UK Sellers Can Let Royal Mail Print Etsy Shipping Labels for Them

Etsy is offering a new feature that lets UK sellers pay for shipping and have Royal Mail print the labels upon dropping off their packages. “Now, when you buy domestic Royal Mail shipping labels on Etsy, you can present each label’s unique QR code at any Post Office location, and they’ll print your labels for free,” it announced on Tuesday.

While it saves sellers paper and ink, it does not save sellers time. It appears to be for casual or low-volume sellers, since it requires sellers to show the Etsy QR code when dropping off their packages so the clerk can scan it. “It’s the perfect option if you don’t have a printer at home—or have one but want to save the time and expense of using it,” Etsy wrote.

After buying Royal Mail shipping on Etsy, sellers are given the choice of printing the shipping label or viewing a QR code – the seller must take a screenshot of the QR code on their mobile device, Etsy explained, providing more information on a help page.

That’s different than the QR codes for USPS shipping labels offered on eBay, which actually emails the QR code to sellers who opt to use them.

We searched Etsy to see if it offers shipping label QR codes for USPS but didn’t find any information.

Note that the Royal Mail QR code feature is available only for the desktop and mobile web versions of Etsy.com and is not available on the Etsy Seller app.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She’s a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of “Turn eBay Data Into Dollars” (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, “Blogging Heroes” (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 – present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 – present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.