SETTING UP A FREE SHOP F.A.Q.'S
How does the free webstore work?
When you set up a webstore through our system, you are given your own, standalone webshop to sell your designs. You have the freedom to choose what products you want to sell, what designs you’d like to offer on each product, what domain name you’d like to use, and much more. Your shop will include an online design tool for your customers to design custom products, and you can create your own pre-made designs to sell in your shop as well. The design tool is very robust and offers lots of options for both you and your customers. We offer all of the sellable products at a base/wholesale cost, and you can markup this price to any amount you choose, this markup will be your profit when the item sells. We make the product, we ship the product, and once a month we pay you all profits earned by your markups via Paypal.
What will my website address (domain name) be?
You have a lot of freedom when choosing the domain for your site. This is the address that customers will type into their web browsers to access your site. When you sign up for your shop you will be asked to select a Store URL. You will enter in the name you want for your site, and you must choose from the name extensions that we have available when first setting up your shop, i.e. yourshopname.candeystore.com (candeystore is one of our available name extensions.) Once you have created your shop, you can change your domain name. You can map an unused domain name you already own, or purchase one to use for your shop. This is done through the domain settings page under Site config.
How will my website look?
We have a number of design templates with different themes to choose from when setting up your store. These themes can be customized with different colors, fonts, etc. without any web design or coding knowledge. You also have the option of further customizing your template. If you have any knowledge of CSS and/or web design, making advanced changes to your site template is a piece of cake! Even with no knowledge you can still make your shop unique by customizing colors and adding header images and other graphics. Each page in the site except for the designer itself is editable. You can even add your own pages! Add galleries, forums, and other pages, as you like. Do you have a blog, Etsy shop or other site you’d like to link to? No problem! Our easy to use interface makes it all possible.
What’s up with the Online Designer?
Your shop will have its own Online Design Tool. The designer is where your customers can create custom designed products, and also where you can design your own items for sale. You decide whether your customers can customize your own created designs or not. You can also turn off the designer so that your customers can’t use it, and sell only your pre-designed products. The designer comes with several available design elements for creating products, you choose which ones you want to offer in your designer. You can also upload graphics to the designer yourself that your customers can use to design products with. Customers can also upload their own images to use in their product designs. Please be careful when adding graphics to the designer for your customers to use – the use of copyrighted images is prohibited. Eye Candey will not be held liable for shopkeepers or customers use of copyrighted graphics, so please carefully read the terms of use of any graphics you acquire for use in your designer and products.
For more detailed information and step-by-step tips for using the designer, see our designer help page.
Selling Products
Each shopkeeper selects what products they would like to offer for sale in their shop from our list of available product types. These products can then be decorated by the shopkeeper via the designer to create unique items for sale, and/or they can be offered as blank products for your customers to design. Each product is set up with a base price, which Eye Candey determines as its fee for the product itself, and the printing. The base price is then marked up by you to determine the selling price to the customer. The markup amount is your profit on the product. This markup amount is solely up to your discretion. You do not have to buy the product yourself, you do not have to print the product yourself, and you do not have to ship the product yourself. Each shopkeeper is paid his or her commission amount in full via Paypal. You can view your commission amounts at any time in your shop dashboard. All commission is paid on the first of the month after the order is processed and shipped, and is automatically deposited into the paypal account you specify when setting up your shop. Or, for a small Paypal fee of $2.00 USD you can receive your commission at any time after the order is processed and shipped.
Customer Service and Orders
All stores created through our system are intended as a true, viable business for our Shopkeepers. You have the choice of using this system as a part-time or hobby business, or to grow it into a full time venture, depending on your needs. All customers of your site are exactly that – your customers. Eye Candey does not use your customer information for any reason other to ship products, nor do we individually market to your customers. We have no desire to communicate with your customers without your knowledge or consent. Our success is based on the success of our shopkeepers and we do not attempt to undermine your business in any way. For this reason, we recommend that each shop handle customer service and order inquiries for their own customers. You have the option in your site settings to configure all contact information to your own details, including an e-mail address and/or telephone number. That way if your customers have questions or want more information they can contact you directly, instead of contacting us as a third-party. You have access to customer order information in your shop’s control panel, such as customer name, order status, orders in processing and shipment dates. Of course, if you do not wish to make your contact information available to your customers, they can obtain any necessary information from us.
If all your questions have not been answered here, please feel free to contact us at info@eyecandey.com for more information. We also have a forum for our shopkeepers here. We look forward to working with you!!
