SELLERS GUIDE
1. How to take good photos (and help sell your product)
Everyone likes things that look good. So let’s try to get your product looking its best. People will naturally be drawn towards photos of products that look clear, bright and simple – so we will give you tips on how to do the best with what you’ve got.
Prepare
Camera: Any phone or digital camera will do. Set your crop to square.
Surface: We like to use the floor and a wall. If you don’t have a clear wall (because of shelves, tables, etc) you can use a door as your background. Clear the area you are going to shoot. You need to take photos from different angles so remove things from the floor around your product.
Light: We prefer natural light, so if you can take the photo during the day it will give a better idea of the real colour and will look nicer. Open your curtains to create a bright environment.
Shoot
Crop: Your first image (main product shot) should be square so that it appears nice and big on our platform. Choose this setting on your phone before taking a photo. If you are using an image that you have already shot, or a product shot from the internet, please crop it to a square before uploading.
Centralise: Your product should be in the centre of the photo.
Angles: We like to take photos from a variety of different angles so that you can see the product in its entirety. Rotate the product – always keeping the background the same. This will ensure you have consistency and that the focus is on the product and not on the surroundings.
Damage: Take close up photos of any damage. You want to be sure that the buyer knows about them to avoid any misunderstanding.
Select and order
Choose the photos that portray your product as it truly is. The first image should be one that shows the product as a whole. Then you can have photos of the sides, back and finally of the details.
Note
You can add a photo of the original product to your listing to help it get more visibility. We know that people are drawn to professional photos of products as it is easier to understand the product.
2. How to price your item (and help it to sell quickly)
Pricing is such a tricky subject. On the one hand you want to earn a bit of cash for your item, on the other hand you want to sell it quickly and effortlessly. So what is the best way to price an item so that it is attractive to other people?We have put together a few tips to guide you. Please note there is no rule, these are just guidelines and we don’t ensure success. Good photos are a must in order to attract buyers.
Current retail price
Have a look online and see how much your item is selling for now new. It could have changed price, so better to check instead of using the price you paid for as a starting point. People will do their research before they purchase second hand.
Second hand price
If you search for your item second hand online, do you find anything? How much is it selling for? Use this as a very strong indicator of how you should price your item.
Condition
Analyse the condition of your item. Is it new? Barely used? Used moderately? Completely worn out? This information can help you choose the right price to sell you item at. The photos should help reinforce your choice of price.
3. Set up your account on the marketplace
Either you can click on SIGN UP at the top of the page, or you can click on an item for sale & when you hit the BUY button it will ask you to set up an account before you carry on.
Enter your email, your name (only your first name will show on the public part of the website), and a password. Then hit the CREATE ACCOUNT button.
An email will be sent to your email address – just open the email and hit the VERIFY button. You are now set up on the website.
4. Create an item for sale
Use the big button at the top of the screen that says POST AN ADVERT.
Choose the best MAIN CATEGORY and SUB-CATEGORY. Click on SELLING WITH ONLINE PAYMENT and then start to complete all the fields for your listing.
Title : The title appears on your photo in the main listing grid so pick something short and relevant.
Price : Enter the selling price (you can click on the small print to see the way that the fees are charged which depends on whether you receive the cash in your Paypal account or directly in your bank account.
Our commission : Our commission for sellers is just 10%. The additional fees for selling through Paypal or Stripe are around 3% to 5% on top of our commission.
Selling through Stripe : We charge sellers using Stripe 13% for selling and we pay your Stripe fees for you. You can receive payment from credit card and debit cards and the cash comes straight into your bank account.
Selling through Paypal : We charge sellers using Paypal 10% and you pay the normal Paypal fees yourself. Buyers will be able to pay using their credit cards, debit cards, or their Paypal accounts & the money comes into your Paypal account. You will need to upgrade your Paypal account to a business account so people can pay you – it´s fast & easy.
Continue to fill in all the details such as brand, colour, etc – some of these are mandatory fields (marked with a *)
Defects / Marks / etc : Make sure you describe any marks, defects, parts missing, etc – if the buyer has been misled then they can cancel the transaction & return the goods & get a refund. This marketplace only works if there is an honest, accurate, and ethical communication by both the buyers and the sellers.
Photos : The main photo, title, and price are the only items that a buyer can see for your listing until they click on it to see more information. So make sure the main image is clear and appealing. You can post several more images to give as much detail as possible to the buyers. Please use images of your actual item & not images from the web – people want to see the condition of the exact item they are buying.
After you post the listing, it will go up on the site but you will get a warning saying that you are “not set up to receive money yet”. This is not a good thing, so let´s sort that out now.
(How to edit your listing (if you need to) : just go to the top of your listing, hit “EDIT LISTING” at the top right of the page. Make your changes and hit save.)
