Yay! If you are reading this, it means you may interested in becoming a vendor to sell your AWESOME plant related stuff on this site.
The below is a quick start guide answering all of your questions relating to how things work, how you get paid, and more.
General info
How much does it cost to register?
Nothing, it is free to sign up as a vendor on our website
Do you charge commission & what other costs are there?
We charge a 10% commission on all sales, 3,5% Payment Processor fees and a R10 Payout Fee, which will only be applicable when you make sales.
Here is a break down of our pricing guide and what is included:
Costing Example :
Item R200.00, Shipping R100.00, Total = R300.00
3.5% Payment Processor Fee(3.5% of total) (R10.50)
10% Commission(10% of item excluding shipping) (R20.00)
R10.00 Payout fee (Constant regardless of total)(R10.00)
So you will receive: R300.00 – R10.50 – R20.00 – R10.00
= R259.50 final amount in your bank account.
What you get when signing up to our site:
- Unlimited product uploads
- Product features on instagram and facebook
- A greater variety of customers
- Customer able to contact you through the site
- Customer reviews
- Ability to offer coupons, discounts and run specials
What can I sell on Plant Collective?
We want this platform to become your number one plant related stuff stop. Therefore there are a large number of items that can be sold. Below is just a short list of what is and what isn’t allowed:
| Allowed | Not Allowed |
| Indoor & Outdoor Plants | Drugs or illegal substances |
| Edible plants (fruit,veg,herbs) | alcohol |
| Pots, pot covers, macrame | Non- plant related items |
| Plant related art & decor | No livestock or animals of any kind |
| Plant themed apparel & accessories | No Fresh Produce |
Have something you want to sell but don’t see if on this list and you aren’t sure if you can sell it?
Pop us a mail at: info@plantcollective.co.za
Auctions:
Something we are incredibly excited about is that you are able to create auctions for your items. If you have a rare or unusual plant/product you can now auction it.
Do I need to have a constant supply of stock to be a vendor?
No you don’t. You can sign up as a vendor and sell as much or as little as you want. There is no minimum or maximum stock limit.
Image Guidelines:
Images HAVE to be of the product being sold. Please do not use images from google. If we are notified of this, we will investigate and remove your product from your store. Feel free to edit your images to look consistent, but please avoid altering the colours or marks on the product if that is how the buyer will receive it.
Need some tips on taking awesome pictures of your products? Click HERE for some helpful hints and info.
Writing Descriptions for your products:
When writing the description for your items, consider including the following information:
- Size, type, colour, material.
- If you are selling a plant please state whether it is a fresh cutting, rooted cutting or an established plant. Consider including a pot size or plant size for the buyer.
- Please ensure that your products are named appropriately when uploading them to your store. If you are selling plants, please make 100% sure that the plant is named correctly. Feel free to use the common and latin names eg. Delicious Monster (Monstera Deliciosa).
Customer Reviews:
Customers that have bought from you will be able to leave reviews for your store and the products they bought. If your store has constant negative feedback, you will be investigated and your store may be suspended until the feedback issues are resolved.
Banking Details:
You will be able to enter your banking details on your store set up page. Please double and triple check that they are correct. Incorrect details means a possible delay in payment or funds being put in the incorrect account.
How Does Payment Work:
- Payouts happen every Wednesday
- Please make sure that you submit your payment requests before midnight on Tuesdays. This is in order to receive payment for your week’s sales. Any requests submitted after the cut off time will be processed the following week Wednesday.
- Any order payouts not requested will accumulate in your vendor account until a payout is requested. Interest will not be earned on these amounts.
- Due to the 48hr fraud check from our payment provider only payout requests from orders made before Monday 06:00am will be processed in that week’s pay run.
- Payout requests can ONLY be made for orders that are COMPLETED and where the buyer has RECEIVED their items from you.
- Any payout requests for orders that have been marked as complete that do not have shipping info (ie; tracking info) will be declined. If it is a collection order, this does not apply.
Why are we not paid out immediately?
This is to ensure that payments made are not fraudulent as well as to keep your payout fees lower.
What is the R10 payout fee?
