FAQ's shops
for Shop owners:| How do I make money? Each object has a Standard Price that includes fees associated with selling. You simply set your mark up for each product. When you sell an item, we keep the standard price and we send you the markup. An additional 3.5% transaction fee will be charged on all markups. For example, if you markup an item by $20, an additional fee of $0.70 will be charged (that is 3.5% of the $20). We charge this fee to cover our administrative costs and Paypal payment costs. |
| How will you pay me? We will pay your accrued shop markups minus 3.5% to your PayPal account once a month. We will transfer only the markups that are not 'frozen'. A markup is frozen from the moment of sales for 30 days. This lag time is installed to account for returns and exchanges from our customers. If our clients do not pay within 30 days for whatever what reason, you will not receive your mark up fee. Generally it will work like this: If you have $45.00 of accrued commissions on the 15th of March, your payment will be sent out to you by the 15th of April. We will pay max 45 days after the month they were accrued. Please be aware that if you earn less than 30 dollars, then the amount will not be paid, but will accrue to your account until such time as it becomes equal to or greater than 30 dollars. |
| How do I track my sales? On your my designs page you can see all invoices of things you have sold. You will also get an email every time you sell an item. For each item there are two invoices one self billing invoice that is automatically generated and tells us to pay an ammount of money to you. The second invoice is the mark up fee invoice. This is an invoice from Shapeways to you, billing you for the 3.5% administration cost and Paypal payment fees. |
| Can I buy items from my own shop? Yes you can buy items from your own shop. You will NOT have to pay a markup to yourself. |
| Can I buy at Shapeways and pay with my accrued markups? At the moment you can not pay with your accrued markups, but we are working hard to get this option available to you. |
| What happens if a customer is unsatisfied? Shapeways will deal with all customer service. If a customer has comments on the design we will inform you, so you can adapt the design. If a customer returns the product, gets a refund or doesn't pay the order, Shapeways and the shopkeeper will share the burden. This means that Shapeways will bear the costs of production and you won't earn your mark up fee. We will process this automatically. |
| Can I upload a Nike Swoosh, a nice design I found somewhere etc.? No. You can only upload your own original work or work that you have the rights to. As a designer, you warrant that your content shall be your original creation and not be copied from any other third party and/or entity. If you are not the designer, you warrant that you have the right to upload, promote, sell, transmit or otherwise distribute the content via the Shapeways Shops. |
| What about the rights, copyright of my model? The rights of the model will always remain with you. You simply give us permission to fulfill customer orders, manufacture the model and you will receive a markup per sale. We will further have the right to use the content that you have uploaded for promotional purposes. You can remove your model from Shapeways whenever you want to. This will terminate all the licenses granted to us. |
| What about tax? This depends whether you are part of the EU or not. If not, payments to you will not include VAT (tax, value added tax, BTW). If you are located in the EU your payments to you will include VAT (tax, value added tax, BTW). Please make sure you that is it your responsibility to collect, report and remit the correct tax to the appropriate tax authority. |
| Am I responsible for selling, production, shipping? The customer that buys a model enters into an agreement with Shapeways. We will handle all legal matters with the customer. You will get a license (royalty) fee for the use of your design. You will not enter into a legal agreement with the customer. You enter into a legal agreement with us: we are allowed to use your design to sell models on Shapeways, if the design is used in a sold model you will get a license (royalty) fee (markup). |
| Will the mark up affect my rights? In principle, No. By adding a model to the Shop you give us permission to use your design to produce a physical copy of your design. We will sell this physical copy and in turn give you a royalty fee (the mark-up fee you set yourelf). At any time you can remove your model from Shapeways. |
| What about income tax? You will need to declare any income as income on your tax statement. The legal situation will vary in different countries, currently our lawyers are sorting out the different situations but we would recommend that you check with your local tax authority or small business organizations. |
| What about Sales tax, VAT etc? Sales tax on the item itself is not something you have to worry about. If applicable, there is sales tax on the payment we will make to you. |
| What happens when I give Shapeways permission to use photographs or renderings for their marketing? We will use those photographs for our website, posters and other marketing things. Whenever possible we will attribute you by saying that the model and design is yours. This does not alter your rights to the underlying model, it just gives us permission to use photographs to promote Shapeways and you. |
| How do I close a shop? You close a shop by using the 'close shop' button on your shop management page. You will find a link to the ' shop management' page by clicking the 'edit my shop' button on your profile or from within your own shop. If you or Shapeways terminate your account, and you have less than $30 in accrued but unpaid markups Shapeways may charge you a $5 processing fee when sending you your final payment to cover its administrative costs. |