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Frequently Asked Questions
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You may have questions. And hopefully, we have answers. For matters that require more clarity, please refer here. If any information is missing please feel free to reach out and we will do our best to answer!
Selling on Agora Market
How do I apply to become a shop on Agora?
At this time we are only accepting shops from Canada and the USA for onboarding. Our shipping provider only operates in these two countries for the time being. You can apply to sell your items and become an Onboarded Shop on Agora Marketplace through two avenues on the website: by clicking the “Contribute” button at the top of the page to the right of the search bar then clicking “Sell With Us”. Or, click the “Sell With Us” link at the very bottom of the home page under the “Work With Us” header. Or as a short-cut, by clicking here
How does the curation and application process work?
Over the years we have built a spreadsheet document with literally thousands of shops. So we have a pretty good sense of what’s out there. We have also built a data scraper to help assist in this process.
If you are someone we've reached out to individually, congrats, you were on the top of our list! If you are looking to connect with us and apply, we have an application process to do so. Please understand that we approach each application with love and understanding. We see the spark in every artist. The only thing that we ask is to see the art of our creation, as we work on building a brand that fits our vision.
As time goes on we plan to expand the scope of what shops we support. Features like an "open" tier have been discussed in order to make the platform more inclusive to all. We are about community at the end of the day. We just have to honour our mission statement to help provide a filtered version of content to save users in the searching process.
How many shops will be on Agora?
This is an ongoing process. Right now we have a loose model of ideals and we are figuring it out as we go. We as an internal team have a vision for what an "Agora Shop" looks like. And so if there is mutual interest and we connect, we'd love to have you! As our product matures we will have to evaluate how many shops per competing category we support. So there is a benefit to getting in early and holding your place on the market!
How does Agora sell my products?
Our product is designed to drive a concentrated audience of music festival attendees to a curated catalog of shops and products.
As a curated market, there are few shops for you to compete with.
We are spending our ad budget to sell your products.
Our marketers and content creators will be writing highlight/feature social media pieces to talk about you, your art, your creative process, and everything that makes you and your art interesting!
Will Agora help me with images for my products and business?
This is a service in progress. We currently are hosting a fashion shoot at Lightning in a Bottle festival! If you are on our shop roster by then and would like to participate, please reach out and let's get you in the shoot ;)
From here on out, we would like this to be available to shops. Photography is sometimes a different skill set that is inevitably important to sell your goods online. We will be building a roster of associated photographers and models to help you thrive online!
Before onboarding
After your application has been accepted and before onboarding, you will have a live video chat Demo Meeting with one (or more) of our team members so we all get a chance to meet and develop a face-to-face relationship. During the meeting, we will talk about a number of business details, including answering any questions you may have about the process, our shipping, or logistics as well as explaining the rest of the onboarding process to you.
How does the onboarding process work? It sounds like a lot of work to move my whole inventory to another platform
We agree. That's why we have built a "CSV Upload" feature that takes your products from either your Shopify or Etsy store and automatically generates your listings on Agora.
Each listing is saved as a "draft" for your review before publishing to ensure that everything is correct based on your standards.
For some well-established shops, we will also be offering a free service to assist you in this process. If you think you require this, please reach out to discuss our availability to help.
Orders & Inventory
Does Agora handle made-to-order items?
Yes! When managing your listing, you can set "make on-demand" to true. This removes the requirement of keeping an inventory stock and states that it is made to order. The timeline expectations are set by the "processing time" field that you enter and allows for up to 30 days to ship.
How long do I have to send an order?
Each product listing published on Agora has a "processing time" value that you set on the listing. This allows shops with custom control over how long it will take before shipping.
I have a lot of product variations, can Agora handle that?
Oh yes we can! We have invested a lot of effort into making sure we can handle the dynamic creativity of our shops. You can have numerous variations for a product listing. This includes differences in: style, material, color, size, and add-ons.
Users interact with this by seeing dropdowns and other control elements on the /listing/:id page when adding an item to their cart
Finances
Commission and Fee Structures
The commission fee we charge shops who are onboarded with us is 11.11% per purchase plus the processing fee our payment system charges. We will be using a system called Stripe, you can find more information here. Unlike other online shop platforms, we don’t charge you a fee for uploading items onto Agora, or for keeping your items on our platform. More information on our fee structure can be found on our “Sell With Us” page.
How are payments done with Stripe?
We use Stripe Connect as our payment provider. Stripe is the World’s leading payment-providing service. You will have access to your own dashboard that contains everything financial for your shop on Agora. Including: orders & transaction history, payouts, taxes, refunds, nexus declaration, and literally anything you need. You can view how payments are done here.
What about Returns/Refunds? How do those work?
You will have the ability to set your own refund policy. This allows you the option of not receiving refund requests (outside of damaged/not delivered requests), limiting to only before shipments are sent, or setting a maximum number of days after the delivery date that you accept refunds. All qualified refund requests by a user require a stated reason from a list of options. You will then see the requests in your orders dashboard and can either accept or deny their request.
How often am I paid by Agora?
Payments are set by default for every two weeks. In the future, this can be updated but will have a fee rate associated as it’s subject to changes in fees by Stripe.
Does Agora pay the taxes for me?
No, however, we utilize Stripe Tax to take the correct taxes for you. This amount is included in your biweekly payout to your bank account. You are responsible for paying the taxes as outlined in your Stripe Connect Dashboard.
What about Nexus for taxes?
If you do business in the USA, then you likely need to pay nexus. Within your Stripe Connect Dashboard you will be assisted in setting up your Nexus profile.
Shipping
What shipping platform do you use to ship my products?
We use a shipping platform called 2Ship. It uses an API (Application Programming Interface) that connects to all shipping carriers. This means you will be able to choose between the shipping carriers most available to you at the address you ship from. More information about 2Ship and it’s functions will be discussed during your Demo Meeting with us.
Shipping Pickups
2Ship has a pick-up service for your convenience that allows you to schedule item pickups at your chosen address to ship. This allows you to save time by not having to go to the post office to drop off your items.
Shipping Canvas (For Visual Artists)
This is a complicated use-case. The research portion of this is still ongoing as many shops handle it differently. Please feel free to submit this survey if you'd like to participate in the feature being improved: LINK
Shipping Returns
If the return is approved (by you) before it has been sent, then if it has not sent yet, the shipment will be canceled and refunded automatically. If it has already been sent, then the shipping cannot be refunded and a user will not receive that cost in their refund.