Faire Direct - Commission Policy Requirements

Description

​​This ticket type is only handled by the FDCR team

This card reviews what documentation is required to approve or deny a commission removal request. The documentation required differs between a Lead and Customer (Active Account/Stockist) relationship.

• Lead Attribution: A Lead is a retailer who the brand has encouraged to place their first order with them on Faire through the brand’s Faire Direct link
• Customer Attribution [Active Account/Stockist] : A Customer relationship is a retailer that has ordered from a brand prior to their first order with them on Faire

The updated policy will only impact new Faire Direct relationships and commission requests from January 9, 2024 onward. All previously-established relationships will remain unchanged

Issue Topic

Brand::Orders::Invoices & payments::Request commission change

Triage or Escalation

Ownership: The FDCR Commissions team will handle ALL commission update requests from the in-portal form and organic commission requests.

If you are not on the FDCR team, triage the ticket to the FDCR queue:

• Email triage steps: To triage a ticket about commission update requests and questions to the FDCR commissions queues, change the ticket form to Commissions Review
  
• Chat triage steps: To triage a commission request through chat, review Chat Commission Ticket Handling

Policy Overview

Commission Update Requests

• Customer Attribution Documentation:
• Must be an invoice
• Requires a date and time stamp from the past four years (+ additional 2 week grace period)
• Lead Attribution Documentation:
• Requires the brand's Faire Direct link
• Requires a date and time stamp
• Document with retailer response: Conversations from last 1 year (+ additional 2 week grace period) → must always include the Faire Direct link (as of Jan 9, 2025)
• Document with no retailer response: Outreach from the last 3 months (+ additional 2 week grace period) → must always include FD link

Details on documentation criteria listed in the Customer Attribution Documentation Details table and Lead Attribution Documentation Details below.

Exceptions

Grace periods

You can approve requests from any brand that fall within 2 weeks of our outwardly stated policies:

• Account: 4 years + 2 weeks
• Lead w/ response: 1 year + 2 weeks
• Lead w/o response: 3 months + 2 weeks

One-time exceptions

If proof is outside of the grace period windows above, we will provide 2 one-time exceptions, one exception for lead attribution & one exception for customer attribution, which will be tracked in Admin.

• DO NOT offer exceptions for non-timing based requests (i.e. proof that does not meet our criteria, such as Faire Messenger screenshots)

You'll be able to see if a brand has received a one-time exception in the brand's Admin request, under "Request Details"

Retroactive Reimbursements

• Automatic Reimbursement: When following the commission approval process, the commission will be automatically reimbursed to the brand on the most recent paid order if the order has already been paid out and the request was submitted within 30 days of order placement. No manual reimbursement by CX is needed for these instances.
• For NAM Brands: If this most recent order is the first order between the retailer and brand, we will reimburse the $10 new customer fee and 15% commission.
• No Manual Reimbursements: CX will not manually reimburse FD commission requests outside of the criteria for automatic reimbursement, this includes bulk retroactive requests.

Multi-Account Users

Multi-account users should only be looked into if a brand explicitly calls out the other account in their commission update request, or if the brand advises they uploaded a retailer to Faire but the retailer proceeded to order from them with a different account.

Multi-Account Retailers

If a retailer has multiple Faire accounts, brands may request to have commission adjusted if they have received an opening order/existing FD relationship with the retailer’s alternate Faire account.

1. Confirm accounts are connected: Check to see that they share similar information in Admin.
2. Approve if at least one of the following matches between the two retailer accounts:
1. owner name
2. email address domain
3. shipping addresses
4. website URL

Franchise Retailers

If a brand has a relationship with a franchisor, they may have eligible documentation with the franchisor that can be applied to independently-owned franchise retailers on Faire.