5. Setting up to receive payments
You can connect your Paypal account, or you can connect your bank account to receive your money – or you can set up both to reach the maximum number of buyers. (Paypal allows people to pay by Paypal, of course, and by debit & credit card. Stripe allows people to pay by credit card or debit card)
You can either click on the warning that said you are “NOT SET UP TO RECEIVE MONEY YET”, or you can click on PROFILE NAME under your profile picture, and click on EDIT PROFILE, and select PAYMENTS from the menu on the left hand side.
5a. Either… Set up your bank account (uses Stripe)
1. Click on ADD BANK DETAILS
2. Enter your name, date of birth, Country, Address, and your bank account details (it may ask for your IBAN, or your sort code & account number depending on your country)
3. Hit SAVE and you will get a message saying whether the account is approved instantly or whether any extra documentation is needed. Depending on the money laundering rules of your country, you may be asked to send a copy of a passport or driving licence or other document. We do not see any of these documents – they are purely for the payment processing provider – Stripe.
Once approved, you are ready to wait for your first sale to happen.
5b. Or… Set up Paypal
1. Click on ADD PAYPAL ACCOUNT. You will be given a link to log in to your Paypal account.
2. Firstly, it will ask you to grant permission to link your account to the Marketplace – this is so that you can receive your money from the buyer.
3. Secondly, it will then ask you to grant permission to pay the 10% transaction fee to us, the Marketplace. This is the 10% fee that we charge when the sale happens. You need to say which part of your Paypal account you want this fee to come out of. Many people have attached a bank account or a credit card to their Paypal account and you can pay the fee from one of these (or from your Paypal balance itself). Just highlight the account you want the fee to come from & hit “ACCEPT” on the big button at the bottom. Any normal fees that Paypal charge will be deducted automatically from your sale proceeds, just like they do on any Paypal transaction.
4. Depending on the money laundering rules of your country, you may be asked to send a copy of a passport or driving licence or other document. We do not see any of these documents – they are purely for the payment processing provider – Stripe or Paypal.
Your account should now be ready to accept the receipt from the buyer.
6. How a sale works
1. Buy Button : If a buyer wants to buy your item, they click on the big BUY button – great news !
Why you should NOT try to arrange payment with the buyer outside of the website
If you do this, you set yourself up for scammers and time-wasters. It’s well known (and also our personal experience), that once you do this, it all goes a bit wonky ! Sellers know you won’t have any come back when you give your money outside the system, and buyers know they can take advantage and try to re-negotiate ( or even give fraudulent cash ) and you have no-one to come back to.
By staying in the secure payment system you have any protections they offer. You will lose all the security & safeguarding features that our approved payment providers offer when you desert them… and us !
As administrators, we do see ALL messages entered into the fromCooktoChef website so we know when people are deciding to take the wonky route ! If you stay within the system however, we will have a record of the buyer / seller message exchange, in case of any disputes between you.
2. Confirmation : Once they confirm that they want to buy the item, you must confirm that you accept the purchase. If you do not do this within 3 days, the transaction is cancelled and the sale is void.
3. Fee calculation : The fees are clearly shown
STRIPE – if you sold an item for £10 through Stripe, the fees are 13% (10% for us and the extra 3% is what we will use to pay to Stripe on your behalf for their fees). So you will receive £10 less £1.30 (13%) = £8.70. This payment is taken from the buyer immediately and is then put on hold until the buyer has received their goods and has marked the transaction as complete. Once it is complete, the payment is released and it will be in your account, typically in 7-10 business days.
PAYPAL – if you sold an item for £10 through Paypal, you would receive £10 less your normal Paypal fees (2.9% + 30p) of 59p, so you would receive £9.41. You will then have the 10% transaction fee (10% x £5 = 50p) sent out automatically to us from your account. So finally you would receive £8.91
4. Messages : Any messages from the buyer are in your inbox (hover over the little circle containing your profile picture / initials at the top of the page & click on INBOX. If there are several messages from the buyer, they will all be within the same item in your inbox – click on it to open it up, and at the bottom are all the individual messages from that buyer.
5. Posting : When you are ready to post the item you can use Royal Mail (but it is expensive) or we have found MyHermes to be very good. They are about half the price of Royal Mail and you can also pay for signed deliveries, next-day deliveries, insurance, and even have the package collected from your home. Just put in your postcode, put in any other UK postcode for the buyer (same price for whole of mainland UK), choose if you want it signed for, insured, etc, and they give you an immediate price.
7. Feedback & Reviews
Once the transaction is completed, you will be asked if you want to review the buyer. Just as on Ebay, this feedback is really useful for all the other users of the marketplace so we do encourage you to fill in the feedback – it only takes 1 minute. It will ask you for a comment on how the transaction went, and then ask you to rate the buyer as either Positive or Negative… thats it ! (The buyer will also be asked to rate you, if they want to, and so you can build up a great sellers rating on the marketplace)