Planning Seller Onboarding
This page will walk you through planning how to onboard and manage your sellers, including:
- Plan seller registration and approval process
- Build your marketplace agreements
- Plan seller staff members and permissions
- Choose seller payout process
Seller registration and approval process
Decide sellers will register for your platform and how you approve and add each seller. The following sections will walk you through how to plan each stage of this process.
The basic process to onboard a seller starts with the following workflow:
Sign-up methods
At a high level, creating a seller account involves setting up a seller profile, designating a primary contact, and assigning a marketplace agreement.
But the actual onboarding process is usually more complex. To join a multi-seller marketplace, sellers must first complete an application. The enrollment procedure can be tailored to your specific business model.
Often, this begins with sellers completing a form on your website. Utilize Nautical's API to create a custom form on your site, or integrate with a third-party service like Typeform.
Seller registration considerations
Approval status
Sellers in Nautical have a status, such as Pending, Approved, or Paused. By default, all new seller accounts are created with a Pending status.
While a seller account remains in the Pending state, all associated staff members can create their passwords but will not gain access to the Dashboard until the seller account has been approved.
Importing existing sellers
Similar to products, you can create sellers manually or in bulk using Nautical's import tools. These import tools are built using Google Sheets and use the input to migrate data into Nautical in bulk.
Contact your Nautical Program Manager for access to import tools for sellers.
Each system has a different data structure. When migrating data from another system, you must prepare your data by reformatting it to match Nautical's data structure.
You can create, approve, and manage your sellers using the Dashboard or API.
Build your marketplace agreements
Determine which marketplace agreements you need in place. Marketplace agreements cover topics such as commission fees, payment processing, product listings, and customer service.
The agreement between the seller and the platform is essential to ensure both parties understand their responsibilities and obligations. It also provides a clear and transparent commission structure. You can create as many agreements as needed for your business model.
Marketplace agreement considerations
Commission and payout structure
Seller payouts are calculated considering the commission earned by the marketplace on each sale. The commission is how the marketplace earns revenue. You can define commission using a percentage, flat-rate fee, or a combination of both.
For commission-based agreements, the platform automatically calculates and collects the commission from each transaction. The seller receives the remaining funds based on the payout structure defined by the marketplace.
Seller acknowledgment
Once a seller account is registered and approved in your marketplace, on the primary contact's first login, they will be prompted to acknowledge their assigned marketplace agreement that outlines the terms and conditions of selling on the marketplace.
Any staff member associated with the seller account will not have access to the Dashboard until the primary contact acknowledges the agreement. Once acknowledged, the seller account shows a Signed badge.
Seller staff members and permissions
You can grant one or more individuals access to your platform as part of a seller account. Each seller needs at least one staff member, in order for a primary contact to be assigned to the seller.
Seller permission considerations
All staff members are linked to a seller account, including marketplace operators who are connected to the marketplace seller account. The staff member details page shows the current user's Seller account.
Primary contact
Each seller must have a staff member designated as the primary contact. This user will be responsible for signing the marketplace agreement on their first login after the seller account is approved.
Other staff members for that seller will not have access to the platform until the primary contact acknowledges the agreement.
Seller permissions
The permission group dictates the level of access staff members have within Nautical. The permissions granted will depend on the information you allow your sellers to add and manage.
Staff members will only have access to data owned by the seller linked to their account. They cannot view products, orders, or warehouses owned by other sellers. Staff members only see pages for which they have the appropriate permissions to manage the data.
Seller payout process
One of Nautical's key features is the ability to calculate seller payouts, factoring in sales, taxes, shipping, commission, fees, penalties, and adjustments.
In order to perform these payouts, you must decide what payment method(s) you will support, and how you will conduct payouts.
Seller payout considerations
Payout method
To pay sellers for their orders in your marketplace, they must onboard to receive payouts. Nautical supports payout plugins for Stripe Connect, PayPal, and Trolley. Each payout gateway has its own onboarding process and requirements.
Performing payouts
When revenue has accrued for your sellers, you can process payouts. Payouts are carried out using eligible orders within a specified date range.
Once you start the payout, all orders meeting the criteria will be displayed. You'll have the chance to review the sellers, add any adjustments, deduct any penalties, and lock the payout before processing it.