ASOS Marketplace FAQs (Boutiques)

What are the criteria for having a Boutique?

Since the ASOS Marketplace platform launched in 2010 it's supported thousands of international small brands, giving them an online space to sell vintage and independent fashion and access to ASOS' extensive global customer base of fashion-loving twenty-somethings. Today, the ASOS Marketplace platform is home to over 800 brands from around the world and over 130,000 products, which are a mix of vintage pieces sourced by our global community of expert vintage boutiques and unique pieces designed and created by the newest, and coolest, independent brands. Want to join us and grow your brand on our platform? Here's how, including information on ASOS Marketplace’s Boutique Standards Guide.

What are the Boutique features?

Each boutique has a unique storefront which is fully editable and allows you to build your own branded area within ASOS Marketplace.

Boutiques can link their storefront to their social channels in order to market themselves to their network. Boutiques also have the opportunity to be featured in our edits, onsite features and across our social channels. They can also promote themselves on key category and homepages to drive traffic directly to their store (please see the What is promoting a Boutique section below).

How do I change my Boutique’s name?

To change the name of your Boutique please contact sell@asos.com. If you change the name of your Boutique, your Boutique pages and product listings may have new URLs, so be sure to update any links on your personal websites, Facebook and Twitter.

How do I close my Boutique?

You can remove your entire Boutique and all products by visiting Account Status and selecting Remove Your Boutique. You will be asked to confirm your decision before the process is complete. Please email sell@asos.com before removing your Boutique. You may not remove your Boutique if you have any open orders.

Once you remove your Boutique your store will be removed from the website and will not appear in Boutique listings, your subscription will be cancelled, your items will no longer be for sale on ASOS Marketplace however you will still be invoiced if you have any outstanding fees, and any outstanding queries or orders need to be fulfilled.

Fees & invoices

Further information as to the fees and commissions charged for Boutiques can be found here.

Commission will be deducted in different ways depending on the customer's payment method:

• PayPal and PayPal's Guest checkout: Commission from each PayPal sale is totalled monthly and collected 2 working days after the final invoice day (see My Invoices). Fees are automatically collected from your PayPal account.
• Credit and debit cards through Stripe: Commission from each Stripe sale is taken immediately, and your invoice will acknowledge the transaction as zero (commission already paid).

You will receive a monthly invoice detailing all customer purchases made on your Boutique, rent due and any paid promotions bought. You can view your invoices, pay overdue invoices and check when your next invoice is due by visiting Settings>Invoices. Any payments owed to ASOS Marketplace are automatically removed from your PayPal account, so you do not have to take any action to pay an invoice. If for some reason this payment fails, please contact PayPal to resolve the issue as soon as possible so the invoice payment can be taken.

If you are a business selling items on ASOS Marketplace and registered for VAT within the EU, you can add your VAT number to invoices here.

If you fail to pay an invoice you may have your selling privileges removed, and you will still be liable to pay the invoice.

Discounted rates to NUS members

ASOS Marketplace has partnered up with NUS Extra to offer card holders a 10% discount on seller rates. Simply enter your NUS Extra card number on the sign-up page to get 10% off all seller rates – that’s 10% off commission on your Boutique account. Meaning that the 20% commission will be dropped to 18% with a valid NUS Extra card number.

To continue benefiting from reduced seller rates when your card expires, you will need to make sure you renew your membership with NUS Extra and update your NUS card details within your Marketplace account.

Accepting payments from customers

Customers can pay for items using a credit or debit card, or by using Stripe or Paypal.

See here for further information on accepting payments by Stripe.

See here for further information on accepting payments by PayPal.

Shipping

The maximum delivery time for items is 20 days. Orders must be shipped within 2 days of payment clearance in line with Boutique standards. Made-to-order and custom-made items must be shipped within 5 working days.

