Help and tips

Wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors, who are searching for new markets for their products, can list them on Merkandi after purchasing the PREMIUM membership and completing the verification procedure. Nevertheless, to get the most from Merkandi account, it is good to follow the tips from below:

1. Complete your profile and keep it up-to-date - your company profile on Merkandi is available to every buyer on the platform, so please make sure you provide them with all important information about your wholesale, and the products you are offering for sale. First of all, please keep your contact details up-to-date to avoid any problems with contacting you. To do that, just add phone numbers, email addresses, names and surnames of the members of your sales department, and the languages they speak. Secondly, provide the physical address of your facilities, such as a showroom, or a warehouse, and a url of your website. Thirdly, provide information about payment options and shipping options, which you can access within “Wholesaler's data” section of your account. Please choose the payment options and shipping options available for buyers. To include more detailed information, use the text fields titled “Additional information”. Finally, we recommend describing your company and products you sell.

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2. List new offers regularly, keep the previous ones up-to-date - it is highly recommended to list offers as often as possible because the more offers you add, the more buyers will contact you. Also, each of your offers is sent within our daily newsletter with the latest products, so it pays to do it sistematically to increment your offers' reach. However, please do not forget about your previous offers: it is important to update them whenever something changes (i.e. price, payment options, or the minimum order quantity).
 

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3. Prepare good descriptions and images - before buyer visit your profile, they will have probably viewed some of your offers already. For that reason, you should take a moment to create a good and reliable description of your products. Mention the strong points of your products and benefits coming from its purchase (i.e. discount at buying larger quantities, free delivery, a possibility of sending samples). Include all important information about the wholesale lot, and do not be afraid to mention some imperfections. After all, besides the buyers of products that are new, there are used, refurbished, damaged products buyers too. Also, please try to avoid general statements in both the title, and the description of your offer. Be specific and reliable while describing products: include the names of the brands or models, provide buyers with basic specifications of your stock for sale, and point out every important piece of information (i.e. missing boxes, scratches or dents). A good title and description should also mention the type of the stock for sale, such as liquidation stock, overstock, ex lease products, bankrupt stock etc. Moreover, it is highly recommendable to upload authentic pictures of the wholesale lot, whenever possible. The authentic pictures do not only look better, but also prove you actually own the stock, which is very important for most buyers.

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4. Add your offers' translations to other languages - if you do know any other languages, which are supported on Merkandi, then you should translate your offers to these languages. This will highly increment the number of potential buyers for your products. If you do not know any other language used on Merkandi, consider translating your offers using Google, Yandex, Bing, or Yahoo.
 

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To add an offer, you have to be a PREMIUM member of Merkandi and verify your company with us. To do that, just simply upload the required documents within your user’s account, or send them to us via fax or email. As soon as the verification proccedure is completed with a positive result, your account's selling options will be activated, and you will be able to add unlimited number of offers on Merkandi. Please remember it is one of the features of your user’s account, so once it expires, you will no longer have an option of listing products on the website.

To list an offer, you have to sign in to your Merkandi account first. If you are already there, please go to “My offers” section, you will find there all of your offers. To add a new one, just click the “Add offer” button on the top-right of this section. The process of adding a new offer consists of 5 steps:

Step 1 - Basic information;

Step 2 - Duration time;

Step 3 - Order;

Step 4 - Description;

Step 5 - Payment and delivery; 

Step 6 - Images; 

Step 7 - Media and files;
 

Step 1 - Basic information

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The first step includes the basic information about your product. At first, you will have to choose the proper category and subcategory for your wholesale lot, the products' grade (new, used, refurbished, clearance, untested, damaged), and a country where the stock is located. You will also find there optional fields such as Product ID, EAN, TARIC and Brand. Subsequently, you will have to provide the following information: amount, minimal order quantity, unit of measurement, price, and your offer's duration time. Once your offer expires, you will still be able to find it within the expired offers, and then re-activate it, if needed. All of the required fields are marked with * (asterisk), so you remember to fill them out in order to go to the next step. 

Step 2 - Duration time

Set the duration time of your offer. You can choose an option from the list, or set your own date. Once the date will pass, your offer will change it's status to "archive". To reactivate it, you will need to click the "Activate" option on your offer's list.

