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This guide will walk you through what happens when you submit your Cratejoy Marketplace Listing for approval, including reasons why it may have been rejected. Check out the Optimizing your Listing guide.

Please note: Your listing will not be approved until you do the following:

1. Create a subscription product under the Products page. This is the subscription box you’ll be selling to customers.
2. Add a payment processor; we recommend Stripe. This allows you to process sales as they come in through your Listing. 
3. Launch your store. This means that you will take your account and listing page out of test mode. 
4. Create your store listing
5. Submit your listing for Marketplace Listing Approval Process.

What will happen when you submit your Marketplace Listing?

• A Cratejoy Admin will review your listing. The Listing approval process is a two phase approach:
  • Phase 1 includes the listing adoption approval process.
  • Phase 2 includes the listing quality approval process. 
• Your listing has to be approved on listing adoption before it's passed on to phase 2 and reviewed for its listing quality. You will be notified if your listing has either been approved or rejected for both listing approval phases.
  • If your listing is rejected in the listing completion or listing quality phase, you will receive the respective guidance and information to make the required changes in order to resubmit your listing for approval.
• After your listing adoption (phase 1) and quality (phase 2) has been approved, your listing will be set live on the Cratejoy Marketplace!
• If the admin has some feedback, they will leave it for you on your Marketplace Edit Page so you can come back and make the changes.
• The typical approval process can take up to 4 business days.

What do these statuses mean?

• Pending Approval - you've submitted your listing for review and you have no live listing on the Marketplace
• Pending Revisions - you've submitted your listing for review with a current live listing on the Marketplace (which will stay live until the new one gets approved)
• Live - you have an existing live Marketplace listing (any changes will need to get submitted and approved)
• Rejected - you do not have an existing Marketplace listing and your submitted listing needs some changes before it will be approved
• Edits Rejected - you have an existing Marketplace listing and your submitted listing needs further edits before it will be approved

Why Was My Listing Rejected?

We check each seller's marketplace listing for proper adoption and quality before letting it go live. If your marketplace listing was rejected, you will receive an email with one or more of the following reasons.

Listing Adoption Criteria (Phase 1 of Listing Approval Process)

Photo Quantity

It is required to include at least 6-10 high-quality photos of actual products, packaging, and customers interacting with the box. Sellers who follow this guidance tend to get the most sales. For more direction, please visit this blog article.

Prelaunch

Your store listing has to be launched (not in pre launch and set up to take sales, i.e. not in presale). Please make sure that your store has launched to have your listing approved to go live. This help article will show you the step-by-step process on how this can be done. 

Presale

Your listing can’t be approved if it is presale mode. If you'd like to get brand recognition prior to being able to ship products, we recommend setting up a high quality listing, and then submitting for approval once you are ready to go live. Cratejoy does not currently support presale campaigns on the Marketplace due to the poor buyer experience they typically provide (customer pays now but does not receive a product for several months). For more direction, please visit  this blog article.

Non-physical Products

The Cratejoy Marketplace does not currently support digital or other non-physical goods. Be sure to submit your listing with clear details on the physical goods that are included in your box through all the listing features (photos, list of features, brief and detailed description).

No Product

It is required to have a subscription product (this is the subscription box you’ll be selling to customers) added to your listing in order to be approved and go live on the marketplace. Learn more about adding a product to your listing here.

No External Links

External URLs, watermarks, email addresses or text directing consumers to external pages are not allowed. You can add links using only the space provided on the “Social” tab.

English Language

Listing Quality Criteria (Phase 2 of Listing Approval Process)

Photo Quality

In order for your photos to make a lasting impression, make sure your photos are super clear as to what the products in your images are, the right size (not stretched out or too small), and crisp (not grainy or blurry), framed properly (no awkward cropping of images), and high resolution (well lit and not pixelated). Think of the emotion you’re trying to elicit from your audience and try to capture that through your images. It's also recommended to have at least 6-10 images that display a wide variety of content, i.e. lifestyle, flat lay, packaging, and unboxing. We also recommend 1200x800 for dimensions and 300ppi, showcasing high-quality, high-resolution photos of your box and the content. You can read more suggestions on listing photography here. 

• Please note: It’s important for your listing quality and the customer experience that your photos are consistent with your detailed description and list of features. For example, don’t provide photos that only showcase 3 items while your detailed description or list of features states each box comes with 8-10 items; or vice versa. Here’s a helpful article on creating quality images for your listing.

• Be Careful of Photo Text: Please limit the use of text overlays to the following scenarios:
  1. One image which displays your company name or logo (please note that URLs are still not permitted)
  2. Text overlays that describe which box or variant the picture represents.

• No Stock Photos: Please do not use stock images. Any images that include watermarks or are found to belong to other parties will be rejected. 

Shipping Description

The shipping information you provided does not meet our quality standards. Merchants who provide clear and complete shipping information dramatically increase their chances of getting more sales and loyal subscribers. Please describe your shipping schedule using either of these formats:

• “Your box will ship on the [DATE] of every month. Please order by the [DATE] to get the current box.”
• “Your first box will ship on the [DATE] of the month. Please order by the [DATE] to get the current box. For existing subscribers, we ship on the [DATE] of every month.”

Shipping Issues

Your shipping schedule must match your product settings for your listing to be approved. Merchants who provide clear and complete shipping information dramatically increase their chances of getting more sales and loyal subscribers. For more direction, please visit this blog post.

Detailed Description

When describing your products in detail, think about who is the product for, how is the product used, what is the product made of, where is the product sourced, why is the product different, and what will the product help your customer do. The buyer was interested enough to click on your listing, now it's up to you to take them to the next level of subscribing through a helpful, grammatically correct, cohesive, well-written description of the products in your box. 

• Please note: It’s highly recommended to make sure you’re consistently updating your detailed description to avoid outdated information regarding your product or prior shipping dates. Here’s a helpful article on creating a Detailed Description.

Brief Description and Main Headline

Capture your prospective customers’ attention with a clear, catchy, concise, and compelling brief description. Avoid vague language that doesn’t accurately describe your product. 

Sellers with clear descriptions and main headlines increase their chances of getting more sales. TheraBox is an example of a listing with effective descriptions.

An approved brief description and main headline include:

• Highlights of your main selling point(s) or your brand slogan

 Description headlines cannot include:

• Language about being voted or chosen as a best box unless the source is also included in the headline (i.e. “Voted best box for women!” would not be approved but “Voted best box for women in Glamour Magazine” would be approved”)
• Emojis or special characters (i.e. Subscribers  our box!)
• URLs
• Email addresses
• Social Media handles

List of Features

The list of features is your chance to really set the right expectations within your customers. The more specific and detailed, the better.  Where were the products sourced? What is their value? What makes them unique? Here’s a great example for list of features from TheraBox. Here’s a helpful article on List of Features.

• Please note: It’s discouraged to provided detailed shipping information in the List of Features real estate. You may utilize the shipping variation tool for that. 

An approved List of Features includes:

• 5 bullet points
• Unique selling points about your box (organically sourced, handmade from a certain region, curated by experts)
• Number and type of products (including the size of products, i.e. sample size or full-size)
• Retail value of the box, if applicable
• Number of different subscription box options, if more than on

Coupon Description Text

Sellers with clear details describing their discounts increase their chances of getting more sales. Approved listings have specific language for their coupon.

Coupon Settings

Make sure your coupon settings match the coupon discount text. Sellers with clear discounts increase their chances of getting more sales.