Seller Policy

Papona is a global online gifts marketplace, where people come together to make, sell and buy unique and high-quality gifts. It's all about your unusual gifting destination for every special occasion & moment. Please read on to find out more about your rights, as well as what is expected of you, as a seller.

This policy is a part of our Terms of Use. By opening an Papona shop, you’re agreeing to this policy and our Terms of Use

1. Selling Basics

Keeping in mind these basic requirements will set you up for success on Papona.

A. What can be sold on Papona

Papona is a unique marketplace. Buyers come here to purchase gift items that they might not find anywhere else. Everything listed for sale on Papona must be suitable for gifting.

Papona provides a marketplace for crafters, artists, collectors to sell their handmade creations, and gift shops and merchants to sell gift goods (such as flowers, perfumes, watches, sweets, and products suitable for gifting)

B. What Can't be Sold on Papona

The following types of items are prohibited or restricted on Papona based on Prohibited Items Policy:

1. Alcohol, Tobacco, Drugs, Drug Paraphernalia, and Medical Drugs
2. Animal Products and Human Remains
3. Dangerous Items: Hazardous Materials, Recalled Items, and Weapons
4. Hate Items: Items that Promote, Support, or Glorify Hatred
5. Illegal Items, Items Promoting Illegal Activity, and Highly Regulated Items
6. Internationally Regulated Items
7. Nudity and Mature Content
8. Violent Items: Items that Promote, Support, or Glorify Violence

C. Managing your Papona Shop

Your shop represents you and your business to the Papona community. It’s important that you, your items and your shop are honestly and accurately represented.

By selling on Papona, you agree that you will:

1. Provide honest, accurate information to Papona and in your shop page.
2. Ensure your shop content, such as any text, photos or videos used to represent yourself, your shop or your listings, abide by Papona’s policies
3. Accurately represent your items in listings and listing photos.
4. Respect the intellectual property of others. If you feel someone has violated your intellectual property rights.
5. Not engage in fee avoidance. Any action by a seller to avoid paying a fee is considered fee avoidance and is strictly prohibited by Papona. This includes, for example, encouraging buyers to purchase an item in your Papona shop through another venue.
6. Not create duplicate shops or take any other action (such as manipulating clicks, carts or sales) for the purpose of shilling, manipulating search or circumventing Papona's policies.
7. Not coordinate pricing with other sellers.

D. Seller Standards By listing a product for sale on Papona you understand and agree that you are responsible for complying with all applicable laws and regulations for the products you list for sale, including any required labels and warnings. Papona assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, labeling, or content of your listings.

Meeting Service Level Standards

As a seller, you must provide great customer service and maintain trust with your buyers. These requirements are called our Seller Service Level Standards. Papona may reach out to you if your shop fails to meet Papona's Seller Service Level Standards.

By selling on Papona, you agree to:

1. Honor your shipping and processing times. Sellers are obligated to ship an item or otherwise complete a transaction with a buyer in a prompt manner, unless there is an exceptional circumstance. Please be aware that legal requirements for shipping times vary by country.
2. Respond to Messages in a timely manner.
3. Honor the commitments you make in your shop policies.
4. Resolve disagreements or order issues directly with the buyer. In the unlikely event that you can’t reach a resolution, Papona can help through our case system.
5. If you are unable to complete an order, you must notify the buyer and cancel the order.
6. Follow Papona’s Refund & Return Policies
7. Compensate customers in case of orders issues (Papona Operations Team will decide the compensation based on the damage
8. Pay fees for late orders or orders cancelled by you ($10 per 5 orders monthly)
9. Receive payouts bi-weekly or monthly

E. Selling Fees

Sellers may be charged for using some of Papona’s services. There are fees associated with listing, selling. Joining and starting a shop on Papona is free. There are two basic selling fees: a transaction fee, and a payment processing fee (in case of a Credit Card payment or Papona Coins payment methods). Once an item sells, there is a 10% transaction fee on the sale price (including the shipping price you set). If you accept payments with Credit Cards or Papona Coins, there is also a payment processing fee (3.5% - 5%).

2. Being a Member of the Papona Community

At Papona, everyone is expected to treat fellow members of the Papona community with respect. As a seller, you have additional responsibilities to safeguard personal information and communicate promptly with buyers in order to provide a great customer experience.

A. Creating and Uploading Content

As a member of Papona, you have the opportunity to create and upload a variety of content, like listings, Messages, text, photos, and videos. In order to keep our community safe and respectful, you agree that you will not upload content that is:

1. Contains hateful or derogatory language or imagery;
2. Contains threats, harassment, extortion, or violates our rules about interference;
3. Violates someone else’s intellectual property rights;
4. Is false, deceptive, or misleading;
5. Contains unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations, or spam;
6. Contains private information, whether it is your own, or someone else’s;
7. Encourages or facilitates a transaction that evades the Papona checkout process;
8. Contains prohibited medical drug claims;
9. Violates any of the rules described in our Prohibited Items Policy.
10. B. Privacy and Protecting Personal Information

You are responsible for protecting members’ personal information you receive or process, and you must comply with all relevant legal requirements. This includes applicable data protection and privacy laws that govern the ways in which you can use Papona user information. These laws may require that you post and comply with your own privacy policy, which must be accessible to Papona users with whom you interact. Your privacy policy must be compatible with this policy and Papona’s Terms of Use, and Papona's Privacy Policy.

