Note: This article was created to support the integration phase for Marketplace Vendors. If you're ready to get started as a vendor, we'd love to hear from you. Apply to join the Marketplace!
Getting Started
Review the following documentation prior to starting the Operations portion of your integration and reference the documentation as you complete each requirement in the requirement checklist. This documentation will provide you with detailed instructions on how to successfully complete the specific requirements for each task.
Once everything is completed, notify your operations integration point of contact for review and approval. Your Operations point of contact will review and confirm the successful completion of each requirement. We recommend completing all requirements and then notifying your point of contact. If you have not met the requirements, additional feedback on the respective requirement will be shared with you in order to meet expectations.
If you have not successfully completed a required task, all feedback will be passed to you through a shared task management system in Partner Center > Tasks > Projects.
Requirements Checklist
Table of Contents
- Replicate Your Product or Service and Pricing in Vendor Center
- Payment Ecosystem
- Contact Information
- Service Level Agreement (If Applicable)
- Order Form for Contact Information (If Applicable)
- Glossary
Provide Payment Information
Vendasta will send payment via ACH.
NOTE: Your bank letter or void cheque/check should be provided to your Operations point of contact.
A bank letter OR a void cheque/check will be required for ACH payments. A bank letter can be requested from your bank if you don’t have one already. It must include the bank account information on bank letterhead.
Bank Instructions / Requirements:
| Bank Instructions/Requirements for the United States |
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| Bank Instructions/Requirements for Canada |
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| Bank Instructions/Requirements for Outside of North America |
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Provide Payment Contact(s) Email Address
Replicate Your Product or Service and Pricing in Vendor Center
Where do I add pricing?
Vendor Center > Product Info > Pricing
In Vendor Center, the ‘Cost’ field is a placeholder for the wholesale price. Wholesale pricing will only be displayed as its own entity once your onboarding is complete. The wholesale price must be lower than the suggested retail price.
The suggested retail price must be the same as the price on your public domain. As a Vendor, you determine the profit that a Channel Partner makes from the sale to their SMB client when you establish a discounted wholesale price.
The only time the suggested retail price will differ is if the offering is exclusive to the Vendasta Marketplace - Then it must be exceptionally clear what the difference is within your marketing material.
Selecting Your Pricing Model
The first step in your operations integration is to select your pricing model. The pricing model and structure should reflect how you currently sell direct to agencies or SMBs and will be determined based on the structure of your offering.
If your direct pricing model differs, or if your solution is exclusive to Vendasta, it is a requirement that the difference is clearly communicated in your marketing. The pricing model and structure of your product ultimately sets the initial Reseller purchasing experience and Vendor payments.
You have the option to incorporate 4 different pricing models:
1. Fixed Pricing - Fixed Pricing is available for the following frequencies with the option of commitments.
2. Editions - Editions allow for value or feature-based plans with an upgrade and downgrade path between plans
3. Variable Pricing - Variable pricing works best for digital advertising or quote-based services.
4. Contact Sales - Contact Sales can be utilized as a product to initiate conversation prior to a purchase.
Structure Guidelines
A pricing structure defines and organizes how your pricing is set up for your products and services.
If you’re not sure how to insert your current pricing model into Vendor Center, use these recommended guidelines to set up the structure of your product or service.
Price Changes after the Marketplace Release
Any price changes after the initial Marketplace release require 90 days notice to facilitate communications and the change itself. To initiate a price adjustment, please reach out to your point of contact with the SKUs affected, the new price, and the reason for the increase.
Digital Advertising
The base product represents a monthly frequency for the variable advertising spend, management fee, and a one-time setup fee all in one transaction.
The Add-on represents a one-time frequency to increase the campaign budget immediately.
Per User Pricing
For One Plan
The base product represents a single user or an Admin user, and the add-on represents the ability to purchase additional users.
For Multiple Plans
The base product can represent one plan or multiple plans which also represent groups of users. This structure eliminates the need for creating add-ons to represent additional users at different prices since Add-ons cannot be dependent on a specific Edition ID.
A La Carte or Catalogue
An a la carte or catalogue is usually a range of similar one-time services that can be purchased:
a) Together or separate
b) Multiple times
The base product represents a $0 fixed price or Contact Sales, so as many add-ons as you need can be created.
Monthly Services that require add-ons should be structured as individual products.
Quoting
If your current model is a quoted offering, or if you don’t see any value to creating an offering with fixed pricing, variable pricing can be used to achieve a model that allows you to quote each service.
With this structure, the workflow entails a requirement to initiate contact with you first (preferably through Inbox) to provide the quote. Then, waiting for the confirmation that the order was placed at the quoted amount. This workflow should be very clearly outlined in the Partner Marketing Description. And if the Reseller would like to repurchase your one-time quoted service, the instructions must also be clear that the add-on needs to be deactivated before making another purchase.
We recommend using Proposal Builder to provide the details surrounding your quote!
