It can not come as a surprise that we do our best to support small businesses while also bringing this industry to the forefront of our consumers minds’. Shopping small should never have been a pandemic trend.
Consumers need to see the value in our services to continue shopping with us. They get that value in numerous ways but the main thing is we make supporting small incredibly convenient.
We could never be where we are without the support of our community and our shoppers. We also recognize that we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in this industry without incredible relationships formed with small businesses and the vendors we work with.
So where’s the balance in our operations for both customer and vendor? The answer lies within the not controversial until now- Processing fee.
Every month as a merchant I pay hundreds of dollars in processing fees to numerous big box stores but mainly to our service provider- Shopify.
In many ways we have considered ourselves a service provider and by utilizing our service, we charge a processing fee to our customers who use our services.
Would you rather pay a processing fee on your transaction or purchase items with prices inflated by vendors to offset the fees they pay in lieu of the processing fee?
The reason you can’t really choose is because they’re the same thing.
We can not charge HST on products that we don’t claim taxes on. That we don’t make ourselves or wholesale ourselves. We only charge HST on vendor booth/shop fees and wholesale products we purchase for resale from small businesses.
Vendors take home 100% of their profit with our module which is the most important part of our service. That is the point of our shop, to support small businesses.
Customers shopping with us are supporting our small business as well.
To balance out the experience customers have when shopping with us, they can join our rewards program where they earn credit back on money they spend with us. When subscribing to our newsletter they get access to discounts for shopping online as well.
Part of the processing fee is allocated to marketing which allows us to put 10%-20% discounts in our newsletters for shopping online.
The online store doesn’t have a large overhead cost so we can afford to allocate marketing dollars to that platform.
The in store experience has a massive overhead which is why we can’t offer the same discounts in store.
All of this information aside, what is the bloody point to all of this?
I feel as though there have been low-key digs towards my business which in turn kind of preys on the ignorance of our community. It’s so easy to use comparison marketing as a tactic to push yourself ahead of your competitors when one part of your module is different and conveniently that one part is in favour of the customer “saving money”.
If we’re going to mention the differences though why not just mEnTiOn iT aLl?
When pointing out the differences to our community between glorified consignment gift shops, I think it’s important for the customer to know who is paying the fees they assume they’re saving $$ on.
I’ll save you the long form equation, it's the vendors.
It’s the small businesses you are claiming to support that are paying those fees. They have to come from somewhere.
SO! The vendor is paying those fees but in most if not all cases, that's not sustainable for a small business. They will raise their prices to make up for this loss.
So really! You’re still paying the processing fee lol.
So to summarize-
At the Modern Makers Shop, the customer pays a processing fee of 13% at check out to aid in the daily operations of this establishment.
This allows the vendor to take home 100% of their hard earned dollars.
This allows the vendors to keep their prices neutral in our store.
This allows us to allocate marketing dollars towards our online shopping platform and rewards program for our customers.
People will do just about anything to make themselves look better in this industry but it’s very transparent that when other people resort to comparison marketing, it’s a marketing tactic used by businesses that are desperate to turn things around.
I'm not here for it.