Marketplaces Inc.

We help organisations create online Marketplaces

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Using your own domain & email

We allow all of our clients to use their own domain for their marketplace.  Once your marketplace is set up, all that you need to do is configure the DNS settings on the domain from where you purchased it, and point the web traffic (normally www) to our IP address that we supply.

We do not however provide email services. If you do not already have this provided to you, we highly recommend using Google Apps for Business. For a very small and affordable price, Google provides some amazing tools for your business. Additionally their inbuilt spam prevention tools are world class and should prevent you from receiving any unwanted email.

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Importing Categories

Categories are a very important setup process when starting your marketplace. They have your sellers list their items in a way to enable customers to better find what they are looking for.

While the administration site for your marketplace includes a graphical interface for managing categories, we also allow you to import a pre-defined category structure if you have one.

To import your categories, your file must follow a few simple rules:

1. The depth of categories must be 3 or less

2. The file must be a CSV of the format defined below

3. Root level categories have an empty or 0 value for parent_id

CSV File Format: id, parent_id, name, url_name

Example of category import file:

Id,ParentId,Name,UrlName 1,0,Books,books 2,1,"Art, Architecture & Photography",art-architecture-photography 3,1,Audiobooks,audiobooks 4,1,Biography,biography 5,1,Books for University,books-for-university 6,1,"Business, Finance & Law",business-finance-law 7,1,Children's Books,childrens-books 8,1,Computing & Internet,computing-internet 9,1,Fiction,fiction 10,0,"Clothes, Shoes & Jewellery",clothes-shoes-jewellery 11,10,Clothing,clothing 12,10,Shoes,shoes 13,10,Jewellery,jewellery 14,10,Watches,watches 15,10,Handbags & Shoulder Bags,handbags-shoulder-bags 16,0,Electronics & Computers,electronics-computers 17,16,Camera & Photo,camera-photo 18,16,TV & Home Cinema,tv-home-cinema 19,16,Audio & HiFi,audio-hifi 20,16,Phones,phones 21,16,Laptops,laptops 22,16,Tablets,tablets 23,16,Monitors,monitors 24,0,Food & Drink,food-drink

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Processing Refunds

When a shopper makes a purchase on your marketplace, their order in split into individual order by seller.  So if they purchase two items from two different sellers they will see two orders in their orders list.

For a customer to request a refund, they select the order from their order list that they want a refund on. At the bottom of the order details they shopper can use the Order Notes section to contact the seller to request a refund for a given item.

Once submitted, an email will be sent to the seller which they can then respond to from their seller inbox area.  Once the seller and customer agree on a refund, the process of the refund can begin.

Depending on your marketplace mode, the refund process works in one of two ways:

1. Multi-vendor mode: The seller refunds the money from their PayPal account, this is sent automatically to the marketplace operator’s account, who then should refund the full amount including commission to the customer.

2. Single-vendor model: The marketplace operator needs to refund the commission received form the sale, this will be sent automatically to the seller. The seller can then refund the full amount to the customer.

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A marketplace fees example

We get asked a lot about how fees work on Marketplaces Inc. As a marketplace operator, you will set the percentage of sales commission that you charge per transaction.  This also reflects in the % of fees that you will pay to the payment gateway (PayPal).

In PayPal, the fees that they charge are split proportionally by the amount of money that each entity receives in the transaction.  The amount of fees PayPal charges can vary in the operating country of the marketplace.

This diagram shows a good example of how the fees are split by PayPal.

We have created a test sale through our demonstration marketplace to show this in action.

First we have the marketplace sale summary for an item sold for $400, with a 15% sales commission set by the marketplace.

Next we can see this money being received into the Marketplace operator’s PayPal account and immediately funds being forwarded onto the vendor’s account.

If we look at the details of the money retained by the marketplace operator, we see that a fee of $1.75 was paid on this.

If we look at the detail of the payment that was sent to the vendor we see that no fee was charged at this point to the marketplace operator.

Now when we explore the vendor’s PayPal account we can see the receipt of this payment from the marketplace operator, with a fee of $10.45 being charged.