Payment Ecosystem
Before beginning your operations integration, it is important to first understand the Vendasta payment ecosystem. There are four main players: The Vendor, Vendasta, the Channel Partner (Reseller), and the SMB/Client.
Resellers purchase products and services from the Vendasta Marketplace for a reduced wholesale price, as set by the Vendor. The Reseller then resells the product/service to their client for a profit. Vendors are then paid their share of the Wholesale Price.
Vendors are required to include the Wholesale Price and Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for any product or service in Vendor Center.
Vendor Payment Schedule
Example:
Purchase: November 22nd (month 1)
Remittance Statement: December 2nd (month 2)
Payment: December 15th (month 2)
Renewal or Deactivation: December 21st
NOTE:
Billing start dates and renewal dates are affected by activations during certain dates and times which may impact your remittance statement.
Example: If an activation occurs (monthly frequency) on the last day of the month (month 1) and there are fewer days in the following month (month 2), the renewal period is moved to the first day of the following month (month 3).
Billing dates follow the UTC Standard Time Zone. If a purchase occurs in a -GMT Time Zone, within the offset of your timezone from 00:00 UTC, then the billing date will be on the next day.
Contact Information
There are two required places to input your contact information in Vendor Center:
1. Inbox Messaging Contact: Resellers will want to communicate with you through the Platform via Inbox Messaging. To access your messages, navigate to the top left corner of Partner Center, and within the navigation bar, click Messages.
Partner Center Admins will only receive notifications for Inbox messages, so you may want to add multiple Team Members or add a group email address monitored by any member of your team who is responsible for responding to these inbound messages. Please refer to the Adding your Team Members section if you require assistance with the setup.
Notification preferences are also set per Team Member within Partner Center. For additional information about Reseller Notifications, please refer to this guide.
2. Need Help? (Vendor Center > Marketing > Partner Marketing): This area is dedicated to support. It’s best practice to include a phone and email address for product support. If support is provided in any time zone outside of ET, CT, MT, or PT zones, it should be noted in this section. It is also a requirement to indicate a service level agreement for response times.
If you have resources for sales support, we recommend as many avenues as possible for Resellers including a booking link for meetings. Vendors have access to a free meeting scheduler in the Vendasta platform.
Service Level Agreement
NOTE: Your product type (product or service) determines what type of service level agreement is in place.
Product Requirements
A product’s service level agreement is only necessary if your technical integration uses the pending activation workflow. A service level agreement is required to outline the timeframe it will take to take the product or add-on from a pending state to an active state within the:
Your FAQ should be both End User and Partner facing. Example:
Q: What Happens After the Sale?
A: The dashboard will be available for your clients 2 business days after activation (or once we complete your setup).
Service Requirements
A service’s service level agreement is mandatory and will outline what steps a Reseller should expect to occur between purchase and service delivery in as much detail as possible. Service Vendors are required to provide transparency as service level agreement within the:
- Order Form Footer
- Activation Message
- Partner Facing FAQs
Depending on who you will be communicating with, the FAQ should be placed in certain areas of the marketing:
- If you will only be communicating with the Reseller, this FAQ should ONLY be placed in the Partner Marketing.
- If you may be communicating with the End User, you should not be implying that you will be communicating with them. Any mention of communication should be removed from your What Happens After the Sale FAQ.
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Timelines and detail are important and most importantly, a requirement.
Example:
Q: What Happens After the Sale?
A: After the purchase is processed and the order form has been completed, we will reach out to you within [x] business days.
We will provide [Insert Deliverable] within 5 business days for approval via [Insert communication method].
If further revisions are required, they will be completed within [x] business days.
Once all revisions are approved, we will notify you via [Insert communication method].
Order Form for Contact Information
If you require contact information to facilitate the delivery of a service or simply want to onboard the new account for example, please refer to the Order Form guide. Contact Information must be requested in the form of a Form Field which is required and hidden from end users. DO NOT use the Primary Contact checkboxes.
Glossary
Product
An app that is listed in the Vendasta Marketplace. Products are defined by the fact that they have a deep technical integration into the Vendasta Platform.
Service
A listing in the Marketplace that refers to fulfillment work that is completed for or on behalf of a client.
Vendor Center
Vendor Center is the area of the platform where Vendors can go to build out their Marketplace offering and connect with Resellers.
Wholesale Price
The wholesale price is the price of the product or service that the Channel Partner pays out to Vendasta.
Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP)
The MSRP is the suggested retail price that is set by the Vendor. The MSRP needs to be equal to the price of the product when purchasing directly from the Vendor. The only time the MSRP will differ is if the offering is exclusive to the Vendasta Marketplace - Then it must be exceptionally clear what the difference is within your marketing material.
Activation
Activation refers to a product being made available to use on an account. An activation means the purchase is successful and the product is in an active state or a pending state depending on the specific purchase workflow for the product.
Product Type
Product or Service