Topic: Selling Topics

Everything there is to know about becoming a Bonanzle Syndicated Seller

Syndication in a nutshell

You tell us how much you're willing to pay when your item sells

Our incredible team of dolphins with calculators translates this amount into a commission

Affiliates send visitors to your items, you pay commissions when those visitors buy your items

How much must I pay to syndicate my items?

You pay however much you want. That's the beauty of the program. If you want to pay a 1% commission when an affiliate sends you a buyer, that's fine by us. If you can afford 15%, then you'll find a greater number of affiliates eager to help sell your item. In this way, the Syndicated Seller program is much like Google Adwords -- you pay whatever you want to pay, but the higher bidders (with the best items) tend to get the most attention.

How much should I pay to syndicate my items?

Most potential affiliates are going to think in terms of what they would get paid referring buyers to your items, compared to what Amazon or eBay would pay them for their referrals. If you click on these links to Amazon or eBay, you can see what they are currently paying for referrals. In a nutshell, Amazon pays around 4-7%, eBay pays around 3-5% of the total item value.

See also "How does the total amount I'd pay as a syndicated seller compare to what I'd pay if I sold my items elsewhere?"

How do I specify the commissions I'm willing to pay?

Good question, that warrants its own explanation. We've written up a separate page about that here.

Who is sending buyers to my items when I become a Syndicated Seller? (AKA: "What is an affiliate?")

A portion of the commission you pay when you sign up as a Syndicated Seller goes toward providing incentives for well-trafficked blogs & web sites to add Bonanzle widgets that refer their visitors to your items. Blogs & web sites that sign up to earn these commissions are called "affiliates." If you are a Plus or a Premiere member, you'll be able to see specific affiliate sites that send traffic to your items.

In the future, we also hope to automatically enroll our Syndicated Sellers in Bing's cashback rewards program, exposing them to several million buyers that use Bing for shopping.

How does the total amount I'd pay as a Syndicated Seller compare to what I'd pay to sell elsewhere?

Bigger marketplaces pay referral commissions out of their standard fees by making those fees much higher than Bonanzle's. The basic fee rate at Amazon is about 15%, and at eBay it starts at about 12%. At Bonanzle, it's about 3%. Simple math shows that you could pay a generous 5% or higher affiliate commission and still end up paying less than you would elsewhere.

Plus, at Bonanzle, we only charge you a referral commission if the buyer of your item was sent directly from an affiliate partner. If a buyer finds your items through Google, or by browsing through our inventory, you'll still be charged our low everyday fees, regardless of whether you are signed up as a Syndicated Seller.

A few fee examples

What is an "referral commission," and how is it computed?

An "referral commission" is the amount of your fee that is paid directly to the affiliate that referred a paying buyer to your item.

The process of computing this amount varies per the way in which you setup your commission. As a general rule, though, the referral commission is what's left over after we deduct Bonanzle's standard fees, plus a marginal percentage of the remainder which is used to incentivize affiliates to sign up for the Bonanzle Affiliates Program.

How do I pay my syndication fees?

When you sign up as a Syndicated Seller we put a credit card on file, which we'll charge periodically (for standard usage, about once per month) as you sell items through our affiliates.

As usual at Bonanzle, if you don't sell items, you don't pay fees.

How do I cancel my participation in the Syndicated Seller program?

You can cancel your participation in the program at any time through your account settings. Just visit My Bonanzle -> Account Settings -> Cancellation Options. You will still be charged for the affiliate sales you made prior to cancelling, and you will need to pay referral commissions you have been assessed prior to cancelling automatic payments.

What if I only want to syndicate some (not all) of my items?

Fine by us. The batch editor makes it easy to pick and choose which items you're willing to pay commissions on.

How is the commission I pay affected if my item sells as part of an offer or a discount?

Currently our system is not setup to adjust the price of a commission after it has been set by you, so if a buyer gets cart discounts (such as "pay more than X amount, get 10% off total price of all items"), or if they make a lower offer that you choose to accept, you will still be charged the commission that was calculated when you setup your commission rates via the batch editor.

Why doesn't Bonanzle just pay affiliates out of the money it already collects?

Because affiliates would make fun of us and call us names if we offered them the paltry sums that our standard fees amount to. Why raise the prices for all to pay referral commissions, when we can allow sellers to self-select whether they're interested in maximizing their selling potential.

Other Users Say

stuff (26) wrote on July 22

Q. Will the automated payment be made on the same day each month so we know when that is going to pass through our account?
A. Most likely but it will not be set in stone. If it deviates it will only be by 1-2 days.

GemstoneJewelry (100) wrote on July 22

Q. Do we only get billed for successful paid transactions or every time someone hits the BUY button?
A. Only when the transaction is successful.

shoppingsthebomb (91) wrote on September 06

Q. What if I list an item for $20.00 but no one has bought it and I make a change on the price prior to sale to say $17.50. Will Affiliates get commission on the $20.00 or the changed price of $17.50?
A. The commission will be based on the sales price.

Shellsmeanderings (0) wrote on November 04

Q. What if my items sell in a Bonanza with a discounted price?
A. The percentage of the commission would be assessed on the actual sale price.