Q: Can I offer discount coupons in my shop?

Harness the power of the Dicount Coupon Offering a coupon in your store is a sure fire way to delight your customers... It can also be a powerful tool to help you reach a new audience. Coupons make fantastic content for social media marketing, You can use coupons to attract new customers, or encourage people to sign up to your mailing list. Let's show you how to set them up right on the Silk Purse Guild - Set up Coupons - Step by Step CLICK ME! P.S. You will need the password. You can find it in the Secret Society Facebook Group

Question 1

What are the guidelines for product photography?

Accepted Answer

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS MUST BE DIFFERENT

Consistently using identical images can easily tire out your customers!

Our website invests in optimizing all uploaded images, therefore, please ensure that you only upload images that adhere to our standards. Neglecting this could lead to the closure of your account.

When you operate an online business, you essentially have no physical products. Your customers are unable to physically interact with your products. The sole tool at your disposal is your product images, which must persuade customers to make a purchase.

By limiting sellers to a maximum of 4 images, we promote higher-quality images. This, in turn, boosts the sales potential for your small business.

Perfect Product Photography Guidelines

When selling online, your product photos are crucial. They act as your main sales tool, unlike at physical craft fairs. Quality images are essential for your online business success.

Gone are the days of casual product photos on kitchen tables. While the standards are higher now, you don't need to buy expensive equipment or spend hours on lighting setups.

You can create outstanding shots quickly using software products with just your phone. Check out the tutorial in the seller onboarding course for the best free app recommendation. See what you can achieve in minutes!

LEFT Original - RIGHT edited in minutes!

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The original shots are on the left and yes, these are BOTH THE SAME PHOTOGRAPH!. You can achieve these results in minutes, just check out the tutorial in

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Format Matters

As a small business owner, you've likely heard of brand consistency. Remember, the Silk Purse Guild is a small handmade business, like yours. To maintain our brand voice, please ensure that your product photos only feature your products.

We do not accept collage images, computer-generated templates, watermarked images, or framed photos. Additionally, we do not allow video or MP4 files as we are not TikTok.

NOT APPROVED on the left YES PLEASE on the right.

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Attention to Detail

Obviously, images should be in focus.

Question 2

How do I open a store?

Accepted Answer

The Silk Purse Guild is exclusively for small, Handmade Businesses based in the UK.

The Quickest Way in the Door

To speed up your application, we suggest that you head over to out private Facebook Group

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SILK PURSE GROUP ON FACEBOOK

Opening a Shop with Us

Apply to join the Guild on our website

https://silkpurseguild.com/apply-to-join-the-guild/

You will not be able to access the seller area until your application been approved.

Open a Stripe Account
Have 5 killer products, with 4 photos of each and product descriptions written
As soon as you are approved, you will get all the details you need to open your account via email
You will be given 1 month of FREE access to get your shop set up. As soon as you are ready, pick the plan that suits your business and you are LIVE!
All products will be in a pending state, until you have been approved to post directly, due to a fair few instances of “winging it” with the shipping set up lol

Question 3

Why can I only add 4 product images?

Accepted Answer

Quality over Quantity

When you are selling online, you literally have zero products. Your

Restricting sellers to 4 images MAX encourages higher quality

You would be amazed at some of the images we have seen uploaded

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To nail the perfect image listing, I would recommend the follow 4 killer shots

The product, in all its glory, full size
A close up of some interesting details
The product as a lifestyle shot (in situ, or in use)
If your packaging is kick ass, show them!

Obviously some products may require more images, so get in

Question 4

Become a Verified Member

Accepted Answer

Silk Purse Guild Verified Member

Becoming verified on the Silk Purse Guild is a doddle and comes with a treasure trove of benefits.

Here's what you can look forward to:

Professional Social Media Content: You'll get a folder chock-full of top-notch, ready-made social media content. No more stressing about what to post next!
Business Theme Tune: Stand out from the crowd with a bespoke theme tune for your business. Perfect for catching eyes (and ears) on social media.
Guaranteed Promotion: Your business will enjoy guaranteed promotion across all Silk Purse Guild social media channels. Talk about exposure!
Free Website: Yes, you read that right! A free website, complete with hosting. Say goodbye to those pesky hosting fees forever.
Email List Building: We’ll help you build that all-important email list, a service that’s pretty much unheard of on other selling platforms.

How to become Verified

At the Silk Purse Guild, we've got an on-site photographer who's an absolute wizard when it comes to product photography. He’s there to help ensure all your product images are top-notch. Here’s the best bit – he keeps an eye out for sellers who are consistently producing high-quality images and ticking all the right boxes. When your shop meets the following criteria, you will be invited to become a Verified Member of the Guild -

High quality, in-focus images
Up to 4 product images that are all completely different
A mix of close-up images and lifestyle shots

As soon as you recieve your invitation, you follow the steps below to become verified and snaffle all of the benefits for being FABULOUS!

[figure]HOW TO BECOME A VERIFIED GUILD MEMBER[/figure]

Question 5

How do I give my Customer a Receipt?

