44 | Stop Answering "When Will My Order Ship?" [TDTH Challenge #11]

Your customers are not trying to be difficult when they ask “When will my order ship?” They are trying to feel safe buying from a small business. If you sell handmade or made-to-order t-shirts, a clear shipping policy is one of the fastest ways to reduce stress, cut repeat messages, and raise the trust factor that helps first-time shoppers finally click buy.

We dig into the real reason shipping questions pile up: most buyers do not understand processing time versus shipping time. I explain how to define turnaround time in plain language, how to show the true timeline as processing plus carrier delivery, and how one simple clarification can prevent the Wednesday panic follow-up. We also talk about how to handle delays with proactive communication so you stay in control of the customer experience.

Then we build the policy itself. You will leave with a clean checklist of what to include in your ecommerce shipping policy: processing time, shipping rates and how they are calculated, delivery estimates, tracking details, shipping restrictions, international duties notes, and what to do when a package is lost, marked delivered, or arrives damaged. I also share practical placement tips so the policy is easy to find across your website footer, FAQ, product pages, order emails, and even pinned social posts.

Want a simple template and Shopify shortcuts? I point you to the exact Shopify path (Settings, Policies) and a plug-and-play structure you can customize quickly. Subscribe, share this with a fellow t-shirt seller, and leave a review so more makers can turn down the hustle and build a calmer shop.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Weekly Challenge

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Turn Down the Hustle. I'm really glad you're here for this week's challenge because this is one of those simple business tests that can save you a lot of stress once it's done. Actually, the theme for all of my challenges. If you're new here, the Turn Down the Hustle challenges are short practical podcast episodes for people just like you, handmade t-shirt sellers that want to build a business that feels easier to run. This week we're talking about creating a shipping policy for your website. If you already have one, stay tuned. Don't go anywhere, don't hit next or back, because this would be a good opportunity for you to quality check or QC your current shipping policy. If you sell t-shirts online, chances are you answered some version of these questions over and over again. When will my order ship? How long does shipping take? Do you offer local pickup? When will this get here? Will it get here before my vacation? And if you do not have a clear shipping policy, these questions end up in your inbox, probably personal inbox too, your DMs, your comments, your Facebook group. And then for those of us lucky enough to have that customer, maybe they'll end up in all of those places. So today we're going to fix that. We're going to talk about why every t-shirt business needs a shipping policy, what to include in it, where to put it, and how to make it easy for customers to find. And then also a few Shopify tips to make that easier if that's your platform. Shopify is what I use, it's what I know and love. So I can help you along the way if you are a Shopify user. By the end of the episode, you should have a really clear idea of what your shipping policy needs to say and also where it needs to live.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

You're listening to Turn Down the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your wife, people, and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tea and turn up the deepfrost. Because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host, digital marketer, culture lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl, and owner of Sunkist virtual assistant, Amy.

