As you might have noticed, our time to payout is longer than we would like it to be. That’s not good enough and something that we are spending a lot of time and ressources to fix. The purpose of this message is to try and explain why the situation is as it is and share our planned solution with you.
The problem and the plan
Looking at it from the outside it might seem stupid that it takes so long to payout the salary that we owe you. But in reality the cash flow is a bit more complex than a simple transaction between us and you. In the following description we’ve tried to break it down to the three main problems, offer an explanation and share our planned solution for each. Feel free to reply with your own comments and suggestions.
01. The right to return orders pushes the approval of your sales: 14-100 days.
The problem: In performance based influencer marketing we need to include the time period where a customer might return their order. Imagine a brand that guarantees their customers the right to return their products up to 14 - 100 days after delivery.
That prevents us from approving the sales that you’ve created on the job for a minimum of 14 - 100 days after the product is delivered. Naturally that pushes the timeline.
The plan: This problem is a bit tricky to solve effectively. The customer's right to return a product for an extended time period is an essential value proposition to most Ecommerce brands. Therefore we don’t think it is productive to restrict the return period to a specific number of days.
Instead we are working on making the return period on a campaign more clear on the platform. Letting you see and pick campaigns with full disclosure on the information.
02. Waiting for payment from the brands: 30-90 days.
The problem: Another problem is that brands normally operate with a payment period of between 30-90 days. In practice that means, that front the day we send our invoice they actually have the right to wait 1-3 months before paying. Most brands choose to push the payment as far ahead as possible.
The plan: We are right now working on a product update that will flip things around. Forcing the brands to pay money into a wallet upfront. This will pretty much solve the issue completely.
03. Slow payout flow: 14-25 days
The problem: Okay, so this one is on us. We simply have a too slow set-up for our payment flow. Right now it takes us around 14 days to transfer the money.
The plan: We are currently building a new and more efficient payment system. This should as a minimum cut the transfer period in half.
04. New feature: Instant payouts
Even though our proposed solutions will create a significant reduction in the payout period we are also currently working on a game-changing new feature: instant payouts.
As the name indicates, this will allow you to skip most of the above mentioned challenges and choose to get your money paid out as soon as your sales are approved - against a small service fee to cover the associated financial risk.
Thank you for taking the time to read this through! We hope it answered some of your questions. Feel free to reach out to us here with any follow up questions, suggestions or ideas on how to make things even better.