C. Communication Standards

i. Messages

With Papona's "Messages", you have the ability to communicate directly with your buyers or other Papona members. Messages are a great way for buyers to ask you questions about an item or an order.

Messages may not be used for the following activities:

1. Sending unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations, or spam;
2. Harassing or abusing another member;
3. Contacting someone after they have explicitly asked you not to; or
4. Interfering with a transaction or the business of another member.
5. Exchanging personal contact, financial or other information for the purposes of evading the checkout process on Papona, including phone number, address, email, social media handles, external URLs, instructions for money transfer, etc.

Interference

Interference occurs when a member intentionally interferes with another member’s shop in order to drive away their business. Interference is strictly prohibited on Papona. Examples of interference include:

1. Contacting another member via Messages to warn them away from a particular member, shop, or item;
2. Posting in public areas to demonstrate or discuss a dispute with another member;
3. Purchasing from a seller for the sole purpose of leaving a negative review;
4. Maliciously clicking on a competitor's ads in order to drain that member's advertising budget, also known as "click fraud."
5. Creating or using an independent buyer account to maliciously upvote another shop’s negative reviews in order to position those reviews more prominently.

Harassment and Discrimination

Any use of Messages to harass other members is strictly prohibited. Similarly, Messages may not be used to support or glorify hatred. If you receive a Message that violates this policy, please let us know right away.

ii. Communicating Cancellations

If you are unable to complete a transaction, you must notify the buyer via Messages and cancel the transaction. If the buyer already submitted payment, you must issue a full refund. You are encouraged to keep proof of any refunds in the event a dispute arises. All cancellations are subject to our Cancellation Policy.

Sellers may still cancel an order and work toward a resolution with a buyer as they see fit for policies applied to their shops, such as the digital items policy.

3. Feedback, Cases and Your Success

A. Reviews

Reviews are a great way for you to build a reputation on Papona. Buyers can leave a review, including a one to five star rating and a photograph or video of their purchase, within 100 days after the latter date of their item’s estimated delivery date. If an estimated delivery date is not available, the review window opens after the order’s processing time and shipping time have elapsed. On the rare occasion you receive an unfavorable review, you can reach out to the buyer or leave a response.

In addition to our rules for Creating and Uploading Content in Section 2a, reviews and your response to reviews may not:

1. Contain graphic, mature, or obscene language or imagery, or any content that is subject to our mature content policy;
2. Be about things outside the seller’s control, such as a shipping carrier, Papona or a third party;
3. Include shilling or otherwise falsely inflate a shop’s review score; or
4. Undermine the integrity of the Reviews system.

B. Papona'a Case System

The Case system is how a buyer notifies Papona of an order issue or dispute that they’re unable to resolve with a seller, in order for Papona to help them reach a resolution. Buyers must contact sellers directly via the Help with Order link and attempt to resolve any outstanding issues before opening a case on Papona. Once a buyer contacts you to notify you of a problem with an order, you will have 48 hours to resolve the issue. If the issue is unresolved in this time frame, a case may be opened by the buyer. Once a case has been opened, Papona will assist in the resolution of the case between the buyer and seller. This may include, but is not limited to, automatically closing the case and issuing a refund to the buyer, or reviewing the case further to help the buyer and seller resolve it as quickly as possible.

Papona reserves the right to resolve an order issue before the 48-hour window for circumstances including, but not limited to, seller inactivity, harassment, refusal of service, manipulation, and undermining the integrity of the case system.

Buyers may file a case for items that never arrive, arrive damaged, or do not match the listing description as part of Papona’s Purchase Protection Program. Papona may request your assistance in resolving a case opened against your shop. By using Papona’s case system, you understand that Papona may use your personal information for the purpose of resolving disputes with other members.

C. Your Seller Account and Papona’s Terms

In order to keep Papona safe and improve our Services, we may take actions that limit the visibility of your shop, listings, or that impact your payment account. In the event a shop sees unusual order activity, or we otherwise believe that your actions or shop may result in buyer disputes, chargebacks, increased risk of fraud, counterfeiting, or other claims, Papona may take actions such as limiting visibility of your account, or placing restrictions or reserves on your payments account, in accordance with our Terms of Use. When appropriate and permitted by law, Papona will communicate information to the affected seller about the issue.

In the event a shop sees an unusual spike in orders, particularly in a high demand category, a shop may see an increase or decrease in its search ranking.

Papona may make changes to onboarding or authentication processes for sellers at our sole discretion. Completion of these processes may be required for seller account activation or continued access and usage.

If Papona has reason to believe you, Your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms, including this Seller Policy, we may deactivate Your Content to some or all users, or suspend or terminate your account (and any accounts Papona determines is related to your account) and your access to the Services.

Last updated on Sep 30, 2022