Why A Shipping Policy Matters

Processing Time Versus Shipping Time

What To Include In Your Policy

Where Customers Should Find It

Template, Shopify Setup, And Challenge

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Why every t-shirt business needs a shipping policy? Let's start with the big question. Why does this matter so much? I feel like you always have to start with why. That's actually a book. It starts with why. Before you do anything, you should ask yourself why. A shipping policy matters because it sets expectations before a customer has to, and that's really a big deal. At least to me it is. One of the easiest ways to create structure in your business is to leave room for confusion. The customer doesn't know when something's shipping, how much shipping costs, or what happens if there's a delay, they are going to ask. And when they ask, that becomes one more message. You have to stop it and answer. No, okay. One message, not a big deal. But when that answer is one you're having to give over and over again, it starts to add up fast. Sometimes it puts you in the position of feeling like you have to defend something that could have been explained up front. Do you guys ever feel that way? Like where you're just simply explaining your policy, but because the customer didn't find that first were themselves, they almost I don't want to say accusatory, but sometimes it feels like you're making it up on the spot, or you're only making that policy that way because it's them, like in a negative light, versus now, this is actually my policy. So a shipping policy acts like a built-in customer service assistant. It tells people what to expect, it can answer those common questions, help people feel more confident about placing an order when they know what to expect. And honestly, I think it helps your business look more established and professional too, with all of those clearly defined policies. When a customer lands on your website and sees those policies that are very clear, it signals that you hatched that through the customer experience. It's not a hobby page, they're on together, you are running a real business. And that matters because we talk about it over and over again on the podcast. Like no trust factor, trust is a huge part of getting people to click pie, especially if they're ordering for the first time, which those are the hardest customers to convert, are those first time shoppers. And for t-shirt sellers like us specifically, it matters even more because how many of us are generating our orders as made to order. We're not Amazon, we're not pulling mass-produced inventory off of warehouse shelves. We're printing, pressing, packaging, shipping, and we typically do that in smaller batches, often whenever we can around family life and RLI. So if you do not explain that clearly, customers may assume their order is operating on a timeline that does not match your process. Hiring people have gotten those messages a day after they order, or a customer orders an asset their order has shipped yet. It's honestly flattering that you think I could work that fast. But no, I am not Amazon. I am not working in Giant Warehouse, and this is not my nine to five job. I appreciate the thought, but no, your order has not shipped. A shipping policy is gonna protect your time and help customers showing form, and that's why it's worth creating. Moving on to processing time versus shipping time, because they are two different things. This next part, it's a probably one of the biggest misunderstandings our customers typically have. If you do not explain the difference between the two, customers often assume the whole process should move faster than it realistically can. Processing time is the amount of time it takes you to prepare the order before it ever leaves your hands. That includes things like ordering your designs or printing your designs, ordering your shirt, printing the shirt or pressing the shirt, folding, packaging, everything, like until it is sealed, that is processing time. Shipping time is what happens after the package leaves you. That is the amount of time that whatever mail carrier you decide to select, it takes to get from your hands to your customer's doorstep. So, for example, maybe your processing time is five business days, or I think a more realistic one is about 10 business days. Then once it ships, maybe standard shipping takes another three to seven business days, depending on where the customer lives. And, you know, what type of shipping they chose. That means the total time is not three to seven days. It's your processing time plus the carrier's delivery time. And that's where customers can get confused. They may place an order on Monday, and by Wednesday, they're wondering why it has not arrived yet. Not because they're trying to be difficult, but because nobody explained the process clearly or maybe it wasn't posted. Your shipping policy is where you can define the difference in those two different things. So you can put something like turnaround time, which is also synonymous with processing time that are made to order typically ship within 10 business days. Once shipped, standard delivery usually takes three to seven business days, depending on location. That one clarification can save you so many follow-up messages. It also helps you protect your PAs because it gives you something clearly to point back to if someone's confused. Hey, remember that box you checked when you checked out? That's a the same thing you're asking me. You're not making up the timeline after the fact. You're pointing back to the policy they had access to before they ordered. And that's why policies are so helpful. They make the expectations visible and, like I mentioned, binding if you had them agree to them before they checked out. All right, so what are we going to include in this shipping policy? The good news is your shipping policy does not need to be long or complicated. It just needs to answer the questions that your customers are most likely to have. So the first thing to include is your order processing time or turnaround time, whatever you decide to settle on. This is where you will explain how long it takes you to prepare an order before it ships. If your shirts are made to order, say that. If your standard turnaround time is three to five days, say that. If it changes during the holidays, busy sale periods, mention that too. You can also include a cutoff time, if that matters. For instance, if orders are placed after a certain time, count it as the next business days. Typically, we are all not doing this nine to fives. I found the majority of my listeners, we have somewhere else that's occupying our time, even if you're a stay at home mom. You are nine to five is stay at home hum, so working on your business during the day is not really realistic. So typically we just treat it as next business days when the order turnaround