Last updated: June 22, 2020
What is Vecinos Market?
Vecinos Market was an idea borne out of two neighbors (vecinos!) chatting about how to support local Miami businesses while out on a run. What we came up with is Vecinos Market - a digital marketplace that includes the community’s well-loved local businesses. It is a place where residents can safely and conveniently buy all their favorite products while directing their dollars to support the local economy.
Why should I join Vecinos Market?
Vecinos Market is an additional sales channel for our vendor partners. We will invest our time and resources to build and continuously improve the platform, ensure a seamless user experience, analyze customer purchase behavior and implement marketing campaigns to drive traffic and conversion on the site.
In addition, we offer an optional delivery service that allows vendors to provide their products to a customer within the same day up to 7 days (for local Miami delivery).
Can any local business join Vecinos Market?
No. First and foremost, the vendor’s products must be high quality and unique.
Secondly, we consider each vendor’s values regarding their products or production processes when determining which partners we would like to invite onto the platform. Values that are held in high regard by us and our partners include products or processes that are:
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Sustainable
- Eco-friendly
- Organic
- Natural
- Small-batch
- Artisanal
- Hand-crafted
How does it work?
Once a vendor has expressed interest in joining the Vecinos Market platform, we will provide a Seller’s Account for the vendor. This Seller’s Account is unique and is where the vendor can add their store’s policies, description, add products, track and fulfill orders, and track payments.
Are there any upfront costs or hidden fees and costs?
No. We only earn the agreed-upon commission from the vendor.
How do I add products?
You can manually add products through the Seller’s Account. However, if you have a large number of SKUs, please contact us at ychen@vecinosmarket.com as there are several automated methods to transfer products into our Vecinos Market platform (which operates on Shopify).
PLEASE NOTE: Product Type and Product Tags are two fields you do not need to complete as we will populate these based on our menu configurations to ensure your products appear in the correct collections on the Vecinos Market site. You also do not need to worry about photo sizing – as long as the images are high resolution, we have installed an app that can resize the photos automatically.
Does Vecinos Market process the customer payment?
Yes. All transactions on Vecinos Market are processed through our website.
How do vendors get paid?
We will run a weekly sales report which will be sent to you. Based on the weekly sales, vendors will be paid the total sales proceeds, plus sales taxes, less our commission. The net payout will be deposited into the bank account provided to us.
How do I interact with my customers?
When the Seller’s Account is created, a vendor “store” is also created within Vecinos Market. When a customer is in your store, there is a Contact button where they can send you messages directly. There is also a feedback tab within your store where they can share their reviews and comments on your store and products.
What is your return policy?
Since we are a multi-vendor platform, the return policy for any given product will be specific to the vendor from which they were purchased. Every vendor should be sure to list their Return & Exchange Policies in the Policy tab of their Vecinos Market store.
Do you offer delivery services?
Yes! When vendor partners sign up to sell on Vecinos Market, they have the option to utilize our delivery services for an additional 5% on sales transacted through the Vecinos Market platform. We partner with a third-party logistics company that offers reliable delivery services across the US (although we will only be delivering within Miami).
Where and how quickly do you deliver?
The delivery area is anywhere in Miami-Dade with the exception of Homestead.
Currently we offer customers 4 choices for local delivery speed:
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Same day (orders must be placed before 2pm)
- Next day
- 2 day
- 3-7 days
What if I do not want to utilize your delivery services?
That is not a problem. If you already deliver or ship to Miami and beyond, you can continue to do so. However, any amounts you would normally charge your customers for delivery or shipping, you will not be able to collect from customers through Vecinos Market.
What if I cannot fulfill a same day or next day order?
No problem. In these cases, it is important for you to ensure that you make a note in both your Policies and in your product descriptions of the estimated delivery time frames. In addition, let us know and we can ensure a bold, red note pops up when your item is in the customer’s cart that informs them of the time frame they can expect.
I’ve received an order through Vecinos Market. Now what?
The email address you provided for your Seller’s Account is the same email that will be notified when you receive an order through Vecinos Market.
For vendors where we are performing the delivery services:
Once you receive notification, take note of the shipping speed that was selected for that order. Whichever day a customer selected, please have your product ready for pickup by 11am. The delivery company has an all-day window from 11am to 5pm to pick up and drop off the item unless it is a perishable item (where it has been agreed between us and the vendor that requires a 4 hour delivery window). Same day deliveries should be prepared and ready for pickup as soon as the order is received. Customers only have until 2pm to place same day orders.
If the delivery speed selected was 3-7 days, we will notify you which date the order will be picked up by our logistics company.
Once the delivery company has picked up the products from you, please go perform the following:
- Log into your Seller’s Account
- Click on the Orders tab and locate the order that was picked up
- Scroll to the very bottom of the order under Fulfillment Details
- Click on Fulfill
- Select ‘Other’ in the drop down menu for Method for Fulfillment
- Click Fulfill
This process will inform us that the order has been picked up from you and is now en route to the customer. Once the delivery company confirms delivery, we will go into the Admin side of the order and mark the product as ‘delivered’.
For vendors where we are either NOT performing the delivery services OR for orders being shipped outside of Miami:
- For orders to be delivered within Miami, the process is the same as above except that the vendors will mark an order as fulfilled when they ship the product. They will also need to go into the order and mark it as delivered once their carrier / logistics company has confirmed delivery to the customer.
- For orders being shipped outside of Miami, at the moment, we are only offering 7-10 day shipping for addresses outside of Miami to keep the process simple. As such, if you receive an order from a customer outside of Miami, shipping speed should adhere to the 7-10 day window.
Do you offer free delivery?
Yes. We are offering customers free delivery for orders over $100. This and any other promotional offers on the Vecinos Market website will be covered by us unless otherwise agreed upon.
What other promotions are you offering?
We will offer the following promotional incentives to customers:
How are customer questions and complaints managed?
Every vendor has a “store” on the Vecinos Market platform. Customers can contact you directly via email with any questions.
In addition, there is a Contact Us page on the website that will get sent to our info@vecinosmarket.com email box. When we receive questions or complaints that relate to your products or stores, we will share it with you immediately and discuss with you an appropriate resolution and response.
