Setting up your marketplace is extremely easy and can be done 100% online but there are some steps to follow. Here they are. 

1 - Preliminary setup
2 - Marketplace setup
3 - Invite Suppliers
4 - Manage Suppliers

Before starting enrolling suppliers, you should definitely give your marketplace site some structure.
Design the homepage and build your main sections. Start adding branding & pictures. This will help you identify the suppliers you need and this will help suppliers understand which ecosystem they are joining. 

Transactions via Blackbell marketplaces are to be made online. So to start building your marketplace, you must have a Stripe or a Transferwise account connected to your Blackbell

Learn more about payments and coverage here. 

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Manage marketplace visibility 

The marketplace page is a page that can be added to your website to let your customers search for suppliers. 

You can decide to publish this page or not. If not published, you'll have to insert supplier pages manually in some sections of your website. 

How to access this "Marketplace Page": By clicking on "Marketplace" in your topbar.

Refer to the section "build supplier form" below to understand how to customize the advanced search bar

You can decide to make your Marketplace open and let other Blackbell suppliers spontaneously apply to join your marketplace.
They will see you under: E-Commerce > Join Marketplaces

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Describe your marketplace

To help suppliers understand who you are and why they should join, describe your marketplace.

You can be:
​
✓ A building (hotel, residence...) looking to offer concierge services to your residents
✓ A concierge company looking to grow your catalogue of services
✓ A community (city...) looking to gather merchants into one single platform 

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Set guidelines 

Set some guidelines for your suppliers. Guidelines are sent to suppliers and must be approved (as part of their onboarding) before they can start building their page. 

Example of guidelines:
​
​✓ Pictures: Please use "blue-tone" pictures. Here is a great website to access free pictures: XXX
​✓ Content: Please add your cancellation policy very explicitly
​✓ Fairness policy: Do not redirect customers into your own e-commerce website. As part of our marketplace, we ask you to list your products and services inside our platform or you won't be approved
​✓ Contact info: Any questions on your content ? Feel free to email us at XXX.
​✓ Marketing: Want to be featured on our homepage? Feel free to email us at XXX
​✓ Promotions: Want to launch a special promotion? Feel free to create a coupon code and communicate it to us so we can market it to our audience. 

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Set commission rate

Set the minimal commission rate you are requiring from suppliers for marketplace orders. 

✓ The commission cannot be lower than 5%.
✓ This a minimum commission level. which means suppliers can agree to give more than that. Feel free to enter into direct negotiation with them separately and agree on a higher amount 

⚠️    Once your terms are set, if you invite suppliers and you change terms AFTERWARDS, your new terms won't apply to them. 

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Build supplier form

To better help qualify suppliers, you can define a list of question they must answer. This will help you categorize your suppliers and this will help your users filter their search results. 

✓ Checkboxes
​> Will appear in filter panel on your website

Create a list of choices to pick from.
The display will vary depending on the number of choices. 

1 choice available. Example: Do you accept children - Only set "Yes" and supplier will tick if he does

From 2 to 7 choices available. 

More than 8 choices available. Will be display as a dropdown menu

✓ Quantity picker
​> Will appear in filter panel on your website

✓ Address
​> Will not appear in filter panel on your website

Objective is to let your users geolocate suppliers around a specific location when it's relevant.
Example: you are referencing B&Bs in an area. 

✓ File
​> Will not appear in filter panel on your website

Collect file from suppliers.
Example: their terms of service  

✓ Text area
​> Will not appear in filter panel on your website

Collect information from suppliers.
​
✓ Number
​> Will not appear in filter panel on your website

Collect information from suppliers.
​
​⚠️     Important: 

✓ You cannot reorder the list for now. So make sure you create your list in good order
✓ At all time you can review your advanced search bar by activating the "Marketplace page"

✓ You cannot add a search bar on your homepage for now. You can of course individually feature suppliers wherever you want but the search bar is only accessible from your marketplace page.  

✓ You cannot edit the header of your marketplace page. The header picture will by default be your homepage header picture.
​

3.a. Invite suppliers 

Well done! Your marketplace is properly setup. This is time for you to invite suppliers. 

Our tool lets you quickly invite suppliers. Here is the flow. 

✓ Add an invitation message: It will appear in the body of your email invite
✓ Copy the email addresses of your suppliers
✓ Press send 

Email invite is received by supplier instantly. 

Once invitations are sent, they will appear under:
Suppliers > Invitations sent 

3.b. Collect spontaneous applications

We also let you add a box to recruit suppliers from your website. 

✓ Create a page and simply add the "Join marketplace" module inside your page. 

✓ Receive spontaneous applications straight into your inbox. You will be notified by email and with a red notification in your CMS 

✓ Once you receive a new applicant request, simply review details and send formal invite. Then you are back on the regular invitation flow (3.a.)
​

You will receive completed supplier applications under "To review". 

This means suppliers: 

You can then review their page and decide to approve or to reject their application. 

⚠️     Important: 

How does that work for suppliers to manage orders?