It is advisable to include a shipping docket which confirms the order and your Boutique. It is also a great opportunity to grow repeat business, so including a special promo code or maybe an inexpensive novelty or sweets is worth considering. Always ensure that your order is shipped with care, effort and attention to detail. The small things such as beautifully packaged items make a big difference to customer perceptions of your business and generate positive feedback.

You should not charge more than the actual shipping cost. Customers see delivery services as an extension of your business. You should research different delivery providers to find the one(s) that best suits the products you sell. UK Boutiques may wish to start with Royal Mail's Shipping Calculator.

If a buyer purchases more than one item from you, you can activate 'Multi Item Shipping Discount'. You can activate the discount when listing your items or by visiting Shipping profiles. You can see which items need to be dispatched together by visiting Orders>Sales

Orders may be cancelled by the buyer or a Boutique up until the point when they are marked as shipped. If you have shipped an item and the customer disputes the payment, you will need to complete the relevant dispute process:

• Please click here for further information resolving disputes, claims and chargebacks via PayPal.
• Please click here for further information resolving disputes, claims and chargebacks via Stripe.

Drop shipping

ASOS Marketplace champions sellers that physically own their stock and take their own pictures for ASOS Marketplace. We do not support the drop shipping business model. If a seller is thought to be running their business as a drop shipper then ASOS Marketplace at its own discretion may remove that seller’s account(s) from the site without notice or prior warning to a Boutique and shall take any measures it deems necessary to ensure that subsequent drop shipping accounts are not opened on the Site.

Orders cancellations, refunds & returns

Orders may be cancelled by the buyer or a Boutique up until the point when they are marked as shipped.

Once the item has been sent, orders can only be cancelled by the item in question being returned for a full refund so long as the item is received back to a Boutique in the same condition as it was sent. If the item is made-to-measure Boutiques only need to cancel an order before it is shipped provided that the garment hasn’t been altered or made yet.

If the customer wishes to return an item for any reason, they need to inform a Boutique in writing within 14 days of receiving the item. Customer may also use a withdrawal form to let a Boutique know if you wish to cancel your contract under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

You need to provide instructions on how to return your item and once your item is received back, process the refund using the refund action within the order page. Do not ask customers to send returns to ASOS or use the ASOS.com freepost label. Marketplace cannot recover items incorrectly sent to ASOS.com.

Return postage is the customer's responsibility unless the item is incorrect or faulty, in which case the Boutique will need to make arrangements to cover the return postage via a direct payment from you to the buyer via PayPal.

The items must be unworn and in their original condition save for the customer's right to inspect the goods and try on the garments. It is the customer's responsibility to ensure that returned goods are adequately packaged so it arrives back undamaged. You are not obliged to accept refunds in other scenarios; however, it can be better to accept a refund, otherwise disgruntled customers can be prone to leaving negative feedback (even if you believe this is unjustified).

For further information on Stripe refunds, please click here.

For further information on PayPal refunds, please click here.

Listing an item – Boutique photography rules

We absolutely LOVE seeing great photography on Marketplace. We know that our shoppers get inspired by beautiful imagery, plus it helps to build your brand identity and emphasises how amazing your product is, too. Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, on location or in a studio, the best place to shoot your imagery is totally up to you, however Boutiques must also follow the ASOS Marketplace Photography Guide, which requires all products to be shot on a person and in natural daylight.

For items that are available in different sizes, you can list those as part of a single product listing and manage the stock of each. For items with different styles (e.g. long sleeve and short sleeve t-shirts) and different colours you should complete a separate listing.

Can I sell real fur?

ASOS wants fashion to be cruelty free. We do not permit the use of fur or endangered animal skin in ASOS brand products. Please see our ASOS Animal Welfare Policy for further information.

Do I need to inform customers if my items are customised?

For items that are customised you must clearly state it in your product description as this could impact if you accept returns on the customised items.

How do I list unisex items?

