let me quickly talk to you about how to
sell on house marketplace don't go
anywhere you're gonna love to this
conversation i guarantee it
[Music]
welcome back folks to another edition of
the awesome strategy show how are you
today i hope you're all doing fantastic
i'm doing marvelous if you already ask
me if you are doing as great and blessed
as i am go grab a cup of coffee rt or
vodka and let's roll
[Applause]
in today's conversation i want to speak
to you about how to sell on house
marketplace and uh this is a great
platform and i'm in today i'm showing
you on the screen right now the skeleton
of today's convo so i'm going to give
you an overview of houzz i'm going to
show you how to set up your storefront
how to list products how to process
orders how to promote your store how to
improve your seller score and how to get
paid
so at a glance so basically with houzz
you have a platform that allows you to
do a lot of things you basically are
able to make your dream home a reality
so you can find inspiration products and
the pros to make it happen all in one
place okay and on houzz you can discover
design ideas you can shop products you
can browse pros you can suggest pros for
yourself
for you
the platform has pros for me so that
will be for you and uh but so you have
this for
the this is on the consumer side but
today's conversation is based on
sellers right on professionals who want
to sell on house okay but it's important
to have an idea of what of what the
house is and on house you can shop by
department so consumers can shop at
apartments everything from furniture to
kitchen and dining bath lightning living
bedroom to home home decor outdoor
storage and organization home
improvement holiday decor and sale and
consumers can contact a local
professional
for everything from bathroom remodeling
to
new home construction to general
contract into kitchen remodeling
and
consumers can also browse ideas by room
okay kitchen storage and closet basement
entry gym home bar dining you name it
and
you can also see as a consumer you can
see on the platform the latest stories
from a house
the how you can actually um you know
house tours
kitchen design bathroom design landscape
design fantastic they really have a
nice curated list of things to offer
their clients so this is the this is
you're just great and the consumers can
actually browse photos by style
so contemporary eclectic modern
craftsman farmhouse industrial
scandinavian transitional and so on and
so forth
and consumers can also browse
professionals near them okay so when we
speak about professionals and that's you
listening to me right now you can
actually uh be in home design and
remodeling for example you can do
outdoor and garden home improvements
home services and cleaning services you
can also when you go on a house platform
you can also puruse
all the documentaries and all the nice
reporting that house tv has put on the
site it's just fantastic you need to
check it out
now let's talk about house it's though
the whole process how to sell on house
marketplace the first thing you need to
do is set up your storefront okay so you
have to join
house as a pro
so you put in your email and password
then you put in your business name
professional category your phone number
your country of course the u.s you have
to enable text messages if you want
that's what house recommends
then you click next
and you need to choose the right plan
for your business so right now they have
a basic try for free essential and
ultimate we recommend once you're ready
to go once you're really really ready to
start doing business on houzz to go for
the essential
next you have to put your business
address in the website
you have to put your location right so
where do you want to work so this is
based on your zip code this is how
they're going to give you they're going
to send you a client right so you need
to select what areas you want to work so
they can match the right clients for you
remember you can also skip this section
services you provide so you want to
include all the services that you're
willing to provide as a standalone job
you can also skip if you want to
you need to add your photo your profile
photo or skip if you don't want to
and you want to select a time for a
brief setup call with the house pro
experts included with your account
that's if you want it because then you
can have a house pro expert that will
call you just walk you through the whole
process or you can just say no thanks
you're not interested
and once you do that you're in that's it
okay you have successful onboarding and
so here is your dashboard right now so
you have your your marketplace
storefront this is the place shoppers
can easily find everything you offer
with several powerful ways to
merchandise your products so you have a
replacement for profile pages the
marketplace storefront showcases your
complete product offering to potential
clients
okay shoppers can view your products by
category best sellers recently added
products product collections and product
reviews and each individual product page
will link back to your marketplace
storefront which is great which and that
will drive traffic to your entire
collection okay so what you want to do
here is you want to review actually you
really want to review your um
your seller central settings so before
you begin selling please take a few
minutes to review your settings in
seller central so you want to log into
your house profile then you go to
house.com cell right so you navigate to
settings on the left side of the page
and under your profile picture and it's
pretty straightforward okay and so you
have uh your bank account sales tax
seller agreement notification and you if
you want to you can register for the
house seller api but it really depends
on you
so i'm showing you on the screen right
now you can see the seller central
account settings so you have for example
you have the profile info
okay
and the profile info you have a lot of
stuff so you have public serv public
business information
services provided area served
typical job cost and photos so this is
where if the clients if a client is
interested in your services he or she
can go there and start like no reading
more about you
okay and then you have you can change
