.

For shop owners who want must operate within budget and who desire to follow the parameters of Etsy guidelines, simply shipping a package neatly and safely packaged as you normally would will be sufficient. Again, Etsy does the work for you.

Here's a sample of the packing slip that is Etsy-adjusted per buyer request for an obvious gift presentation:

You can see here that the gift packing slip lacks any pricing information. This way, not only will gifting cost be hidden, but also the buyer can hand or send the package to their gift recipient and know that, should the recipient have any issue with the product, they can easily refer to the shop owner that sold the product for any guidance.

The line down the middle represents the area where the slip may be folded, for a card-like appearance. A seller could use a card stock in place of regular paper, and may even add a note under specific direction from their buyer (another buyer-select option that occurs prior to checkout on their end).

We hope you've gathered enough information here to help you decide whether or not to gift wrap your "marked as gift" order at Etsy. Do refer as well to Etsy's help article on the subject. Perhaps your buyer never found the tick box option and they've inboxed you to let you know that the order is a gift. Find out how to mark it yourself on the order record.

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