In line with ASOS.com all products have to be categorised as Menswear or Womenswear and there is no unisex option, so you will need to list these products twice. Menswear must be shot on a male model/womenswear on a female model and then listed accordingly.

Listing and relisting items

The default period a listing is live on ASOS Marketplace is 120 days, but this becomes longer for listings where at least one unit has sold. This is explained in more detail below:

• If no sales are generated within the first 120 days of a listing going live, the listing will expire. You can choose to ‘extend’ the listing for a further 30 days or ‘Add to Clearance’ at a reduced price for 30 days.
• If you have multiple units under one listing, every time that you sell one unit, your listing will be live for a further 60 days. This process will be repeated until all stock sells out, or the listing expires.

There are several reasons why you may not be able to extend your listing, and these are explained below:

• Your item is still live. You can only extend an item that has been live on the site for a period of 120 days and has expired. You have already extended the listing once before. In this instance you can select to add your item to our Clearance section for a further period of 30 days.
• Your listing has expired because it has been live on ASOS Marketplace for a period of 120 days without selling. You can choose to ‘extend’ the listing once for a further 30 days or ‘Add to Clearance’ at a reduced price for 30 days. However, if the expired item had already been extended, you will only be able to add this listing to Clearance.

If you believe that your listing has expired prematurely please get in touch on sell@asos.com.

Clearance

Your item will be eligible for Clearance once it has been live for 120 days and expired. When the listing expires you can choose to ‘extend’ or ‘add to Clearance’. Note that if you choose to ‘extend’ the listing you will not be eligible for clearance again for a further 30 days, given that the item remains unsold.

Your item will be listed in Clearance for a default period of 30 days, and if you do not make a sale from your Clearance listing within 30 days your listing will expire and you will not be able to extend the listing or keep it in Clearance.

If you have multiple units under one Clearance listing, every time you sell one unit, the listing will be live for further 30 days. This process will continue until you sell out or you go for a period of 30 days without selling another unit.

There are a couple of reasons why you might not be able to list an item in our Clearance section:

• If your listing is currently live, you will not be able to add it to Clearance i.e. you can only add an ‘expired listing’ to the Clearance.
• If your initial listing has expired and you have selected to ‘extend’ you will not be able to add this item to Clearance until the extension period has finished (after 30 days).
• If you stock multiple units and you have sold at least one unit. When this happens, your listing will not expire and will remain at full price until you sell out or you experience a period of 60 days with no sales.

ASOS Marketplace reduces commission on all Clearance sales. Boutiques pay 10% commission on all Clearance sales.

Why can't I see my items under 'new in'?

If you have checked the first few pages of ‘new in’ and still can’t see your listing, it may be due to one of the following reasons;

• High volume of listings? If lots of new listings have been added to the site your listings may appear later in new in- try looking further back through the pages for your listings.
• Has your item been suspended? We may suspend items that that are inappropriate for ASOS Marketplace. This includes but is not limited to items that are not clothing, fashion accessories or shoes; photography that is not according to our photography guidelines; offensive language; sexually explicit language/photography.

If you still have questions about your listing, you can contact us on sell@asos.com.

Can I relist items outside the natural Marketplace lifecycle?

Relisting is permitted if:

• A previously sold out item now has more available stock
• A previously sold out item has been returned for a refund

Relisting items purely to maintain a longer presence on the new in pages of Marketplace is not permitted and can result in item suspension and removal of your Boutique from the platform at any time without prior notice or further justification.

What is holiday mode?

Holiday Mode is to be used when you are taking some time away from your Boutique so that you can communicate to your customers that you are taking a break. To put your shop in Holiday Mode, go to Account Status. Enter a brief message to replace your normal Shop Announcement while you are away. Your items will be removed from search results, but will still appear in buyers’ want lists with a message indicating you are currently away. While your store is in holiday mode customers will not be able to buy your items. To return from Holiday Mode, simply select Turn Off Holiday Mode in Account Status.