time starts. Which sidebar, if you're gonna go over order processing time or your turnaround time, I recommend putting that in your shipping policy and say that if I anticipate going over my turnaround time, I will contact you via email. That kind of gives them a reassurance that, look, I don't need you to reach out to me multiple times. Like I can guarantee you, if I'm gonna be late, I will communicate and let you know it may be late. And then you can also offer some store credit, three to five dollars to credit their order, depending on how late you're gonna be, just to make sure it's before they even ask. The best example I have of this is when you go through your Chick-fil-A line and it's been a little bit long, you know, the line. And then you get your bag and you're just thankful to have your food. And the next thing they hand you a five dollar coupon or something for a free sandwich and say sorry about the weight, and you're wait, what? I wasn't even really upset about the weight. It's almost like before I even had time to think, wow, this is frustrating. They were already trying to make it better. So that's what I recommend you do. If you know you're gonna be late, you reach out first and offer some sort of compensation of a smallest or credit. I think that goes a long way in customer service. Okay, the next section of your shipping policy. So, first thing was order processing time. The next section is gonna be shipping rates and costs. You need to let your customers know how shipping is calculated. Do you charge flat rate shipping? Do you calculate it by weight? Do you offer free shipping after a certain dollar amount? Do you offer upgraded shipping options? And what that specifically means within your website shipping settings is you just have a flat rate. You'll see it if you go in the back end of your website. It should be easy to walk through which one you want to choose, like flat rate, like all the orders cost eight dollars or calculate it by weight. That's what I choose to do in Shopify. I have all of my shirts listed as eight ounces. So depending on how many shirts they add to cart, it automatically figures it out by weight. And then I also think it's like a 10%, I think it's 10% I have of an upcharge of the, I believe it's by the shipping cost to cover my shipping materials. So that's not coming out of the shirt order, and I'm not getting paid for it out of the shipping because shipping is just flat rate. So I cushion it just a bit by about 10 cents or sorry, 10%. And that covers my poly mailers, stickers, printing supplies, all of that good stuff. And then that is passed on to the customer through their shipping charge. And these are one of the areas that really matter because nobody likes surprises at checkout. And if you notice that a lot, that you get a lot of abandoned carts at checkout. There's apps where you can follow along the customer journey, or you'll be able to see your abandoned cart rate in your analytics. Ask yourself why. Are there additional fees that are being added that are catching them off guard? It could be a multitude of things. One could be your shipping, that's the focus of this episode. But it could be also things like requiring them to have an account to check out. Maybe you don't have a lot of variety of different payment methods that's causing them to abandon their account. That's something to look at. Next, you want to include some delivery time estimates. This is where you're going to explain how long packages typically take once they are actually shipped. So this might look like standard shipping usually arrives in three to seven business days, depending on the carrier and destination. And it's helpful to remind customers here that delivery times are estimates from the carrier and not fully in your control once the package leaves your hand. For this episode specifically, I have, I think it was like two, or I guess maybe a week and a half ago. A friend of mine from Oklahoma, she ordered some St. Patrick's Day shirts. And I was like, yeah, they'll get to you. No problem. I am not concerned at all. I even paid for priority just to be safe. Like, I didn't want the ground shipping to just go in circles or grant ground advantage. I checked it today. It went, I'm in Panama City. It went to Pensacola, back to Jacksonville, back to Georgia, got no track, had no tracking for a bit, and then finally landed in Texas. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And I reached out to her. I'm probably gonna have to make you know this order. Somehow she might not get these in time, which is wild. Thankfully, today it shows that it just checked into Oklahoma City. So I think it's gonna be delivered tomorrow in time for Tuesday somehow. But that just is an example that delivery times are estimates. Depending on your platform, you can add on different apps that actually show on that product page where it'll actually display if you order today, you should have the order, whatever the terminology is, you should have the order by this date. And it gives them an idea right there before they even add to cart when they could expect it. Another section to include is shipping restrictions. If you don't ship to P.O. boxes, make sure you have that. If you only ship within the United States, if there are any locations you don't currently serve, if you offer international shipping, a lot of this stuff you can configure and restrict within your shipping settings on the back end of your website. But in case a customer is trying to like, why isn't this working? Why isn't this working? It'd be better just to tell them how you have the back end configured. Let customers know when you ship abroad, whether they are responsible for custom duties or fees in their country. It's important because international customers they typically understand these fees, but they still it should still be stated clearly. You also want to include tracking information. Let people how let people know how they'll receive their tracking number. Usually that's by email or through your website platform when the order ships. And that matters because customers they do want to be able to follow along their package. And then finally, include what happens if a package is lost or arrives damaged. You don't need a huge dramatic paragraph here, just very simple, clear process. For example, if a package arrives damaged, tell them to contact you within a certain amount of days and include photos. If the package is marked delivered, but they can't find it, tell them what steps to take first, which sorry, Barn. Or I guess we'll go a little bit more in depth on this one. If a customer says that my package was delivered, but it's not showing delivered, there's really nothing you can do. They need to work with their local post office to ask for the GPS coordinates of that package and it will actually show exactly where it was delivered in case it