your contact info
your password your social media settings
you can even even link to your social
media profiles right this is important
especially if you want to cross promote
your services you say you want to be on
for example on facebook and house and
youtube simultaneously for example you
can and then you can dig into advanced
settings if you have time and also your
privacy settings privacy settings is
very important we're showing this to you
on the screen what it looks like
you can also change your billing info
and your shipping
addresses so
this is a very important to think about
because this will actually a condition
the kind of uh first impression you
convey to the potential clients okay and
also don't forget the vacation calendar
so a vacation calendar is a feature
available for all merchants so this
feature is accessible from the seller
central or vendor dashboard pages under
the setting tabs
so if you're not able to manage your
account or fulfill orders on certain
dates for example you're taking personal
time off you can actually enter the time
and dates on the vacation calendar and
the platform will adjust the shipping
lead time for your orders accordingly
okay remember that and as a merchant you
can set up up to uh
five vacations at a time so to avoid
late shipments and cancellations you
must set your vacation 14 days 14 days
okay before vacation starts so think
about it and if you want to make your
storefront great there are a couple of
things you can do
based on our analysis based on our
research you need to update your profile
picture uh your profile picture you need
to have a picture don't let this this
box
blank because customers want to connect
with you customers wants to see you and
this will increase your your conversion
rate a lot you want to also update your
cover image this is a must do to help
your company stand out so your cover
image basically conveys what your
product line or company is all about
right so selecting a strong cover image
will help visually define your company
which is really important you also want
to showcase your products installed
okay so
house has created virtual catalogs
within your marketplace storefront to
house photos of your products in indoor
or outdoor residential spaces so use
that opportunity you also want to foster
positive reviews very important
step number two folks you basically want
to list your products
so
when it comes to listing products on the
house it's not a it's not a very
complicated uh matter but you need to
follow a few guidelines so all required
metadata fields outlined in the house
data templates and house product page
must be provided for each product
listing be very careful because house
has been very uh they are very strict
when it comes to that so you need to
fill all the required metadata because
that's how their algorithm actually is
able to function so make sure that your
listings are as descriptive as possible
highlighting the features and benefits
of an item and
the products should be assigned to the
most specific category okay make sure
that you're accurate so the products
must specify accurate lead times and
keep this information up to date and
processing times refers to total
calendar years
not years days okay so the processing
times refers to
total calendar days not business days so
a minimum of one image representing the
product by itself on a white background
and one image representing the product
in a room or related space are required
this is very important let me repeat
that a minimum of one image representing
the product by itself on a white
background and one image representing
the product in the room of or related
space are required
and product images must be clear and
high resolution with a minimum of 500 by
500 pixels
and the images may not contain
watermelon watermarks
no watermarks right no logos landmarks
and or people all products must comply
with the house prohibited products
policy at all times and this is
important and creating multiple product
listing for the same product is
forbidden
okay so listings may not contain
seller's name
contact information internal
identification numbers and or quality
and availability information so here is
this is just a constellation of roles
that
household has
they have put in place to be able to
manage their their system okay so once
you have that you can update existing
product listing you can actually uh one
thing you need to know before i move on
to the next one is that the next session
is that there is a product approval
process so once you actually uh put
stuff out there
house will review all products uploaded
for the following high quality image
including a primary image of the product
on a white background house also prefers
additional images
that show the product in context in a
room setting informative product titles
and descriptions this is another
criterion that house pays attention to
and accuracy of all data
so house publishes your data to
customers and will need to be reviewed
for accuracy before uploading to house
so this is important so products will
appear in a painting status until they
have been approved to active status
step number three folks here you need to
start processing orders
so once everything is fine once uh your
products have been approved and
everything is found with house
and you are lucky to have your first
order that you need to start
processing orders right so we have
process let's talk about process orders
so new orders so when a new order is
placed on house their system will auto
authorize a customer's payment method 30
minutes after the order is placed so if
that order fails to charge
the house will not release the order to
you until they get a successful
authorization and once they receive a
successful authorization you will see
the new order in your seller central
under the chart status okay so you can
select the view order to see details of
the order now if you have access to your
dashboard it's very easy okay and then
there you will see things like uh
new orders of course you'll see ship
orders so when you have tracking
information for the shipment and are
ready to ship you can click ship order
and uh do the following print the
packing slip and include that in your
order you can include the house thank