Step 3 - Order

Detailed information about the products for sale, including minimal order, total quantity, units of measurement, prices. Please mind, that some of the fields will change for some settings (ie. if you will set the "price per request", you will not be able to fill in the price-related fields).

Step 4 - Description

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Here, you will be able to enter the title, description and keywords for your offer. At the bottom of this step, you will also be able to upload up to 7 images (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG files, max. size 3MB), and 1 file (i.e. pricelist, or manifest, saved as PDF, DOC, XLS, XDOC, TXT, JPG, JPEG, GIF or PNG. Max. size 3MB). Finally, if you would like to list this offer in other languages available at Merkandi, just check them at the top of this step, and then enter the title, description and keywords, translated to the languages you choose. Please do not list your offer in other languages, if you are unable to translate it to these langauges. Also, please remember that the offer cannot include any of your company information. All of the fields within this step, are meant for the information about your product, not about your company.

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Step 5 - Payment and delivery

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In the 3rd step, you are able to set the payment options (cash, wire transfer, online payment) and delivery options (collection in person, national delivery, international delivery). Although these fields are not required, you should fill them out, because these are very important information for all potential buyers. Just remember, that if you have already set the payment options and delivery options within the “Information about wholesale” section, you can omit this step, because buyers will see your settings from there.

​Step 6 - Images

The first image you will add will become the main image of your offer per default. To change it, just move it to the right, to replace it with another one. You are able to upload up to 7 images (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG files, max. size 3MB)

​Step 7 - Media and attachment

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You can add 1 file as an attachment for your offer, i.e. pricelist, or manifest, saved as PDF, DOC, XDOC, TXT, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG. max. size 5MB. You can also add a url of a video file from Youtube or Vimeo.

Once all of the required fields have been completed, you can save it as a draft to submit it latter, or submit it now and go to advertising options.

You are able to increase the exposition of Your offer, by selecting the following advertising options:

• Week's best offer on Merkandi
• Top Offers on Merkandi
• Highlight on Merkandi offers' list
• Top offer in subcategory
• Highlight in subcategory

Please remember, that prices refer to one language version of Your offer. Although this step is not required to add an offer, the advertising options always improve the visibility of the offer within Merkandi.

If for some reasons you do not want to submit your offer now, just click “Save as draft” button, to save your offer, and get back to it later.

As a seller on Merkandi, you are able to list unlimited number of offers. Listing them regularly is a key thing to find as many buyers as possible. Moreover, the more offer you list, the more buyers will contact you. Offers are therefore a sort of advertizement of your company within Merkandi platform. Still, to get more attention from buyers, you might also consider purchasing some of the advertizing options. All of the below-mentioned ads are available to buy after adding new offer. To advertize some of your previous offers, select the “advertize” option for those offers. This can be done in “My offers” section of your Merkandi account. You are able to purchase the following advertizing options on Merkandi:

• Week's best offer on Merkandi - Your offer will be rotationally presented in Week's Best Offer box on Merkandi's homepage for 7 days. According to our data, this option will give your offer the best exposition within Merkandi.
• Top Offers on Merkandi - Your offer will be rotationally presented in Top offers box on Merkandi's homepage for 7 days.
• Highlight on Merkandi offers' list - Your offer will be highlighted within the offers' list on Merkandi homepage for 30 days.
• Top offer in subcategory - Your offer will be presented over the list of products in a category.
• Highlight in subcategory - Your offer will be on the top of the list of products in a category for 14 days.

In addition, we offer three promotion packages on the Merkandi platform, which significantly save your time and money:

• MINI package - it includes Highlight on the list of offers on Merkandi and Distinction in the selected category. By choosing this option you save 10%.
• MIDI package - it includes Highlight on the list of offers on Merkandi and Top offer in the selected category. By choosing this option you save 20%. It is also the most frequently chosen package by our clients.
• MAXI package - it includes Week's best offer on Merkandi, Distinction and Top offer in the selected category. By choosing this option, you save even 30%.

The proposed packages are active for the same period as the individual promotions purchased separately for each offer.

However, this is not all. Promotion packages allow you to save up to 30%, and the funds saved in this way can be further increased by another 30%, by paying for the advertizing options with points. To learn more about points, please check: FAQ - What are Merkandi points and what are they for?