This fee is to cover banking fees when processing your payout. Every approved payment request will have a R10.00 payout fee however multiple orders can be processed in one payout request. To keep this fee down, we recommend building up all your payment requests and submitting one combined payment request before midnight on Tuesdays. This way you only have to pay the R10 pay out fee once, compared to having pay it each time you request payment.
What are payment requests and why do we have to submit them?
A payment request is a request form a vendor for payment of their weekly sales (think of it as you submitting a list of all your sales for the week and requesting your payment for those orders).
We recommend letting your payment requests build up over the week and then doing a ‘bulk’ submit on them. This way you only have to pay the R10 pay out fee once, compared to having pay it each time you request payment.
Shipping Information:
The seller is responsible for their own shipping. At the moment we do not have integrated courier options on our site, but this is something we are looking into and adding.
Shipping Policy:
Each shop needs to have a clear shipping policy. When putting together your policy, consider the following:
- Delivery time
- If the product is collection or courier
- If plants are being shipped, whether they will be in pots or bare-root
- The type of product that is being shipped
- If you are selling plants ideally you should only ship on Monday/Tuesday so that if there is a delay the package won’t sit in a couriers warehouse over a weekend.
Things to think about when it comes to shipping:
Here are some things to consider when choosing courier options for your products:
- The size and weight of the product
- How and what you are going to be packaging it in
- What courier you are going to use
- How fragile is the item? Does it need a lot of protection/padding?
Recommended Courier Options:
We do not currently have integrated courier options for our vendors, but as mentioned above, this is something we are looking into. We can however recommend the following couriers for you to consider:
- Aramex – Store to door R99 (They work via dropboxes in Pick n pay stores. Your item will need to fit into their sleeve. Keep in mind that they do not deliver to PO boxes and someone needs to be able to sign for it)
- Postnet – Postnet to Postnet R99 (Prices start at R99 for up to 5kg. They offer a variety of shopping options and it may be worth considering them if your item will not fit in an aramex sleeve)
- The courier guy – ±R100 starting price (they have options where an account is NOT needed)
Please make use of the courier that best suits you and the items you plan on shipping. We would not recommend the South African Postal service as they are at times, unreliable.
We are looking at having integrated shipping available soon.
Who Pays for Shipping:
The customer will pay for shipping at checkout and the money will be paid to you in your weekly payout. Please keep your shipping costs fair and avoid unnecessarily hiking up shipping fees. Plant Collective does not currently charge commission on shipping however, if we are alerted to shipping fees being unfairly increased and product prices cut, this may change without notice.
Notifying the buyer of shipping:
Please update the status as you process it. When the item goes out for delivery, set it as shipped and add the tracking number and list the courier site the buyer can track their item with.
Refund Policies:
Each store is responsible for their own refund policy, therefore it is vital that you make sure you have one in your store policy section.
Your refund/exchange/policy:
- When writing your policy, please create something that is fair and consider what situations you may consider offering a refund/exchange.
- Consider asking for photographs as proof of damage when creating your refund policy.
- Consider giving buyers a time frame where they are able to request refunds.
- Ensure that any “rule” you may rely on later is stated in your returns policy.
How does Plant Collective handle refunds?
- If you are required to issue a refund, please cc in ‘help@plantcollective.co.za’ in all communication with the buyer, so we are aware of the situation.
- If the buyer is requesting a refund and it is through no fault of your own, and you have not yet been paid out by us, we will be able to refund them directly from the platform. You and the customer will be notified when this is done.
- If you have been paid out already and a buyer requires a refund, we will send you our banking details to refund our account. Please send us your proof of payment and from there we will refund the customer.
- If you and the buyer are unable to reach an agreement as to whether a refund will be given or not, please contact ‘help@plantcollective.co.za‘ for assistance. Please note, all decisions by us will be final.
Closing Down Your Store:
You can close down your store by contacting us on: info@plantcollective.co.za. All your personal information aside from a store id number and transaction history will be removed from our records so please ensure you are 100% certain you want your store closed, if you wish to reactivate your store once it has been shutdown you will need to recreate it as if it were a new store. If you have any outstanding payments, please send them through so we can pay them before shutting down your store.
Have any questions that you have not seen answered here? Pop us a mail: