First Nations Gifts is another marketing channel for your brand.

The site creates a community of sellers who bring their customers to First Nations Gifts creating a larger community of buyers.

This larger network of customers are highly likely to buy from other First Nations Businesses. So all sellers leverage a larger and wider network of customers to communicate your brand to.

FNG is an opportunity to really sell your brand to a wider customer network but also provide your customers with more convenient service by being where-ever they are or in e-commerce talk being omni-present!

Your storefront presence and products should represent your brand and and the products you are selling in your store in a clear and concise way, we recommend that you use one strong image for your store and/or logo.

WHAT IS THE SELLER CODE?

First Nations Gifts is aims to provide our customers with great customer service. The Seller Standards Guide provides a service level guide across your brand store including product, communication, shipping and returns. This ensures customers receive a good and consistent experience whoever they shop with, increasing sales and return customers for all vendors.

Seller Code – Quick Reference

PRODUCTS

• All products must be a brand or products designed, created and/or manufactured or wholesaled by the Vendor.
• Made-to-order, personalised or custom items must be shipped and delivered within the time stated in your product listing. Please allow adequate time to complete orders. You must notify us if there will be a delay to delivery on any made-to-order or custom items.

COMMUNICATION

• Prompt replies to customers are essential.
• If a customer asks a question about an item and has sent you a message direct or through FNG (where enabled), a timely response is recommended to improve conversion of their interest to an actual sale.
• Once a customer has placed an order, respond immediately where possible or within one working day at the latest (public holidays and weekends are not counted as working days). Immediate response helps customers make follow through on their decisions to make a purchase.

SHIPPING

The shipping confirmation or ‘marked as shipped’ is the NUMBER ONE message to send your customer.

Key points to include in your shipping confirmation:

• When the order was posted and by what delivery service, speed (eg. standard or express post) and carrier it was sent through.
• A tracking number and/or delivery estimate timeframe (be honest and realistic with estimates) should be provided where available.
• Call to action – if the order hasn’t been received by a certain time through a tracking system ask us to contact the customer to ensure nothing has gone wrong. 

RETURNS

Processing returns for refund or exchange.

Refunds or exchanges must be processed within two working days following receipt of returned goods that were suitable for a refund or exchange.

Remember to include a shipping note with exchanges

Depending on the nature of the return (unwanted, wrong item, not as described, faulty), you may need to refund original postage charges and pay for additional return postage charges.

See the Processing Returns and Exchanges in the Knowledgebase for more information.

REFUNDS

Returns are part of doing business online. While you are not obliged to accept returns for unwanted products, it is always better for your business to accept a return.

This increases the chance of repeat custom and positive feedback rather than leaving a disgruntled customer who may end up disputing the payment on Paypal/Stripe and/or leave negative feedback and reviews for your brand. 

How should I exchange or refund items…

• Returning or Exchanging Unwanted or Unsuitable items
  • You are not required to return, exchange or refund these items, but it is better for your business to do this.
  • If you refunded the Full item cost paid for a returned item – you are not required to refund the shipping fee that was charged at the time of purchase.
  • If you exchanged an item for another item from your store – the Full item cost paid should be refunded – you should also refund the shipping fee that was charged at the time of purchase and you may charge a new shipping fee for the new item that was exchanged.
• Faulty items, Wrong Items and Items significantly different to description
  • You must agree to return and refund or exchange these items. You should Refund the Full item cost plus original shipping fee.
  • This will cover the cost of the customer returning the item to you.
  • For an exchange you should also pay additional return shipping for item to be resent to the customer.

ISSUES RESOLUTION

If there is a customer issue, issues should be responded to quickly and in a friendly manner.

Helpful and Friendly – A friendly approach to issue resolution strengthens your customer experience and increases trust in your brand. If a customer has an issue and it is not resolved in a positive manner they are likely to tell many people and negatively impact your brand. Most issues are caused by mis-communication or human error and these are relatively easy to deal with when you have a policy in place on how to manage return and refund situations.

Quick Resolution – sometimes dealing with issues can be difficult to tackle, but many times the quicker they are attended to and resolved the better, the customer will trust the brand, save you time and be beneficial to your business in the long-term.