Give Me the Lowdown!

Wouldn’t it be cool to shop and support small businesses in your area from the comfort of your home or with the convenience of your phone? That’s what Spots is all about! Spots is kind of like (insert big box online marketplace here), but it’s unique because it’s completely local to YOUR community.

Spots lets you support your neighbors, your community, and the local economy while shopping for cool and often one-of-a-kind items.

As a shopper, you get the advantage of browsing and buying from multiple small businesses in one easy transaction. You can get the items delivered or even arrange a local pickup. It’s so convenient, and 100% of the money from your purchases goes directly to those local businesses that support our economy right here at home.

Vendors on Spots benefit from having their very own storefront on a secure, customizable, polished platform that helps them showcase their products and services to a wider local audience. They also become part of the wonderful Spots Vendor Community where businesses supporting businesses is just part of the package.

Discover your new local favorites or think about opening a storefront of your own to turn your passion into the next coolest business in town. Support local. Shop Spots First!

I already have a website. Do I still need to join Spots?

Yep! Think about the customer experience, expanding your exposure… and CREATING AN ADDITIONAL REVENUE STREAM. Let’s use downtown for example:

Say you need to buy a few things for your Mom’s birthday, and you know she LOVES shopping on 3rd Street. Imagine hopping on one website and buying her a scarf from one store, a purse from another store, and a coupon to use at her favorite restaurant… all in one transaction!

That sounds much better than searching online for different shops, or clicking through a crazy long directory (one-by-one of course) and making multiple purchases. Phew! We seriously got tired even just thinking about that.

Need another reason to join our community? On top of all of the huge value that we bring you, we also help YOU promote YOUR business. Spots creates social media content, as well as paid advertising, newsletters to customers & more. Being a part of our platform will also allow NEW customers to discover your business… and who doesn’t love that?

I am thinking about hiring someone/making my website myself. Why should I sign up for Spots instead?

You enjoy the benefits of getting set up quickly, having your own storefront, being on a secure & reliable platform, and having the opportunity to be found in our surrounding community ONLY online marketplace & so much more. Best of all, you won’t need to worry about:

• Hosting, maintenance, various fees associated with an online store
• Putting in all of the time & effort to create it yourself (and hopefully it is good…)
• Using an online website builder that might not work the way you need it to
• The list really can go on and on…

As a Vendor, what types of products can I sell?

You can sell everything from physical products, digital downloads & professional services! And of course, if you are selling a professional service, it is up to you to contact the customer after the sale is made & perform the service.

Do I get my own custom storefront?

You do!  Your can even add your logo, business details, contact information & more. Best of all, you can send people directly to your storefront, via your own URL.

PS: You can even forward your domain to your storefront & add a link to it from your website, social media, email & store promotions, etc.

What are the benefits of being a Vendor?

There are so many, but a few benefits would be:

• We Support Your Promotion Efforts!
  Seriously, this is a thing! We work alongside you to help grow, support & share your business. We are all in this together… so let’s do this!

• Discover New Customers
  We give our community the power to shop all of their favorite local businesses from the comfort of their home, all in one spot.

• Quickly Add Unlimited Products
  Launch & expand your business online—no matter what business you’re in. We give you the ability to easily add as many products as you’d like.

• Save More Time… Make More Money
  Create your storefront, add your products, fulfill your orders & get paid straight to your Stripe account. Sell products to anyone, anywhere. It’s really that easy.

How many products can I sell?

As many as you’d like.

How do you help me promote?

We support the promotion efforts of our Vendors & their products through Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Instagram, Google My Business, Marketing Campaigns and more!

I need help. How do you support your Vendors?

If you need Vendor support, you can privately message our team via your Vendor Dashboard, or click here to send us a message. In addition, we also have a Vendor Knowledge Base, which can help answer questions you might have regarding how to set up & admin your storefront.

What are the responsibilities as a Vendor?

This really IS your website & this really IS your online shop. Because of this, you are required to provide customer service to all customers that contact you and/or purchase goods through your storefront. We also require our Vendors to provide great shipping of their products, and to report/pay all taxes required from product sales.

How do Vendors get paid?

You get paid for your sales INSTANTLY. How? Stripe! All Spots Vendors are required to connect an existing or new Stripe account. Why Stripe? Because Stripe is free, reliable & extremely secure. Plus, it is extremely easy to set up and connect. Don’t have a Stripe account? No worries. All you need to do is a click a button in your Spots Dashboard, and fill out a simple form. There is an industry standard processing fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. The ACH transfer from Stripe to your connected bank account is 0.8% capped at $5.00.

Vendors can fulfill customer orders & view sales reports in their Spots Dashboard. All financials/refunds/etc. are administrated via the Vendor’s personal Stripe Account. Be sure to download the FREE Stripe app! Why? Because it will notify you instantly of customer orders & more!

Can customers purchase from multiple vendors in one transaction?

You know it! Each portion of funds (product sale amount + shipping cost + calculated taxes) gets automatically divided between all vendors, based on their specific product transaction, and deposited directly into their Stripe account.

How does Spots make money?

Vendor Memberships. We do not make commission off of sales that happen in our marketplace. Why? Because we think that’s crazy! YOU sell the products. YOU support your awesome customers. YOU fulfill & ship your orders. WE simply provide the service that allows everything to happen.

This sounds AWESOME! I’m totally in.

Let’s do this! Open your storefront today!