Firstly, thank you for your interest in becoming part of the Shop Outer Banks family. I appreciate you!
You can be an online vendor on Shop Outer Banks if you create your own art or products here locally in the Outer Banks, or if you make art or products that specifically relate to the Outer Banks.
Cost:
There is no cost to be included on the website. You only pay a small 15% commission on each sale. This 15% covers the credit card processing fees for the order and monthly fees, as well as other services provided such as website maintenance, hosting, search engine optimization, paid online ads such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google Pay-Per-Click advertising, email marketing, and other general marketing strategies.
There are no other fees to have your products listed on ShopOuterBanks.com.
Vendor Info Needed:
The following information is required in the event that we need to contact you about your shop or an order. However, it does not need to display with your business profile. When you fill in your application you can check a box next to each field if you would prefer to keep it private.
Your name
Your contact info (email, phone)
Your store name and a short description of what you sell.
Your store contact info (website, customer service email, social media channel links, etc.) This will be posted publicly on your store’s profile on this website.
Your payment info (so we can send the money to you for your sales). This can be your PayPal email, your Venmo username, or your name and address to where we can mail a check.
Product Info Needed:
After I receive the info above, we’ll send you an email to let you know you’re approved. To get started, you will send me the product information listed below for up to 5 products, which we will enter into the shop to get you started.
Product Name
Product Price – include any factors that affect pricing such as if different sizes are different prices, or if there is a discount price for buying multiples, etc.
Product Short Description – summarize what the product is in 1-2 sentences.
Product Long Description – how much or how little you say is up to you but I can assure you, the more info you include, the more likely the product is to sell. The words you choose will lead search engine traffic directly to your product, so be descriptive! Include anything the customer might want to know about the product. What are the measurements? What is it made of? How can you use it?
Product Photos – we need at least one large photo of the product, but we will include as many as you send in the product gallery. Ideally, send multiple photos of each product, including views from multiple angles (front, back, side, etc.), and a view of the product in use (for example of someone wearing your shirt as opposed to just photos of the shirt on a hanger).
Once we get your initial products uploaded and launch your shop, you can let me know if you would like to add more products. We can arrange a time when I will show you how to add your own products, and you can add as many products as you like! We do not limit the number of products that you can list on Shop Outer Banks.
Vendor Placement
Your shop will be included on the Shop By Vendor page, here. This listing will include your company name, logo or photo, brief description, email and website links, links to your social media pages, and an average “star” review count of any of your products reviewed on this site.
This listing will link to your shop page. Your shop page will include all of the info from the Shop By Vendor page listing, plus a top page banner image, as well as a full listing of all of your products! An example shop page can be seen here.
Each of your individual products will include a text link to your shop as well.
Additionally, if you are an artist who makes your own products, you can optionally be featured on the About Us page, here. This page is specifically to highlight the individual people (not companies) that makeup Shop Outer Banks. This location will show a photo of you (not a logo) and a very brief bio or info about what you create. This will also link to your shop’s page listing your products.
Financial Info and other notes:
We currently sell every product on Shop Outer Banks with “Free Shipping”. Please mark up your pricing to include the cost of shipping it within the continental US. It is the most simple way to ensure that each product sells with an appropriate shipping fee built-in.
We collect NC state and local sales tax at the rate of 6.75% on any product shipped to an NC address. Sales tax for your product sales will be included in the payment you receive for your sales. You are responsible for filing tax reports with your local agencies and making any payments to them as needed.
When you make a sale, you will receive an email with order information including the customer’s name and address. It is up to you to package and ship the product to the customer in a timely manner.
Sales
You can put your products on sale at any time for any discount amount. Just let me know by email and I will mark them down for you. You can also pre-schedule sale start and end dates for any product. If you have admin access to the site as a vendor, you can manage your products yourself and can set and remove sales, change prices, edit photos and descriptions, etc.
Products on sale will gain extra exposure by being listed on the Sale page of the Shop Outer Banks website.
Disputes and Returns
We do not expect many returns however Shop Outer Banks does offer limited product returns. Returns are limited to full-price items, only if the product is defective or a mistake was made on the part of the seller, and only within 7 days of purchase. Should we get a return request, we will reach out to you. Once the product is received by you, a refund will be given to the customer. You will be responsible for the cost of the return, and Shop Outer Banks will return 10% commission earned for that sale. 5% of the sale will be kept by Shop Outer Banks to cover our expenses for credit card processing and other fees. The customer will pay for return shipping. You can see full details of our return policy here.
Once you have read and agree to these Terms and Conditions simply fill in the application here, and we will be in touch!
These terms and conditions may be updated at any time, check back or ask us directly if you have any questions.