Please ensure all open orders and/or customer queries are dealt with prior to activating Holiday Mode.

Please note, Boutique’s will still need to pay subscription fees while in holiday mode.

How do I get noticed on ASOS Marketplace?

The best way to get noticed around the site is to ensure that you have a well thought out boutique and have the best product imagery that you can possibly have. It is great to try to develop a brand identity through your imagery which means customers will start to recognise your products and your boutique. Great imagery gets featured around the site as we want to present the best to our customers, so don’t underestimate the difference between an average image with crumpled clothing and a clean and bright shot with clothing presented in a way that shows it off to its best advantage.

You can also pay to promote your boutique on the most popular pages of the site, the men's and women's homepages and the boutique directory. By doing so you can put your boutique in front of ASOS Marketplace customers and open your boutique up to a whole new audience (see ‘What is promoting a Boutique?’ below).

Ensure that you maintain great customer service and keep your feedback rating as close to 100% as possible; customers are more likely to shop from a boutique that is trustworthy and offers great service. This is why the feedback rating is so important.

Additionally, at ASOS Marketplace we encourage all boutiques to link to social media accounts, this enables boutiques to promote to their network and also drive traffic to their boutique. If you are posting any relevant content on your social media accounts be sure to tag us!

What is promoting a Boutique?

Promoting your Boutique gives the option to pay to feature on some high traffic pages of ASOS Marketplace; The Boutique Directory, and the Men's and Women's homepages. It is a highly effective way to give your Boutique visibility on these popular pages. The cost of the promotion will be added to your monthly invoice.

Once you confirm your promotion you are unable to change or cancel it and each spot gets you 24hrs in the rotating item list at the top the page that you have chosen to promote on. Promotions start at midnight UTC (formerly GMT) and end 11:59 UTC (GMT).

Promo codes

Promo codes are used for the following reasons;

• Discount items that are currently trending
• Reward returning customers by creating a promo code to send out with your orders.
• Create a code especially for people in your social networks. You could send a code to anyone who re-tweets your link or shares something on Facebook.

Why not try approaching your favourite bloggers with a discount code especially for their readers in exchange for a little coverage on their site? We know a lot of you also sell at vintage fairs, trade shows and designer markets – why not create a code for anyone you meet at these events, maybe put it on any flyers or business cards.

To create a promo code, log in to your account, go to the Promote tab under My Account and select Create a Promo Code. Go through each step on the page then click 'create this promo code'.

You can distribute promo codes in two ways, either keep your promo code private and send out to specific users by message or in an order, or make your promo code public. Public promo codes, when active, will appear on your product pages and will be visible to all users. You may only make one promo code public at a time.

You can specify how many times a promo code can be used when you create your code. Choose between one use, multiple use or unlimited uses. Please note: this refers to the TOTAL uses of the coupon, not the uses per person.

When you create a public promo code the discount message will appear on all of your product pages, with the exception of products listed within the last 7 days. This is to comply with the UK's Pricing Practice Guidelines. Don't worry though, once your items are listed for longer than 7 days, they'll automatically display any active public code you have live.

You can deactivate or delete promo codes at any time. If you think you will want to use that promo code again, deactivate it. If you delete a promo code entirely, you’ll have to create the code again from scratch.

Sales & promotion

ASOS Marketplace has site-wide sales a couple of times a year. You will be alerted by email when we have an upcoming sale, keep an eye on our sale section for upcoming dates.

A few days before we hold a sale you will be able to add items to it by going to My Marketplace > Manage Items and selecting a sale discount for the item. When you add an item to our sale or event it will automatically be discounted to the lower price when our sale or event begins. When the sale or event ends your items will then be put back to their original price.

If there is a promo code, then it will only work on an already discounted item if the discount is bigger than the current discount. For example, if a £100 top is already in a sale with 40% off, then a code offering 25% off will not work. However, if there was a code offering 50% off then the customer would be eligible to receive the greater discount which would be 50% off £100 (original selling price).

