Looking for the full Vendor Terms of Service? Click Here.
Who can be a vendor?
Queer Trans Marketplace exists to help LGBTQ+ small business owners build their livelihoods. We ask that all vendors respect this mission. However, you are the best judge of whether we are an appropriate marketplace for you. You know yourself the best, and you don’t need to prove or justify your work here to us or anyone else. Before assuming that a vendor doesn’t belong on QT Marketplace due to their identity, we ask all vendors and users to remember that not all LGBTQ+ people can or want to be out – and that’s okay.
Do vendors need to sell exclusively on Queer Trans Marketplace?
NO! This is a platform to help you build and grow your business, so you are welcome to sell in other places – whether that’s a physical shop, pop-ups, or another online store. We will always strive to be the best place to sell your products, and we hope you’ll choose us first, but our mission first and foremost is to help you grow. If that means diversifying where you sell, go for it!
However, we do ask that you avoid any external links (such as to your own website) on Queer Trans Marketplace. This platform exists to help customers discover a variety of queer-owned businesses, so when a customer lands here, we want them to stay. That way, they will shop at your store and other queer-owned businesses rather than just one store.
Is Queer Trans Marketplace just for Pride Merch?
NO! While Pride merch is an important cornerstone of Queer Trans Marketplace, this platform is also for anything else made by an LGBTQIA+ vendor. Our goal is to help build the “Queer Economy” – a marketplace where Queer people can support each other with all types of goods and services, regardless of whether those goods and services are Pride-themed. If you’re part of the Queer community, your products are welcome here – with or without rainbows.
What fees to vendors pay on Queer Trans Marketplace?
Unlike other online platforms, Queer Trans Marketplace does not charge listing fees or vendor registration fees. We want our success to be intertwined with yours. That means we don’t get paid unless you do.
When you make a sale, the following fees will be charged:
- Stripe (our credit card processing partner) will charge you 2.9% + $0.30 for credit card processing fees (nothing we can really do about that)
- Queer Trans Marketplace charges 5% in exchange for bringing in new customers, maintaining and running the platform. This helps us pay our staff and keep the site up and running!
Once I get an order, how long do I have to ship?
We ask that you ship within one week of receiving an order. If you are out of town, taking a break, or cannot ship within a week, you can pause your store (link this).
What Can I Sell?
- No sell Weapons, Food, Medications, Drugs, Alcohol, or adult content
It’s a legal thing. We aren’t licensed to sell or distribute these things through our platform.
- No animal testing
To ensure a kinder world to all who live in it, vendors who sell on Queer Trans Marketplace must commit to a strict no animal testing policy. Since Queer Trans Marketplace is for small to midsize businesses, vendors will likely not be engaged in animal testing operations by default.
- No selling others’ intellectual property
Artists and artisans work hard to create amazing work! We have a strict policy against selling work that steals from another artist. This includes items made using AI that was trained on unlicensed work. While the use of AI for generating ideas or checking work is acceptable, we insist that you do not infringe on others’ original art by selling work generated by AI.
- Use plant-based materials and ingredients
A bright future for queer people means we need to embrace an environmentally sustainable approach. Raising animals for food, clothing, and other materials is a leading cause of deforestation and GHG emissions. We ask vendors to avoid selling animal-based materials to help create a better future for all. This includes avoiding the sale of leather, fur, wool, etc.
Listing Rules
When listing a new product, you must name, describe, and tag products accurately. Customers expect to receive the product they order, and if listings are inaccurate, customers can report them. This may result in the product being taken down from the website.
Similarly, tags must be relevant to the product. Simply adding tags that you think will be popular to get a product to show in more searches is not permitted (and will not increase your sales). A violation here may also result in your product being taken down from the website.
How does Queer Trans Marketplace keep my information secure?
Rather than building our own payments system from scratch, we have partnered with a third-party payment processor, Stripe. This ensures that sensitive information like bank account and credit card information is stored with a company that has a larger security infrastructure than we can ever hope to afford. It also means that no one at Queer Trans Marketplace sees your sensitive information – all of it is stored securely with another party.
Stripe will also handle information like compliance and tax reporting. Each year, you can expect to receive a 1099 from Stripe to help you do your taxes. This ensures that your tax information has been prepared by professional accountants!
How do I get paid?
When a customer buys something from your store, that payment is credited towards your vendor account. There is a 14-day waiting period for these funds to show in your vendor account to prevent fraud and ensure that customers have received orders. Once those 14 days have passed, you can withdraw funds from your account. Queer Trans Marketplace does not set minimum withdrawal thresholds – small businesses are encouraged to grow and thrive here.