The few essential elements illustrated below are required from all our ECAs, as they are vital to maintaining a professional image and friendly shopping exeperience for TripleClicks.com in general. Failure to adhere to these primary do's and dont's can result in suspension or termination of your participation in the ECA program.
MUST DO'S
You MUST enter accurate, clear, and complete product listings free of spelling errors and typos. When entering your products in the ECA Product Listing Form, make sure your description is the very best it can be. Spelling and grammatical errors within your text and inaccurate, incomplete descriptions reflect poorly on your business. It looks amateurish. It causes potential customers to question your professionalism, and it often results in product returns and lost sales. Additionally, keep in mind that Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) will look through and index all the words in your listings, so creating good, thorough descriptions is also vital to good search engine rankings.
Along these same lines, pay attention to the overall appearance of your product description. Never use ALL CAPS within your description (except, perhaps, as the description headline). Also, break up long, continuous chunks of text into paragraphs. This will create some white space and make the text easier and more inviting to read. Don't go overboard, however! Creating too many paragraphs and too much white space can look disorganized and unprofessional. If your description includes a list of benefits or product features, insert a single "-" or "*" character in front of the items to set each off as bullets within the list. Try to limit your bulleted points to single lines with single space returns.
EXAMPLES: NO! Single space return after each sentence includes no white space in between, pushing the text together and reducing readability; no bullet characters to set off individual items within the features listing.
EXAMPLES:
NO! Single space return after each sentence includes no white space in between, pushing the text together and reducing readability; no bullet characters to set off individual items within the features listing.
YES! Here's a good example of the use of bullet points within a description. Note that each bullet item is one line with a single return, resulting in neat, concise, easily readable text:
NO! Although bullet characters set off list items, the single space returns result in little white space and reduced readability. A better approach: eliminate the first 10 bullet characters and combine those sentences into appropriate paragraphs. Keep the remaining as bulleted lists.
YES! Here's a good example of a short, accurate, concise product description, with double space return between paragraphs:
You MUST list your product under the proper department. You'll have the opportunity to designate as many TripleClicks departments as necessary for your product within the ECA Product Listing Form. Although listing your product within several departments can make it easier for customers to find your item, you should never assign a product to a department where it obviously doesn't belong. This will only dilute the efficiency of department organization and frustrate your customers.
For example, a gold necklace you may have for sale could naturally be assigned within the Jewelry > Necklaces and even Gift > For Women departments and sub-departments at TripleClicks.com. However, this item should NOT be assigned to clearly unrelated departments, such as the Miscellaneous or Arts & Crafts departments.
You MUST upload at least one good product photo No one wants to buy a product sight unseen, and listings without images have a notoriously tough time generating sales. Just as bad (maybe even worse) are product listings with poor or inadequate photos and/or images. Each of your TC product listings can include up to three photos, and we strongly recommend you take advantage of that. Unless your product can be represented fully with just a single photo, upload two or three photos/images to show different views, sides, colors, options, etc.
EXAMPLES: NO! This example displays the default product image that appears when no photo is included. Chances are, customers will pass by this product for a more eye-catching, attractive listing!
NO! This example displays the default product image that appears when no photo is included. Chances are, customers will pass by this product for a more eye-catching, attractive listing!
YES! Here's a good example of a listing with multiple clear, sharp photos showing different aspects of the product.
You MUST provide appropriate and timely shipping Today's customers expect to receive their purchased products packaged well and shipped super fast. Quick shipping and good packaging denotes your professionalism and commitment to good customer care. Receiving products in a speedy fashion and good working order can also encourage your customers to purchase from you again...and leave a positive testimonial for you to boot!
A good rule of thumb: Be ready to ship your products within one business day of purchase. And be generous with the bubble-wrap or other type of packing—you want to ensure your items arrive in one piece. Although you don't need to go overboard, it's better to include too much packing than not enough!
You MUST handle returns gracefully No business owner wants to deal with returned products, but occasional returns are a fact of life for any professional retailer. As an ECA, you must process returns promptly and gracefully (TripleClicks takes care of the refunds). Doing so produces higher overall customer satisfaction and could actually result in more sales. Each of your product's details page at TripleClicks.com includes a link to your Return Policy; you can enter and/or edit your policy HERE.
Be sure your ECA Return Policy includes:
Any changes you make in your return policy will be immediately reflected for all your listed products. However, in accordance with your ECA Participation Agreement, only your policy published at the time of a customer order must be honored.
You MUST communicate with TC customers appropriately NOTHING turns off a customer more than being ignored by a seller. If you're slow to answer questions about a product, there are many other businesses standing by to serve that customer. Fortunately, your communications with customers does not have to be a complicated, time-consuming affair. TripleClicks.com confirms all order shipments and arrivals with your customers on your behalf. You need only be ready to provide special directions, disclosures, or clarification requests. And remember to keep your messages short and to the point...and of course, courteous, relevant to the topic, and appropriate.
You MUST monitor customer and TC performance ratings We at TripleClicks.com are commited to creating the best, most convenient, most enjoyable online shopping experience available. Consequently, only the best, most professional ECAs committed to offering great products and customer service can remain in the ECA Program. That's why we require all our ECAs to continually review customer ratings; monitor chargeback, return, and order cancellation frequency; keep track of your shipping times; ensure ECA policy compliance; and check your feedback from TC and your customers. This attention to performance details is an essential part of your successful business, enabling you to quickly and efficiently make the changes and/or improvements you need to make.
MUST NOT DO'S
You MUST NOT register more than one account When you registered as an ECA, you created a single selling account for your company. You are strictly prohibited from creating, operating, or maintaining more than one ECA account.
You MUST NOT divert TC customers Maintaining the integrity of TripleClicks.com is not only good for your customers, it's good for all our ECAs! Having a bunch of E-Commerce Associates directing TC customers away from the store only reduces the pool of customers available to everyone. In fact, it's the combined power of ECAs, member listings, SFI Affiliates, and the word-of-mouth buzz they generate that make up the core strength of TripleClicks.com. Sending customers AWAY from that resource is hardly a strategy for success!
That's why, as an ECA, you are prohibited from diverting in any way TC customers from TripleClicks.com within your products listings, materials included in your product shipments, or other permitted communications. This prohibition includes any URLs to your or any other Website. You are, however, allowed to reference your TConnect Website—in fact, we encourage you do so!
You MUST NOT bribe customers for positive feedback Paying for or otherwise offering incentives for positive feedback, ratings, and/or reviews from your customers is dishonest and ultimately harmful to TripleClicks.com in general. Moreover, you cannot entice any customer to remove negative feedback, ratings, or reviews. There are better—and more profitable—ways to improve your ratings among customers!
DO's & DO NOT'S SUMMARY:
DO...
DO NOT...
Review this support page for a list of products and services that cannot be listed for sale at TripleClicks:
http://www.tripleclicks.com/Support/Solution.php?catid=26469&id=20742
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