Merkandi is a multilingual trading platform. Every supplier is able to list their offers in all of the language versions of Merkandi, yet to do that, they need to translate them first. If the offer is not translated to the language corresponding with the certain language version of Merkandi, it will be blocked by our moderators (more information about blocking offers: click here).

Quality and usability of each of the language versions of Merkandi, including language compliance, are the most important things for us. After all, when buyers visit i.e. English language version of the platform, they expect all offers to be written in English. Obviously, this applies to all other language versions of Merkandi.

One of the most important rules on Merkandi is the language compliance. It means that all offers within the certain language version of the platform have to be available in this particular language (find out more about that).

The language compliance is one of the basic rules on Merkandi platform. Before adding an offer within the certain language version of Merkandi, the seller has to prepare it in this particular language first. In case the wholesaler does not know the particular foreign language, they may use a translate feature of Google, Yandex or Bing. Still, if you decide to use one of these options to translate your offer, please do not forget about the following issues:

1. 1. proofread the original text, and make sure that there are no typos, missing spaces between words, or any other errors, because otherwise none of the translate features will be able to translate such words;
   2. use simple language, avoid compound sentences;
   3. If you are mentioning some brands’ names or proper nouns in the text, please double-check them. The brands’ names, or the names of products might be translated too, especially if they include common words, for example: Always, Red Bull, Head & Shoulders, Hello Kitty. 
   4. avoid acronyms and abbreviations;
   5. instead of pasting the whole text, please translate it sentence by sentence. This will improve the final quality of the translation.
   6. For the best possible result, please use English as an initial language for the translation, even if it is not your first language.

A list of the most popular translate features:

1. Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/
2. Bing Translator: http://www.bing.com/translator/
3. Yandex.Translate: https://translate.yandex.com/

Sometimes you might find out that some of your offers have been blocked. Below you will find 3 basic reasons why it happens:

1. Contact details in the offer - You are not allowed to disclose any of your contact information in your offers' descriptions, linked videos, uploaded files and images, including watermarks on the images. This applies to any information that may help in contacting you by unregistered users. It is simply against our rules, and may result in blocking the offer.
2. The offer has not been translated - You are allowed to list your offers in all language versions of Merkandi, but you have to translate them first. The language used for describing the product has to correspond to the particular language version of Merkandi.
3. The offer is a duplicate - the particular offer can be listed only once. If you would like to list similar product or stock, then the new offer has to have its unique title and description. You are not allowed to copy and paste the title and description, and then list such offer as a new, different one. This applies to slightly modified offers too. Adding few more words to the description, and an ordinal number to the offer’s title is not enough to list it as a new one, next to the previous one. Please remember, that we will block duplicated offers straight-away.

Of course, we are always trying to contact our members, and ask them to modify their offers, in order to have them relisted on the website. We always try to find the most convenient solution of the problems like these.

General information:

1. Selling options are available only to those PREMIUM members who owe or represent registered businesses and have sent us their companies' documents for verification procedure. Selling options are being activated after verification of copies of VAT registration certificate (or other tax registration certificate, if you are not registered for VAT) and company registration certificate.

2. Selling options allow PREMIUM members to list their products for sale on Merkandi. An access to the selling options is an optional feature of a PREMIUM account, and it will expire on the expiration date of the PREMIUM account.

3. According to the § 2 point 5 of the accepted Terms & conditions, the claim for having seller options activated is excluded. Merkandi reserves the right to exclude the user during registration, and at any time during the subscription, especially for security reasons, and without giving any reason for instance.

The rules for listing sales offers on Merkandi:

1. The offer, its description, title, uploaded files and pictures, cannot include any of your contact details, including your company name and logo. The watermark of a picture cannot consist of these information too.

2. We accept wholesale offers. Retail offers are excluded and will be removed without any prior notice.

3. You are not allowed to list copies or replicas of branded products. We reserve the right to delete such offers without any prior notice. We also reserve the right to ask for any relevant evidence, which confirms the authenticity of the goods for sale.

4. The possible grades of stock at Merkandi are available here: link. Please comply with these definitions.

5. You are able to present your offer in any of the given language versions of Merkandi. To do this however, you have to provide a translation to any of these languages. The offers which do not comply with the language version of Merkandi will be deactivated. 

