How to cancel an Etsy order as a seller (and what happens to your fees)
A buyer asks you to cancel, an item turns out to be out of stock, or you simply can’t fulfil an order. Here’s how cancelling works on Etsy, and what it does to your money.
Who can cancel
Only the seller can cancel an Etsy order — Etsy doesn’t cancel orders on a seller’s behalf, and buyers can’t cancel on their own. A buyer who wants to cancel has to message you and ask.
Etsy recommends messaging the buyer before you cancel, so they know what’s happening.
How to cancel
- In Shop Manager, go to Orders & Shipping and open the order.
- Choose to cancel, and pick a reason from the list.
- Check the refund amount Etsy shows, add an optional message to the buyer, and confirm.
A message you can add for the buyer:
In the Etsy Seller app, open the order, tap More → Cancel order, and follow the same steps.
If you already bought a shipping label for the order and won’t use it, request a refund for the unused label too.
What happens to the money
- The buyer gets a full refund.
- Etsy credits back your listing and transaction fees for the cancelled order, and you aren’t charged any extra fee for cancelling.
- If the buyer paid with Etsy Payments, the refund goes back automatically. If they paid another way, such as PayPal, you have to refund them through that method — and refunds made outside Etsy can’t get your Etsy fees back.
Refunding is not cancelling
These are two separate actions:
- Refunding (full or partial) returns money but doesn’t cancel the order. Use it when the buyer keeps the item but gets money back, or for a partial refund.
- Cancelling voids the whole order and always means a full refund.
If you refund in full and the order shouldn’t go ahead, you still need to cancel it from Orders & Shipping.
Time limit
With Etsy Payments you can refund an order up to 180 days after the payment was processed. After that, you can’t refund through Etsy Payments.
Cancel rather than leaving an order you can’t fulfil open. An unshipped order past its dispatch date can turn into a buyer case — see Etsy return policy and cases.