Lastly, depending on your marketplace subscription plan, Marketplaces Inc charges a transaction fee that is invoiced for at a later date.  On our most popular plan, the Premium plan, a 1% fee is levied on all sales.  So on a $400 sale, a $4.00 transaction fee will be invoiced for.

Let’s look at a summary of that in table form

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Automated SMS Notifications by Twilio

The marketplace platform contains many trigger actions that send off automated emails to either the customer or seller. Now, with our new integration with Twilio, you can also send these communication by SMS.

There are a few additional requirements to enable this:

You must have a subscription with Twilio for their SMS service

You must enter your Twilio API credentials into your marketplace administration

You must provide the content for each trigger message to be sent.  These are entered in the same place where you edit the content for the trigger emails.

Please note that a SMS is 160 characters, if your message is longer than this then multiple SMS notifications will be sent.

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Announcing listing carousels on the landing page

You have asked, we have delivered.  Today we launch a new way to display your seller listings on the landing page.  Carousel mode!

Simply create your homepage section as normal and select ‘Carousel’ from the display mode.  In addition you need to supply a Link and button text for a leading carousel intro section that links to more items.

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Marketplaces Inc goes Physical

Recently we received news from one of our clients that they have installed a physical kiosk terminal in a branch of Spain’s largest department store, El Corte Ingles.

The marketplace, Rosas Crafts, sells materials and patterns for creating crafts projects.  It also sells online video courses that are viewed through the platform as a self-paced programme for purchases to learn various techniques in craft.

We’re told that the kiosk concept will be rolled out across Spain in many more department stores.

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Announcing Single Vendor Checkout

Here are Marketplaces Inc we have always supported the ability to purchase from multiple vendors at the same time from your cart, however there are some marketplace conditions where operators what to support payments going to the seller first.

For this we have created what we are calling Single Vendor Checkout.  With this enabled, the marketplace and cart function as normal however on the cart a dedicated checkout button exists for each vendor’s group of items.

This way a customer can purchase multiple items from a given vendor at once, but can only purchase from one vendor at a time.

In this process we still use PayPal’s Adaptive Payments API, however the recipients are reversed. All funds are sent on checkout to the seller’s PayPal account and then automatically the sales commission is sent onwards to the operator’s PayPal account. 

With this process, the liability for refunds lands on the seller rather than the marketplace. This is useful for marketplaces with high value items.

To use this function on your marketplace, please contact us to discuss further.

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SSL free for all Marketplaces

We take your client security seriously. So have decided to apply free SSL certificates to all of our marketplaces. We have already applied this to all marketplaces so you can now direct your clients to the https version of your marketplace so that your customers can shop with added security.  

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this.

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Verifying your “no-reply” email address.

Here are Marketplaces Inc, we leverage the power of other technologies where possible to build our robust platform and save your costs.  One of the forgotten costs of e-commerce is emails, although you may have free email from Google or Outlook it is actually not free nor easy to send emails from websites.

We use Amazon’s SES email service to send all our automated marketplace emails, and provide this service as part of your monthly subscription with us. The only catch is that we need to verify all email addresses before we can send from them.

Typically automated emails come from an non monitored “no-reply” email address.  You of course use an email address that you do monitor if you wish, either way we need an address that exists and can be verified.

In your marketplace settings you will see a field for Automated Email Address. This is the email account that all automated platform emails such as Account Registration, Sale Confirmation, etc. will be sent from.

When you supply this value you must click on the Verify Email Now button. This will cause and email to be sent to the provided address from Amazon Web Services.

This email contains a URL on which you much click. This will complete the email verification process and your marketplace will now be able to send automated emails.

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How to verify your “no-reply” email address

When you set up your marketplace we ask you for your “no-reply” email address. This is the address that all automated marketplace emails are sent from.

In order for us to be able to send emails from this address there are a couple rules:

1. It must be a valid email address that exists

2. The address must be verified

To provide and verify your no-reply address, head to the general marketplace settings in your administrator website and you’ll see the field on the main page.

Enter your desired email address and click on the blue Verify Email Now button.

You will then shortly receive an email at this address. When it arrives click on the link contained within the email. Now your marketplace will be able to send all of many automated emails.