6. Listing the same offer for several times (the same title or description or picture) at once is forbidden and might result with removing all of its copies. A duplicate is any offer that has exactly the same content as an offer that was published some time ago. To make changes to your offers, please use the 'Edit' feature.

7. Listing offers of services and purchase quotes is forbidden. Purchase offers may be published only in the section that is dedicated to this purpose. The offers of this sort will be removed from the sales offers section without prior notice.

8. It is forbidden to publish:

• Offers related to cigarettes and e-cigarettes and tobacco products 
• Offers related to CBD products
• Offers of alcohol
• Food product offers that are out-of-date or unsuitable for consumption.
• Offers for out-of-date cosmetic products.

9. Merkandi reserves the right to deactivate an offer, or to decrease the position of an offer on the list because of flagrant language errors, or lack of information in the offer's description.

10. Merkandi rejects any claims for listing an offer on the website.

11. Merkandi reserves the right to remove all of the user's offers and suspend his or her seller status temporarily or permanently at any time, without any notice.

At Merkandi, every day our team of specialists cares about the sale and popularity of your offers. Thanks to this, your offers gain more visitors and have even greater reach among potential customers.

What exactly do we do when editing your offers?

• Title and description improvement - we improve the content in your offer so that it contains more keywords, so buyers can find the products you sell. This action is also aimed at correcting content in terms of spelling, grammar, text arrangement, etc.
• Brand completion - if you sell branded goods, the Brand field should be completed. In this way, your offer will appear on the list of offers containing products of specific brands, thereby increasing your reach.
• Categories completion/improvement - an incorrectly selected category significantly reduces the visibility of the offer. In the case of offers that contain various goods (so-called mix pallets or joblots), adding them to many categories increases their reach. You can add up to 3 categories to each offer!
• Other minor corrections - e.g. incomplete information about the product, details important for buyers.

The above changes are aimed at reaching the largest number of potential customers, increasing the credibility of your company through professionally prepared offers and making the goods you present attractive in the eyes of visitors.

How can you recognize moderated offers?

On the list of offers, next to the status of the offer (Active, Archive, Draft), you'll see a small "M" icon indicating that the offer has been moderated in the language version of the page you are on. In addition, after entering the offer and switching to individual translations you will see the appropriate message in the language version in which the offer was edited.

If you want to make changes to the offer edited by our Team, please change only the most important parts of it, do not re-publish all the previous content. Some users, while updating the content of their ads, copy their own template again, destroying the effort and editorial work of our Team, thus reducing the reach of their offers. Trust our specialists, we know how to create offers that quickly generate sales.

My offer has not been edited, why?

Our Team moderates offers on a regular basis, however, due to their large number, we are not able to take care of everyone. Therefore, it may happen that an offer has been moderated only in some language versions and not in others. However, we try to fill these deficiencies on a regular basis.

Can I submit a request to edit my offer?

You can submit such a request to our Team, we will try to do everything we can to improve your offer quickly. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that every application will be processed. However, this does not change the fact that we will do our best to take care of your offers in a reliable and professional manner!

On the Merkandi platform, all sellers have the opportunity to advertize their offersto make them stand out from the others and attract more visitors. The details on promotion types, their location on the site, appearance and broadcasting time can be found here: How can I advertize my offers on Merkandi?

Advertizing options and promotion packages can be paid online, by bank transfer or by points. The choice of payment by points gives you some very important benefits:

• You save up to 30% when paying for advertizing options

• Immediate activation of the purchased promotion without having to go through the entire online payment process

There are 4 points packages available:

• 50 points, with this package you save 5% 

• 100 points, with this package you save 10% 

• 200 points, with this package you save 20% 

• 400 points, with this package you save 30% 

The purchase cost of points is given at every promotion. In addition, it is worth mentioning two important issues related to points:

• Points do not have an expiry date. They remain available in your account without time limits, even if you extend your account after it expires.

• Points can only be used to promote offers through individual advertizing options and promotion packages, they cannot be used to pay for the account renewal, purchase of additional services, etc.

• It is not possible to exchange the points for cash.

We encourage you to take advantage of points packages because they are the cheapest and also the most convenient form of payment for promoting offers on Merkandi. Choose wisely - choose a points package tailored to your needs at Merkandi!