Shop Handbook and Polices
Shop Policies
Shop Policy 1
Items and descriptions
The Village Of Artisans is a Christian website with conservative values. The following policies reflect this.
- Acceptable pictures
- No pictures of people are allowed.
- Photos are for business purposes only. You are welcome to use props, etc. to make your items look attractive and are encouraged to take high quality photos.
- Product types
- The Village does not market Halloween products, products including Santa Claus, Christmas trees, fantasy characters, Disney products, celebrities, or anything down this line.
- The Village reserves the right to inactivate any products or shops that it feels are inappropriate or violate shop policies. We want to keep this a family friendly site.
Shop Policy 2
Advertisement by shops
The Village cannot afford to allow free advertising on its site by shops. This is a common policy by any of the big multi-vendor eCommerce sites. If a shop has a different website, they cannot display that website on The Village “property”. This includes shop banners, product pictures, descriptions, receipts, or any other Village property in any way, shape, or form.
Handbook
Pricing
Maybe you are wondering “What does all this cost?” Well here is the good news, it does not cost anything to set up your Shop. The Village will collect $.30 + 3.5% per sale to support the website. This will include shipping fees. We encourage you to reflect this as needed in your prices. Considering free shipping is a good option! Also, as you can see, the larger the sale the more profit you will have! These fees are effective as of Friday, May 8, 2020. This offers you a risk free startup with no front end costs and no monthly fees. It also lets you know we are committed to helping you make sales, and that’s how it should be!
Transactions
All money transactions are handled securely by PayPal. Simply link your account to your shop and withdraw your earnings whenever you wish. Paypal charges a fee to use their secure platform. We collect a 4% fee to cover those fees also. It is all automated and you don’t have to do a thing.
Shipping
Having your shipping set up correctly is very important. If you do not, sales may not be able to be completed or you will end up selling an item with no shipping charged and you will have to pay for it. Free shipping is a great idea but it must be set up correctly also. The following link goes through each step. We are also very willing to help you make sure you are set up correctly. Just Contact Us and ask for Help.
https://wedevs.com/docs/dokan/vendor-guide/how-to-configure-and-use-dokan-shipping/
While you set up products
If you are working on a product post and do not have it ready to go live, you can set it to draft mode while you get it ready. Go to your products, click on the product title, and underneath the word edit will appear. Select edit, then go down to the very bottom you will see the “product status” and you will see the words ‘online’ under it, clicking ‘online’ will give you the option to change it to draft. Set it back to online when you are ready for it to go live.
Setting your Stock
MAKE SURE “ENABLE STOCK MANAGEMENT” IS CHECK MARKED AND FILLED IN ON EACH PRODUCT IF YOU HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF ITEMS!!
We don’t want you to sell the same item twice! Some have had this trouble and it’s not fun to have to resolve!
Getting your money
On payouts and how you get your money: When you make a sale, all the money is deposited into The village PayPal account. Go to shop dashboard > click withdrawal >. You will be able to see your current balance. Once you have reached the minimum withdrawal amount of $100, you can request a withdrawal. Twice a month we will be making payouts to all requests. Keep in mind you can request money any time after you hit another $100, then you will receive it on these dates. It’s very important to have a secure platform for all our transactions, but we have to pay for it of course. PayPal charges $1 to The Village every time a withdrawal is processed. We are trying to keep costs reasonable by setting the withdrawal at $100.
Currency
All money on this website is in US$. When the money is deposited in your PayPal account it will be exchanged/deposited in your preferred currency. You can change your preferred currency settings in your PayPal account.
Tax
Each shop is responsible for their own tax because each shop’s situation is different. If you have your items set to “Taxable” and “Standard” it will charge tax to every customer that buys from you. If you would like to Contact Us, we will be glad to talk to you and make suggestions about settings on this. If you are unsure if you need to charge tax or not, we recommend that you talk to your tax accountant. You may be able to find info for your particular situation on taxjar.com .
Order Processing
Remember when you have an order completed to click the Order Number under Orders on your Shop Dashboard, enter tracking information if you have it, the Date you shipped the order and the Service you used to ship it with (example: USPS, Fed-EX etc. ) and change the “Order Status” in the top right hand corner to “Complete”. This makes the money show up on your side under “withdraw” in the Shop Dashboard, and shows the order is completed in the back for admin. This action also sends an email to the customer so they are not left wondering about their order status.
How to reply to email Inquires
Please note that if someone emails you from the “contact” box on your shop site it will come to you from the village email address. If you just hit reply, the message goes back to the village email and the enquirer will not get your reply. Look inside the blue box beside the person’s name, there is the correct email address to reply to. If it is blue you can just click it and reply there. If it is black you will need to manually enter the email address in your “to” box.
Banner Help
- Need help with your banner & profile picture? Try Canva.com. There are many free options and even some very inexpensive more professional options as well.
- First impressions are very important to an online shopper. If your shop looks so-so, be aware, the potential shopper you almost had, will very likely move on to someone else’s shop that looks much more inviting. Sorry if that disappoints you, but that’s Life in the world of online shops & marketing.
- A custom banner and profile picture designed to make your shop feel and look ‘Awesome’ and ready for business!
“I love those connections that make this big old world feel like a small village.”