Accepted Answer

Let's issue a Customer Receipt

Everything to do with payments is handled by Stripe, which you can access in your

If you need to issue your customer with a receipt, simply log in to your Stripe Account

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Once inside, locate the order in question from the list

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To issue a receipt to the customer, open the ACTIONS MENU, by clicking the 3 dots. Then click RECEIPT

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The Silk Purse Guild always issues your customers with an INVOICE for their order. This is what it looks like,

Question 6

Can I offer discount coupons in my shop?

Accepted Answer

Harness the power of the Dicount Coupon

Offering a coupon in your store is a sure fire way to delight your customers...

It can also be a powerful tool to help you reach a new audience. Coupons make fantastic content for social media marketing,

You can use coupons to attract new customers, or encourage people to sign up to your mailing list.

Let's show you how to set them up right on the Silk Purse Guild -

Set up Coupons - Step by Step CLICK ME!

P.S. You will need the password. You can find it in the Secret Society Facebook Group

Question 7

Copyright Law

Accepted Answer

Breacing Copyright Law is a serious Business

We expect all of our sellers to take full responsibility for the legal aspects of their business. Breaching copyright law can get

Super Helpful info for Small Businesses

The UK Government website is the best place to gain information regarding the current copyright laws.

Items breaching copyright will be removed from the Silk Purse Guild, without warning.

Question 8

I've listed a product, but can't see it on the website?

Accepted Answer

Pending product listings for new Guild Members

Pending products do not show up on the main site, and this is the reason why.

Most businesses have the option to meet applicants face to face. They have interviews to get to know them better, and presentations to view their products and work out if they will be the right fit. Online businesses do not have this option, and at the Silk Purse Guild we have only a registration form, Facebook Group and a mailing list.

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The Internet is a scary place sometimes!

Lets face it, you wouldn't simply open your door these days, and invite any stranger to join you for a cuppa. You would be amazed to know how many hackers, bots and basically dodgy individuals are trying to get into your website these days. They often do this simply to see if they can, but sometimes the outcome is more sinister.

At the Silk Purse Guild, we value security, for both our stores and our customers. The last thing we want to happen is to showcase a store full of inappropriate content and spam. Spam is for tins!

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Not every applicant will be successful

The Silk Purse Guild is dedicated to help small, Handmade Business owners in the UK, succeed. We aim to help them to improve, grow and become the top of their game!.

We also have a commitment to our customers. When visitors come to the Silk Purse Guild, we want them to find something fabulous in every single search. Carefully vetting applicants will ensure that we only work with the very best UK Makers, ensuring the highest possible quality across the board.

Product listings can be tricky, and tech does not come easy to everyone. The Silk Purse Guild will support ALL of its Guild Members, right up until the point where the training wheels can come off, no matter how long this takes.

All of our Guild Members are all shades of awesome sauce!

Question 9

How do I list a product?

Accepted Answer

Only Approved Guild Members can List Products

In order to gain access to your vendor Dashboard, you must first work through the shipping tutorial, and

How to Access the Academy

The Academy is located on the website. Simpply log into your approved vendor account, and knock on the Secret

Finding your Vendor Dashboard

As soon as you've been approved as a Guild Member, you will be able to access user protected content on the

You WILL NOT be able to list products until you have worked through the SHIPPING TUTORIALS and can

Let us know how you have calculated your shipping formulas, by email or EVEN QUICKER, in the Facebook Group,

Listing Products once you have unlocked your Vendor Dashboard

Firstly, go to DASHBOARD which is located in the drop drop menu, top right of the screen under MY ACCOUNT

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The DASHBOARD itself is a place to keep a record of all of your purchases, because of course you're bound

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Don't panic! The VENDOR DASHBOARD can be a little overwhelming at first, but once mastered it will be a valuable

Question 10

PLEASE ENABLE PRODUCT STOCK MANAGEMENT - PLEASE ASSIGN SHIPPING CLASS

Accepted Answer

Capitalised directions on product listings

Sometimes you may find that a listing has been unpublished, and the title replaced with a capitalised request for action.

Please don't worry, you've not broken anything, but you have missed out a step or 2 of the listing guidelines.

PLEASE ENABLE PRODUCT STOCK MANAGEMENT
PLEASE ASSIGN SHIPPING CLASS
PLEASE USE LATO FONT SIZE 12 WHEN COPYING AND PASTING
PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND PASTE TEXT FROM ONLINE SOURCES

Sara is the only member of staff around here, so to help her to admin behind the scenes, the website is programmed to

If the listing remains in this error state for 7 days, the listing will automatically be deleted.

Why does this happen?

We have had issues with sellers selling items that they no longer have in stock. Using product stock management tells the

Failing to assign your shipping class however can cause more than a customer complaint. This is a serious issue, as it will cause

What to do?

Fixing the listing is easy, simply correct the mistake, change the title back to your prefered 4 word product title and SAVE

As soon as you are listing again, within the Guild Guidlines, you will be out of pending and free to list without admin assistance,

How can we help?

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