In-house mark-up profit credit directly with Shapeways as an option.

I just received a notification that I had just made the 30.00 minimum markup profits on my designs and I will receive a payment mid July.
A suggestion: Perhaps in the future Shapeways can provide for the designer the option either to receive credit thru Papal (as the current procedure) or credit towards future Shapeways services. This way should they choose credit 'in-house' so-to-speak, the designer can accrue an increased credit percentage (due to lack of processing fee normally required thru Paypal) when they need it towards prototype test prints of their own. Using this kind of in-house credit avoids higher mark up fees, and Shapeways can avoid Paypal fees. This is very much like physical consignment store policies. I think both partners can win when the choice is there as an option A and option B..
Let me know if this seems to simple to actually work.

Kevin Cespedes
Cespedesign Multimedia

I strongly support this. It has been discussed before but with no result, so far.

Thanks guys! This makes a lot of sense and we're tracking the suggestion on our wish list.

Cheers,

Bart

And by the way, how did you receive this notification? I don't think we actively send out emails about this, do we? Could you forward that message to bart@shapeways.com?

Thanks!

Bart

Bart,
I wanted to also add that this other option would benefit the designer by gaining access to credit right away as opposed to lag due to processing time-time that is lost. One has to remember the two weeks it takes for a print order to be handled. That's 30-45 days from door to door currently if you miss the mid month mark on some last minute markup profit gains. Does that make sense?

That's a great point, I'll add that to our discussion, thanks!

Bart

I also support this option. I think it would be very useful to allow markup profits to become credit to use towards more prototyping.

Is there any changes made on SW site to keep cash on account?

Let me ask around - I'll get back to you.

Hey guys,

I got some feedback from our financial experts and although it's on our wishlist, we have also found that this is a can of worms. There are many exceptions and edge cases to consider for this solution. It's certainly not a trivial thing to implement. People are aware, and the request is on our community wishlist, so we'll be returning to it in the future.

Bart

If you were to implement this it would also solve the problem of us Europeans being paid by you in Dollars, then having to convert those dollars back to Euros to buy things at Paypal's somewhat worse exchange rate, losing around 5% in the process.

Tom

Everyone forced into paying with euros would keep ~8%, and the rest of the world ~3%, as no fees would be paid. Every shop owner would be benefited by having the option to keep all or part of markup as SW credit.