you note and envelope inside the box you
can place house stickers on the outside
of the package and if you have multiple
tracking numbers please separate each
tracking number with a comma and do not
use spaces okay it's very important
remember though that house is very
strict with uh shipment shipment
timeline because if you are unable
if you cannot ship the order within
seven days seven days the authorization
will fall off therefore giving you the
option to charge the card again when you
are ready to ship
and so you you also have if you have a
question with failed to charge orders
then you need to contact the house and
for paypal orders this is also pretty
easy if you click ship orders and
receive an
error message to the order cannot be
shipped it is likely that
a paypal failed to charge so if you
receive this you want to immediately
reach out to sellers seller support not
sellers so seller singular seller
support at house.com
okay and uh so
houzz also has a lot of they have a
variety of guidelines around packaging
materials so for more information on how
to use uh house packaging materials when
processing orders you you can go on the
website on houzz platform and watch a
video there but one thing i wanna i
wanna see here is that you wanna be very
careful because they are very strict
about their uh packaging materials okay
and uh remember that certain actions as
a seller some of your actions will
result in cancellation delays in
shipping or a poor shopping experience
for customers and if you if you have
that you will incur non-compliance fees
and this five issues will will result in
a fee we're going to put it on the
screen
shipping the customer's order after the
maximum state of late time
providing the customer with an invalid
or missing tracking number canceling an
order due to the product being out of
stock
cancelling an order because they failed
to ship
and changing the estimated delivery date
for an order in other words you are
initiating a back order
now if you want to have more information
about
house packaging materials if you want to
get actually the
the packaging materials you have to go
to the house shop support account on
houzz
okay and there you have to click on the
products you would like to receive you
want to you need to specify the quantity
and size needed and you have to add the
products in your cart it's pretty
straightforward okay and please you can
review your order in the checkout page
and don't forget to use the house
stickers coupon code to receive your
items for free a credit card on file is
required to ship the order but your card
will not be charged since the the items
are free you want to allow three to five
business days for your order to arrive
and again if you have any question you
want to contact seller support in one
word at house.com or you can go on the
website and submit the
request so one thing i want to say here
is that you can also uh view your orders
okay so you can see your orders in
seller central by clicking on the orders
link in seller central or by visiting
the there is a page that we we're
putting on the screen right now there's
a link
house.com browse buyer orders
okay and uh you also you can also see a
returns and cancellations
so whether the customer requests to
cancel an order
or you as a seller request to cancel an
order because you don't feel comfortable
to deliver on timers or stuff happens
right you also have to pay attention to
back orders so as a seller you want to
ensure that your inventory is always up
to date and accurate at times however
customers will order items that are out
of stock or on back order so please note
that back orders and late shipments
basically they don't really uh
they don't improve the customer
experience and because of that house
will penalize you so that you will
actually receive a lower score so
additionally if you back order an item
you will incur a 10
non-compliance fee per order per order
okay something you need to think about
and um
last but not the least i want to see
something about this uh section here
yeah shipping to alaska hawaii and
puerto rico now by default your products
are available to all users in the
continental us so to enable the sale of
your products to buyers in alaska hawaii
and puerto rico you need to actually
either contact sellersupportahouse.com
or you need to go to your dashboard to
your seller dashboard
i'll be right back right after this
don't go anywhere
[Applause]
welcome back folks to another section of
the awesome swedish kiwi show we are
still having a conversation about how to
sell on house marketplace
step number four you need to promote
your store okay when we talk about pre
when we speak about
promoting your store you have to think
about creating and managing product
groups so you have product groups so
what are product groups this is
basically a constellation of products
it's a group of products it's a list of
products
right so every promotion must be
associated with the product group so by
default there is a product group for all
products that represents every product
in in the seller's account
and if you want to manage uh your
product group you have to go to manage
product group
page okay this is pretty straightforward
and you can also there you can create a
new product group
and one thing i also want to say is that
you can actually uh manage promotions
by going to the managed promotions page
you can also create promotion
okay
as a matter of fact you can even
increase your profile in the community
on the plat on the house platform or
just uh in your in your state or
vis-a-vis your targeted audience by
actually advertising locally on house
the platform does allow sellers to not
only work on the platform not only
register on the platform as a seller but
also advertise as a business so this is
something you can take advantage of as
well
and you can also when it comes to
customer communications you have to be a
little uh careful here because this will
affect your uh your customer experience
so you want to put you want to pay
attention to
things like sending coupons
and house messaging
so sending coupons so you may send
coupons to buyers who have previously
placed an order with you on houzz and
this is a one-time use coupon code to be
used on the buyer's next purchase from