Customers are able to apply any active free shipping codes to items on promotion however customers cannot combine multiple free shipping and/or discount codes.

Customer feedback

ASOS Marketplace believes all feedback, whether good, neutral or bad, is an integral part of selling and should be used as a benchmark for how Boutiques can improve their quality and service.

ASOS Marketplace encourages all Boutiques to engage with customers to resolve instances of negative feedback by rectifying the situation. Boutiques can message the customer through ASOS Marketplace and ask them to change their feedback rating, a rating can only be changed once and positively.

Boutiques can avoid negative feedback by:

• Having an accurate listing with detailed description and sizing
• Providing prompt shipping that is in line with the shipping profile
• Sending a detailed shipping message to the customer including the tracking number
• Keeping customers up to date with any unexpected delays and offer incentives for them to shop again
• Sending prompt replies to messages and prompt handling of customer queries
• Including a delivery note

Receiving negative feedback is part of retailing, so if it happens keep calm and take a step back to review the order. Always try to resolve the issues directly with the customer and really assess why the negative feedback was left and learn from it so that your future customers have the best possible shopping experience with your Boutique.

We recommend always responding to the customer in as helpful a manner as possible. If there’s a delivery issue, why not reconfirm the customer’s tracking information, or check it yourself for any issues? Are they not happy with the item? Let them know how to return it for a refund. Imagine yourself as the customer and always be polite and helpful in replies.

Put yourself in the customers shoes and remember that you are running a business, we advise that you do not be defensive, write an essay or blame an unrelated factor, instead reply to the customer being super helpful as ultimately the customer just wants the item they ordered, once any issues are ironed out customers are usually more than happy to reconsider their feedback.

ASOS Marketplace takes feedback ratings seriously and if the rating falls below 90% then a Boutique risks being removed from the Marketplace. On occasion there will be unfair feedback left and ASOS Marketplace only reviews and removes feedback in exceptional circumstances, such as feedback that:

• contains email addresses, telephone numbers, mail addresses, social media tags, offensive language, false statements, or content unrelated to the Boutique will be removed.
  Examples: “I would like to return this dress. please send me a return label to this email address: customername@gmail.com”
  “Nice trousers but the jumper from [another Boutique’s name] arrived with a mark on it”
• is no longer relevant or true, including where a customer has raised an issue which the Boutique has not been previously aware of and/or promptly dealt with in line with Marketplace’s Boutique standards
  Examples: “I was unhappy with the product, returned it and haven’t received a refund” (records prove the item was refunded before feedback was left)
  “Item arrived with a missing button” (if a missing button was clearly highlighted in the description, feedback can be removed)
• is unconnected with the transaction:
  Examples: “I bought this sweater then saw a cheaper one elsewhere” (feedback removed)
  “Customs charged $51 before I got the parcel… NOT happy” (as the importer, customers are responsible for any customs duty due, feedback can be removed)
• is a question related to a product or a general question:
  Example: “Where is my order?"
• is a premature:
  Example: “Where is my order? It’s been 10 days" (item was shipped in 24 hours and the original delivery estimate was 12 days – feedback removed after Boutique has contacted customer).

The Marketplace Review team can only review feedback once. Feedback over 60 days old is considered final and cannot be reviewed or amended.

In all instances of negative or neutral feedback the Boutique must always try and resolve the issue directly with the customer before contacting the ASOS Marketplace team.

Disputes

A dispute occurs when a buyer and a seller cannot resolve a problem with a purchase. For most scenarios this should be resolved through the PayPal resolution centre or the Stripe dispute process. ASOS also offers the ASOS Guarantee. Please click here for further information.

Raising a dispute should be a last resort for your customer. As the Boutique you should always try to resolve the issue by communicating and cooperating with a Boutique first. Disputes may take some time and will require buyer and seller to provide evidence of their actions in the transaction and delivery of the item.