Your first Etsy assistant needs one login, picked for the job: Listadum for listing work, Etsy’s shared access for orders and buyer messages. Add a task board, a written checklist for each job and a password manager for logins outside Etsy.
A login hands over more than the job you hired someone for. A helper on Etsy’s shared access can read buyer messages and open full orders with customer addresses, and that’s more than someone hired to fix tags needs. A helper hired to pack orders can create, edit and publish listings.
Which login should your first assistant get?
What if they only work on listings?
Give them Listadum and keep them out of Etsy. They work with their own Listadum login, and they never see your Etsy password or buyer messages.
Say you have 200 listings and you’ve hired someone to refresh titles and tags. Bulk Edit changes titles, tags, photos and prices across all 200, and templates keep new listings consistent. Teams is on the Growth and Max plans.
As Sharon and Tammy of SpoosyBooCo wrote on our wall of love: “I can let someone else just update my listing if I need to.”
Two boxes on the invite decide what they can do. Untick Can publish listings and the Publish button disappears from new listings, so they save drafts for you to check. Untick Can see financial data and the listing editor and listing list stop showing revenue.
The publish box covers new listings and drafts. An edit to a live listing, Bulk Edit included, goes to Etsy when they save it. Time Machine is your undo there. It restores a listing’s title, description, tags, materials and photos, one listing at a time, and it doesn’t restore prices. So give them small batches first and check price changes before they run them.
Neither box says anything about deleting or deactivating listings, so write “ask me first” for both on their checklist.
What if they only ship orders and answer buyers?
Give them Etsy’s shared access. Full orders with the customer’s address, shipping labels and tracking, and buyer messages all live there. Here’s how to send the invite.
What if they do both?
Then they need both logins: Etsy’s for orders and messages, ours for the bulk work. Our two boxes don’t reach Etsy, so they can still publish from there. Your protection is the checklist and your own review. Etsy lets you download a CSV of each team member’s message, order and listing activity. Read it at the end of the first week.
What can’t an assistant do through Etsy’s shared access?
Some of what you might hire a person for, Etsy won’t let them do. Each of these lands back on you:
- Refunds stay with you. Team members can’t cancel or refund orders, so tell them what to say to a buyer who asks for one, and how soon you’ll deal with it.
- Bookkeeping needs numbers from you. They can’t open your finances tab, earnings or bank details.
- Marketing help needs reports from you. They can’t open marketing, stats or performance. VA Masters, which sells VA services, suggests a weekly export or a screenshot.
- You connect the apps. Settings and apps are closed to them too.
- Old listings stay until you remove them. They can’t delete or deactivate one.
In Etsy’s words, “The shop owner is responsible for activity in their shop, including actions taken by team members.” And every team member gets the same access, so you can’t open more for a trusted helper or less for a new one. Listadum’s two boxes are set per person.
What else do you need besides the login?
A task board: Trello. Its free plan takes up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace, more than a two-person shop needs. Make one board with columns for To do, Doing, Check and Done. Check is where they move work for you to review. If you already use Asana, its free plan covers 2 users.
A checklist for each job, on a card. Each one says what starts the job, the steps, a screenshot of where things are, what done looks like and when to ask you. Keep them on the board so there’s one place to look, and link your photos and design files from wherever they already live, such as Google Drive. Notion’s free plan limits how many blocks you can add once a workspace has more than one member, so it’s a harder place to start.
A password manager for logins outside Etsy. Your supplier, shipping or social logins belong here. Bitwarden’s free plan shares items with one other Bitwarden user, and 1Password is the other name you’ll see. Your Etsy password stays out of it. Etsy’s hiring policy says it “does not recommend sharing passwords with anyone,” and that sharing may make two-factor authentication impossible to use.
Chat, if you need it. Comments on a Trello card may be enough for one person. If they aren’t, Slack’s free plan keeps 90 days of messages.
A shipping tool, later. Once your helper is buying labels every day, add one like Pirate Ship, which has no monthly fee.
What should you sort out before they start?
- Their email. The address on an Etsy invite can’t belong to another Etsy shop, draft shops included, or have an order from your shop still in its return window. That catches a VA with a shop of their own, and a friend who just bought from you. They’ll need a different email.
- Your About section. Etsy’s hiring policy says that for ongoing help with administrative or logistical work, “you must disclose that person’s role in your About section.” For temporary or seasonal help, it’s “highly recommended but not required.” The policy was last updated in 2018, before shared access, and it doesn’t say how to disclose.
- The first job. Make it one small paid task, before you commit to regular hours. If you’re still looking for the person, here’s how to find a good Etsy VA.
What does this cost for you and one assistant?
| Who you hire | Login | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Works on listings | Listadum Growth | $20 a month billed yearly, or $30 monthly, per shop |
| Ships and answers buyers | Etsy shared access | Etsy lists no fee |
| Does both | Both | Same as the listing helper |
Trello, Bitwarden and Slack add nothing to that on their free plans. If you outgrow them, Trello Standard is $5 and Slack Pro is $7.25 per user per month billed yearly, so $24.50 a month for two people. Those are November 2026 prices.
Your helper’s pay is the bigger number. VA Masters quotes $6.50 to $10 an hour for an Etsy VA through its service. Craftybase, which sells inventory software, puts Etsy and handmade specialists at $15 to $40 an hour. Both companies are selling something, so treat these as a range to check against real quotes. Even at the low end, $20 a month for Listadum Growth is about three hours of your helper’s pay.
What changes if you run more than one shop?
An Etsy account can belong to one shop at a time, so a helper on two of your shops needs two Etsy accounts and two email addresses. In Listadum they keep one login across your shops, and you run every shop from one place. Bulk Edit still works on one shop per run.
How do you take access away when someone leaves?
Remove them on Etsy’s shared access page. Changing your password doesn’t remove a team member. Then remove them from your team in Listadum, change any logins you shared through the password manager, and take them off the board.