was delivered to the wrong house or if it was left in the mailbox. I don't have a statistic to guess, but for me, I can only recall one time where it was act when I told a customer to do that. It was actually delivered to the wrong house, and it was one of those streets where like on the next street over is like the exact same house numbers. And they just went over there and picked it up. And they actually said that happens to them a lot. All the other times, either when I told the customer to do that, I either didn't hear back. So they told me maybe they actually did get the package, or two, it was either like delivered in a box or it was actually sitting in their mailbox. It wasn't at their porch like they were expecting. So always, if they say it's delivered, but it's not at their door, just redirect them to their local USTS office to help them out and get those geo cords. Now, the goal is not to cover every possible wild scenario in the history of shipping, but the goal is to cover the most common questions. That way they can feel more confident about their purchase. Moving on to where to display your shipping policy. I dropped a few hints, but we'll get more specific on it. Now, writing your shipping policy is only really half the work. The other half is making sure people can actually find it. Because if your policy exists, but it's buried somewhere in a random front of your website where no one ever looks, you're going to end up still answering these questions. Let's talk about where we're going to put it. The first and most obvious place is. I'll give a little pause to see if you can answer it to yourself in the corner or why you're pressing. Where do you think is the first and most obvious place to put your shipping policy? If you said website footer, that is correct. That's the section at the bottom of your website that stays pretty consistent from page to page, which is amazing. Most people expect to find important business links there, like contact info, privacy policy, shipping info, things like that, or how to contact you. If your shipping policy lives in the footer, it's really easier or easy for customers to access, no matter what page they're on. Another great place is your FAQ page. If you've taken earlier challenges before, then this is a perfect place to build upon that FAQ page challenge. You can add a short summary and question like how long does shipping take, then give a quick answer, but link it to the pool shipping page policy. The reason why I like that is if you ever want to update it, you don't have to go back to your FAQ and or you might have disparate information, like, oh shoot, one says this, one says that. Just hyperlink it so it will always be updated from the main blog page. Or you can just answer it very shortly, like how long is your shipping time? Just answer it in one sentence and then say if you want more details, click here and that's where it'll go to the expanded page. Product pages are also another smart piece. As I've alluded to, when someone's browsing a specific shirt, shipping is often already on their mind. They're wondering how soon can they get it, especially if they need it for an event, school day, trip, holiday, you name it. So on your product page, it helps to include a short shipping note like order ship within three days and then link to the full policy. You can also include your shipping policy in confirmation emails and shipping emails. Customers tend to save those emails, especially order confirmation emails because they might need to refer back to them later. If your shipping and return links are included in the email footer, super easy to find. Or if you can pin a post in your Facebook group, one of those like turnaround time shipping posts, have that tagged. Easy way to do that as well. A lot of social shoppers want quick answers before they message you. And if the information is already linked, it makes that buying process that much smoother. Bottom line, your shipping policy should not just live in one place. I guess technically it does live in one place, it's the shipping policy page, but we are going to display it across our website, emails, social pages. The more you places you put it, the more useful it becomes. All right, now it's the part of the episode where it's time to take action. It's time for that shipping policy template I talked about on some of those Shopify tips. If this episode feels overwhelming at all, I want to say this very clearly. You do not need to start from a blank page at all. So a simple template like the one I'm going to provide can make this so much easier and achievable. The basic structure is processing time, shipping methods, delivery estimates, tracking info, loss or damage packages, and local pickup if you want to include that as well. Then you just fill in the details that fit your business and you're done. Now, I do want to add in one important note: I am not a lawyer. So if you use a template, just think of it as like an educational starting point or like for info. It's not legal advice. Every business is different, every state and situation is different. So make sure you uh consult the appropriate professionals if you want it to be properly legal winding. If you use Shopify, this process is actually pretty simple. So head to your Shopify admin page, go to settings, then go to policies, then add your shipping policy right there. Even has a template where you can hit enter template and then you just fill in the information. Also should super helpful. Once you save that, depending on the theme you have on Sharpify, it might actually automatically show up in your footer once saved. And that's a huge win because it takes out more steps to try to figure out. And if you're not on Sharpify, most platforms have a way to create a page and link it in your footer or navigation. The main thing is not the platform, just the main thing is getting the policy done and making it easy to find. So if you're listening to this episode and you want just that quick template I'm talking about, go to sunkisstepa.com forward slash 44. That's this episode 4.4. And then you'll be able to see in those show notes where that policy template is located. So here is your turn down the hustle challenge for this week. Write your shipping policy, sit down, create a simple page that explains your processing time, shipping methods, delivery estimates, tracking details, and what a customer should do if a package is lost or damaged. Then save it and hit publish. Once it's live, make sure you actually use it. We need to link it in our footer. Reference it in that FAQ, add it to confirmation emails if you can, add it to social. This is one of those systems that does not feel glamorous, but it will save you time over and over again. Every time someone reads the answer and send a message you, that's the system doing its job. And you can stop answering. When will my order ship?