Etsy messages: where to find them, and how to answer the ones that matter first

Etsy messages are under Your account, Messages on Etsy.com and the Messages tab in the Etsy Seller app. Fix missed alerts, use 5 templates, reply faster.

By Sohel Rana, Co-Founder, OLL.E

Published October 31, 2026

Etsy messages live in one place on desktop and one in the app. On Etsy.com, go to Your account and select Messages (sellers also reach it from Shop Manager). In the Etsy Seller app, tap the Messages tab. That is the whole map.

The harder part is noticing the right one in time. A new message reaches you twice: as Etsy's notification email and as a push from the Etsy Seller app. That matters later. An app that reads your Gmail can watch the email on any phone, but reading another app's push on iPhone needs extra hardware, because iOS doesn't let apps read each other's notifications in the background.

Why do sellers miss Etsy messages?

Because an Etsy message arrives looking exactly like everything else. One more email. One more banner on a lock screen already holding order pings, sale alerts, a bank text and three group chats. Nothing about it says "this one is a buyer about to pay you".

And a lot of them are. "Can you ship by Friday?" is rarely idle curiosity. It usually means a birthday or a wedding, a buyer with a date, and a few tabs open on other shops selling something close to yours. In our experience, the shop that answers first often gets the order.

The rest of the inbox is noise: people asking for free samples, odd "collaboration" offers, the kind of random messages Etsy's own forums and Reddit have plenty of threads about. Treat them all the same and the good ones drown.

Why am I not getting Etsy message notifications?

Work through these in order. Most of the time it is the phone, not Etsy.

1. Check Etsy's email settings. On Etsy.com go to Your account, click Account settings, then the Emails tab. Under Your Notifications, make sure messages are ticked, and choose Save Settings.
2. Check the notification settings inside the Etsy Seller app on every phone that should hear about messages. A reinstall or a new phone is the usual way these get switched off.
3. Let the phone show Etsy Seller notifications. On iPhone that is Settings, Notifications, then the app. On Android, open Settings and search for 'Notifications', then find Etsy Seller and allow sound and the lock screen.
4. Look for anything holding banners back. On iPhone, check Settings, Focus and Settings, Notifications, Scheduled Summary. On Android, open Settings and search for 'battery optimisation' and take Etsy Seller off the list.
5. Search all of Gmail, spam included, for Etsy. Message emails filed under Updates or Promotions can be left silent.

If messages are all sitting there when you open the app but none of them made a noise, Etsy delivered them fine. Look at the phone. The same fixes are written up in more detail in Gmail notifications not working.

How fast should Etsy sellers reply to messages?

Etsy's own bar is 24 hours. To qualify for Star Seller, its help centre says you must "reply to 95% of first messages in a thread within 24 hours". Only the first message in a conversation counts, and auto-replies count too. You can see your rate in Shop Manager under Customer service stats (in the app: More, then Customer service stats under Performance).

Twenty-four hours is fine for Etsy's maths and too slow for the buyer who is comparing three shops right now. A quick auto-reply keeps your Star Seller stats happy and tells the buyer nothing they wanted to know. For a custom order question or a shipping date, aim for minutes, not a day. Everything else can wait for your evening coffee.

Set the auto-reply anyway. It costs nothing.

As for whether a buyer can see that you read their message: Etsy's help centre doesn't say, so we won't guess.

Etsy message templates that sound like a person

Etsy lets you save these as Quick replies. On Etsy.com, open any message, choose View all below the text box, then Add new and Quick reply. Swap in the bits in brackets every time. Buyers spot a template that still says [name] from across the room.

A custom order question

Hi [name], yes, I can do that! For [what they asked], it would be [price] and take about [time] to make. If you're happy with that, I'll set up a custom listing for you today.

"Can you ship by Friday?"

Hi [name], if you order by [day], I can post it [day] with [service], which usually arrives [estimate]. I can't promise the carrier, but I'll send tracking the moment it's out.

"Is this still available?"

It is! I have [number] left. If you'd like it in a different colour, tell me and I'll check what I can do.

A complaint

Hi [name], I'm really sorry, that's not what should have arrived. Could you send me a photo? Once I see it I'll sort out a replacement or a refund, whichever you prefer.

A wholesale enquiry

Thanks for asking about wholesale. My minimum is [number] pieces, at [price] each, and lead time is around [weeks]. Happy to send a price sheet. Where is your shop?

Keep each one under five lines. Most buyers read Etsy messages on a phone, and a wall of text on a small screen gets skimmed, then ignored. Ask one question at most, and make it one they can answer in a word.

Watch out for Etsy message scams

Fake "verify your shop" messages do the rounds. Etsy says real messages from Etsy appear in the From Etsy inbox with a badge, and that it will never ask for your password through Messages. Never click a link in a message asking you to log in or confirm anything. If Etsy shows a "You're about to leave Etsy" warning after a click, stop there. Select the message and choose Report, which moves it to Spam and blocks the sender. Etsy's page on phishing scams at help.etsy.com has the rest.

How to make the important Etsy messages ring

OLL.E (say "Ollie"), the app we make, lets you type a watch as one normal sentence: "Call me when an Etsy buyer asks about a custom order or a problem with their order." It reads what the buyer meant, so "the clasp broke on arrival" rings and "love your shop!" doesn't. A match gets a real phone call or an alarm, and anything else is filed quietly. Point it at Etsy's message email in Gmail and it works fully on iPhone and Android with nothing extra; the Etsy Seller app's push can be watched on Android, or on iPhone with the PinG keyring.

Before relying on the email, open one of your Etsy message emails and check the buyer's words are in it, since a watch can only judge what it can see. Add a brief as the action and the call comes with a short summary of the message, so you can answer in Etsy straight away. OLL.E doesn't send replies inside Etsy, and it never logs in to your shop.

Selling on Shopify too? The same idea for orders is in Shopify order notifications by phone call.

For an Etsy seller, OLL.E is a way to hear about the custom order question or the broken-parcel complaint within minutes, while the free-sample requests stay silent. It watches the message email in your Gmail, or on Android the Etsy Seller app's notification, then calls or alarms you and sends you a short brief of the message so you can answer in Etsy straight away. On iPhone, Gmail watches work fully and app notifications need PinG. OLL.E has a free plan with four watches; Pro is $19.99 a month if you need more. For email you can answer straight from Gmail, see email auto-reply.