Etsy reviews: the 100-day window, and what a review is worth

Updated September 14, 2026 · 6 min read · Sources checked on publication

Reviews are the one ranking factor you can’t directly touch — Etsy names average review rating among its ranking inputs, and almost everything you might do to hurry a review along is against its rules. That makes it worth knowing precisely how the window works and what is actually permitted, because a lot of the advice circulating is against policy.

The 100-day window, precisely

Buyers get 100 days to review an order. The clock starts at the earlier of two dates: the carrier’s delivery date, where tracking is available, or the item’s maximum estimated delivery date. If no estimated delivery date is available, the window opens once your processing time and shipping time have elapsed.

Digital items work differently: 100 days from the first download, or 12 months from purchase, whichever comes first.

Two consequences most sellers don’t think about:

• Your processing time moves the review clock. Where there’s no tracking, a longer processing time delays when a buyer can review at all — one more way processing times reach further than they look.
• A review can change for 100 days. Buyers can edit a review, including the photo or video, any number of times during the window. A three-star review resolved well can genuinely become a five-star one — which makes responding to problems a concrete investment rather than just good manners.

What you may not do

This is where a lot of popular advice quietly crosses a line. Etsy’s Seller Policy says reviews and your responses to them may not include shilling or otherwise falsely inflate a shop’s review score, or undermine the integrity of the reviews system.

Separately, Etsy’s rules for Messages prohibit sending unsolicited advertising or promotions. So the common tactic of messaging past buyers with a discount code in exchange for a review runs into both rules at once: it’s an incentive attached to a review, and it’s an unsolicited promotion.

You also can’t use Messages to contact someone after they’ve asked you not to, or to direct buyers off Etsy to transact. Those are worth knowing because they shape what a legitimate follow-up looks like.

What you can do

• Include a note in the package. A printed thank-you that mentions you’d appreciate honest feedback isn’t an unsolicited message and isn’t an incentive.
• Respond to a problem promptly and generously. This is the highest-value action available, because the review can still be edited for 100 days.
• Reply publicly to an unfavourable review. Etsy allows a response, and a calm, specific one is read by every future buyer — it is often worth more than the removal you wanted.
• Remove the causes. Most poor reviews trace to a mismatch between listing and object — scale, colour, timing — which is a photography and description problem more often than a quality one.

When a review can legitimately be reported

Etsy’s policy says reviews may not be about things outside the seller’s control, such as a shipping carrier, Etsy, or a third party. That is the most common legitimate grounds — a one-star review whose text is entirely about a slow courier is arguably outside your control.

What isn’t grounds: a review that is simply negative, or unfair, or from someone who misread the listing. Those stay, and the productive response is the public reply.

What a review is actually worth

Two things, and they compound.

• Ranking. Etsy names average review rating among its customer service quality factors, assessed over a rolling three-month window. That window cuts both ways: a bad patch fades, but a current one is actively costing you placement.
• Conversion. Reviews reduce the risk a stranger feels buying something handmade from someone they’ve never heard of. And conversion is itself a ranking factor, so reviews help twice through different mechanisms.

There’s a structural point worth drawing out: because reviews concentrate on the listing that receives them, splitting a product across five near-identical listings splits its review history five ways — which is one of the quieter arguments in variations versus separate listings.

The part reviews can’t tell you

A five-star product is not necessarily a profitable one. Buyers rate whether they were delighted, and the products most likely to delight are frequently the generously-priced, labor-heavy ones you’re barely making money on. A wall of glowing reviews is a real asset and a completely silent witness on margin.

MakerMargin computes profit per product from the order file Etsy already exports, so you can put the review count next to the number that pays you. The bestseller problem covers what to do when your most-loved product turns out to be your thinnest.

The 100-day review window, its start conditions, the digital-item rules, the editing allowance, the prohibition on shilling and on reviews about matters outside the seller’s control, and the Messages rules on unsolicited promotions are all from Etsy’s Seller Policy and its help centre article “How the Review System Works for Sellers”. Average review rating as a ranking factor is from Etsy’s Seller Handbook article “How Etsy Search Works”. All read 14 September 2026.