P.S. You can edit the body and subject of all these automated emails via the admin website.

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Introducing Digital File support for listings

For a while now marketplace administrators have been able to add digital files to vendor listings. However now we have made that feature available to the vendors themselves.  

If enabled in your marketplace settings, when a vendor lists a new item they will see a new section to add digital items.

We can control the file types and file sizes allowed as well as the number of files that can be attached to an item. Then back again in the admin system you can define how many times a shopper will be able to download each attachment after they have purchased the listing.

When a customer purchases a listing with digital items attached, they will be able to download the files in the order details screen within their account section.

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Listing SEO Tags

When your vendors list their items, they can now provide SEO Meta Tags for search engines. The content entered in these fields is not visible on the public item page but included as meta content in the page source. Some search engines utilise these values to influence how the content is displayed in search results.

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Introducing Variant Pricing

This is a feature that has been requested a lot by our marketplace operators, and today we’re happy to announce that it has been deployed to all marketplaces.

This option is available for all items listed, and by default all variants will assume the main price entered for the item. 

Note: you must still provide the main item price, and at least one variant must have the same price as this value.

On the public item page, the price will change depending on which variant the shopper selects.

And the variants added to the shopper’s cart will display the correct variant price.

NOTE: If the item is placed on sale then all variants will assume the sale price.

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New Account Detail Features

Today we have launched an update to the basic account details that each registered user has. The new interface allows for all users to upload their own profile image. If they register on your marketplace with Facebook then this will automatically use their profile picture from Facebook.

This has been added ahead of a new upcoming feature of public profile pages where the user’s favourite items and vendors will be made public. This is to create a more social marketplace experience.

Also we have added controls for the user’s primary address details, allowing each user to quickly edit these details.  If the user has multiple delivery addresses they will still be able to edit these in the checkout process.

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SSL Now!

2016 is the year for SSL everything.  This year Google will change it’s ranking system to favour sites that are secured with a SSL certificate. And from September they will stop indexing e-commerce checkouts that do not have a SSL certificate.  Yes, that includes your marketplace.

As part of your Marketplace setup you should include purchasing a SSL certificate for your domain. Ideally one with 3 years of more life, and from a trusted provider.

https://www.digicert.com/welcome/ssl-plus.htm

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Frequently Asked Questions

We get asked all sorts of stuff, all the time. Some of it is the same stuff! 

Below you will find some common questions and answers that we receive from people wanting to set up their own marketplace.

How much does it cost to start a marketplace? We have different price plans depending on your requirements. Our cheapest plan starts at just $99 per month. Please write to us with your requirements and we'll find the best solution for you.

How do I collect payment? Presently we use PayPal for all payment processing. To start your marketplace you will need a Verified Business Account, all of your sellers will need to have a verified account, either personal or business. Payments are distributed automatically to each seller minus your commission leaving you to focus on promoting and growing your marketplace.

How long before I can start my marketplace? Once you choose to start your marketplace with us we will have your marketplace up & running within a week. Typically it will take no more than a couple of days. Should you require an express setup please let us know.

Do I need to host my marketplace? No. We do all the technical stuff for you. We host your marketplace on our servers and provide all updates.

Can I use a custom template? Yes. Please contact us in regards to customising your marketplace template.

Is there a limit to how may items that my marketplace can have? We do not limit the items that can be listed on your marketplace, however each price plan has a storage size limit. So the number of items you can have on your marketplace depends on how many images are added for each item.

Can I use my own domain? Yes! All you need to be able to do is redirect the DNS settings for your domain address to our servers.

Can we add static pages to the website to increase SEO? Yes! You can create as many static pages as you like via your marketplace administration website.

What sort of fees can I charge? There are many options available. You can set a site-wide final sale fee commission. This can be overridden by either category or seller, so you can have a custom fee for each category or seller. We also provide the ability to create subscriptions for your marketplace, these could be one-off payments or recurring payments either time limted or never-ending.

Has the marketplace been SEO optimised? Yes! We have gone to great lengths to ensure that all our page templates are fully SEO optimal. We include all the required page tags and microformats to help search engines extract the important information from your marketplace.

If you have more questions please contact me directly at [email protected].