Etsy Shipping Label Update Sparks Seller Privacy and Security Concerns
Recent changes adding shop names to Etsy shipping labels raise security and privacy concerns as sellers search for ways to opt out.
The label updates appear to have gone into effect in the last few weeks with shop names now being shown on labels regardless of previous settings, according to sellers in the Etsy community forum.
Last week, USPS labels purchased via Etsy started showing the seller Etsy shop name on the return address. This is going to be a problem for several types of Etsy sellers:
Any seller with a shop name including the words "jewelry," "coins," "collectibles," "antiques," etc. (valuable items) now faces a higher risk of mail theft.
Shop names including words related to sexual wellness products, LGBTQ products may cause potential customer embarrassment or harm due to the packaging now displaying that information.
I'm not familiar with all the categories of products sold on Etsy, but I'm sure there are additional categories where buyers would also not want the store name displayed.
Seeing the shop name may effectively spoil a gift surprise for the intended recipient.
Other sellers confirmed that previous generic information like "shipping department" or acronyms/abbreviated names they had been previously entered in their settings to make labels more discrete are now being replaced by their full shop names when labels are printed through the platform.
Some suggest using alterative options for purchasing labels like Pirate Ship while others say they've found a workaround that may be available when accessing Etsy in some browsers.
If you use Firefox as your browser, you can click on the pencil near the top right of the screen, right above the gray, and then click on the black square to change it to white, increase the thickness, and you can then erase the extra name you don't want on your return address before you print.
Have Etsy's recent shipping label changes negatively affected your business? Let us know in the comments below!