your products on houzz
okay and then you have house messaging
so this feature enable enables
communication between house sellers and
customers so you'll you'll be able to do
a lot of things you can exchange
messages directly and this is a great
one directly with customers via the
house messages interface or directly
with your email clients so this is a
good good stuff you know pretty good
stuff and if you want to respond to a
message on via house you have to click
messages on the left side of your screen
to see and respond to all messages but
of course you have you have to
log into seller central at first
and this is one thing that you can
actually do it's pretty straightforward
step number five folks we are talking
about how to improve your seller score
folks
this is a conversation about how to sell
on house marketplace right and uh
part of it
is the fact that you need to improve
your seller score this is how you make
more money this is how you get more more
orders and how do you do that
the your house seller score can help you
improve your service levels drive more
sales and create happier customers
according to our research okay so if you
want to get to that
that i would say preferred status
category you want to ship on time very
important shipping orders on time is the
single most important thing you can do
to keep your seller score high and
because late shipments create customer
frustration and disappointment so if you
find that you are consistently shipping
late you want to consider trying the
following things you can review the lead
times for all your all of your products
to make sure you are consistently
shipping the products within within uh
the specified window of time you can be
sure to mark orders as shipped as soon
as they have been sent with or they have
been sent to a carrier
so in the
in the event that an item is out of
stock you must immediately notify the
customer and follow the back order
process and you can identify areas in
your order fulfillment process that can
speed the shipment processes
and if you also want to improve your
seller score you need to update your
inventory daily
you need to price competitively very
important please also try to minimize
cancellations and returns
all right another way to actually keep
your your score high is to respond to
customer messages within 24 hours the
faster the better and you want to
cultivate positive reviews very
important you can use the house
packaging materials and stickers
this is kind of good right so this so
those are a few things you need to pay
attention to and you have to go to your
dashboard and on your you know your
seller's score will be there and so you
can just look at it so your overall
seller score is rated on a scale of zero
to one 100
with the following ranges so 100 exceeds
expectations
90 plus meets expectations 80 plus below
expectations 70 plus far below
expectations and below 70 eligible for
removal okay so this is something you
have to think about
and uh so
your score your seller score is
calculated by assigning an order score
to each of these of your sellers uh your
seller accounts order so within the last
six months and apply and they do this
within the last six months and they
apply a time weighted average across
this set of other scores so this is kind
of good
step number six and this is the last
step here
get paid how do you get paid own house
pretty pretty straightforward
so your payments will be sent via
electronic transfer to your bank account
twice a month
no questions asked twice a month so
orders shipped and settled between the
1st and the 15th of each month will be
paid on the 22nd of that month if the
22nd is a weekend or a holiday the
payments will be sent the following
business day
okay and this is a pretty this is kind
of similar to fiverr another
freelancer this is how we look we look
at you know we kind of looked at the
whole thing
and uh so
orders shipped and settled between the
16th and the last day of each month will
be paid on the 7th of the following
month if the 7th is a weekend or a
holiday the payments will be sent uh you
know the following business day
and uh house will notify you via email
when your payments are processed and it
typically takes a three to five business
days after the after processing for the
funds to uh appear in your bank account
and one thing we love here is that if
you want to view your payment reports
you want to click payment reports from
seller central or you can visit the link
we're showing this link to you on the
screen right now is house.com
payments bloom payments plural
and you actually can download your
payment report as a csv file from the
payments report page
and if you have questions
please do not hesitate to contact house
it's very important to understand the
house is always there and they have a
pretty responsive staff and they're
constantly trying to
put customer satisfaction at number one
for them this is just very important
it's not debatable and if you plan to
actually uh become a seller on house you
better be ready you better be very
disciplined you better consider this a
business this is not just you trying to
be um to be you know quote unquote a
jack of all trades and trying to comment
do your stuff no you have to be
disciplined you have to ask yourself why
you want to become a house seller
how you want to make money through the
platform and once you do that once you
understand the rules i think you should
be good to go definitely good to go
especially given the fact that you need
to follow all the steps that i just gave
you
you should be good to go and you can
start small nobody said you have to
start big you can start small you can
just to focus on one
product you can yeah one category of
products and then after you are used to
it you can move on to the next one
all right folks this was it for today's
conversation i was talking to you about
how to sell a house marketplace i i gave
you an overview of uh houzz
i spoke to you about story
setting up your storefront
listing your products processing orders
this is very good
we have promoting your store improving
your seller score and getting paid
thank you so much for your attention
folks i really appreciate it i'll see
you next time but until then remember
stay
marvelous
you