1. Confirm the documentation matches the retailer account on Faire: Approve if at least one of the following matches between the documentation and the retailer account:
1. Owner name
2. Website URL
3. Shipping address
4. Email address domain
5. Phone number
6. Retailer name with "Corporate" or "Corporation" added on
2. If documentation doesn't match, escalate the ticket to Risk for review.
• Follow the Risk escalation guidance Commission Request Escalation

Multi-Account Brands

If a brand is associated with other brand accounts on Faire, and they provide proof of a prior relationship with one of their other brand accounts, we must confirm if the accounts match

1. Confirm accounts are connected: Approve if at least one of the following matches between the two brand accounts:
1. owner name
2. email address domain
3. phone number
4. website URL
   
2. If accounts don't match, escalate the ticket to Risk for review.
• Follow the Risk escalation guidance Commission Request Escalation
  

Reorder Commission Adjustment

For Reorder Commission Adjustment guidelines, review Non Faire Direct - Reorder Commission Adjustment

Retailer Information Requirements

For all documentation types, at least one of the following must match what is on Faire exactly:

• Store name
• Contact name
• Email address/domain
• Phone number
• Website URL
• Email domain matching website URL
• Shipping address
• “Undefined” address: You may see “undefined” for one or more regions listed in a UK/EU retailer’s address. In that case, only the following 3 address pieces have to match exactly:
• Street number, name, and (where applicable) unit number
• Country
• Postal code

The following reasonable iterations of retailer information elements are okay to differ between what is listed on the documentation and what is listed on Faire:

• "LLC" is acceptable if it's either added or missing
• Clear short forms for words are acceptable (i.e. “co” for “company”)
• Conjunctions/conjunction symbols ("=+", "&", "and") are interchangeable
• Different forms of pluralization ("s", "es", " 's", "s' ") are interchangeable
• Different forms of address elements are interchangeable (“N”/”North”, “S”/”South”, “E”/”East”, “W”/”West”, “Street”/”St”, “Road”/”Rd”, or similar abbreviations)

Date and Timestamp Requirements

For all documentation types, the date on the documentation must be prior to the retailer’s first order with the brand on Faire.

If the documentation is dated the same day that the order on Faire was placed, approve the request.

• We will give the brand the benefit of the doubt that the document preceded the Faire order. Even if the timestamp doesn't indicate being placed prior to Faire's order, honor the request as long as the documentation date and order date are the same.

Customer Attribution Documentation Details

Customer documentation must include the following:

• Must have the characteristics of an invoice
• Requires a date and time stamp from the past 4 years (+ additional 2 week grace period) before the retailer’s first order from that brand on Faire.

Accepted Customer Documentation Criteria

Lead Attribution Documentation Details

Lead documentation must include the following:

1. Brand Outreach to Retailer sharing their Faire Direct link
1. Brand shared their Faire Direct link with the retailer, or
1. The Faire Direct link can be included in the documentation as the explicit URL (kitsch.faire.com or faire.com/direct/kitsch) or reasonable hyperlinked text that mentions Faire (e.g. Shop Kitsch on Faire, Faire Direct)
2. Retailer outreach to brand and brand responded with their Faire Direct link
1. If retailer reaches out to brand and the brand does not follow up or share FD link, this is not approved
2. Datestamp
• Dated prior to first order with brand on Faire
• If documentation includes a written response from the retailer, it can be from 12 months before the retailer’s first order with the brand on Faire. Otherwise, documentation must be from 3 months before.
3. Retailer information
1. At least one of the following must match what is on Faire exactly:
1. store name
2. contact name
3. email address/domain
4. phone number
5. website URL
6. email domain matching website URL
7. shipping address
• “Undefined” address: You may see “undefined” for one or more regions listed in a UK/EU retailer’s address. In that case, only the following 3 address pieces have to match exactly:
• Street number, name, and (where applicable) unit number
• Country
• Postal code

Accepted Lead Documentation Criteria

Not Accepted Documents

Escalations

Escalations to ADVANCED SUPPORT

1. When to escalate to our Advanced Support team: Agent can escalate to Advanced Support if either:
1. Agent is unsure to approve/deny the request, or
2. The commission has already been denied and the brand is pushing back, or
3. The brand is non-BSM managed and expressing major negative sentiment, churn, or disintermediation, or
4. The brand is non-BSM managed and requesting to speak to a manager or supervisor

For full details on when and how to escalate to Advanced Support, please see Commission Request Escalations + Submitted Documentation Fraud.

Escalations to RISK

If possible fraud and/or document manipulation is suspected, please triage the ticket to Risk to investigate.

For full details on when and how to escalate to Risk, please see Commission Request Escalations + Submitted Documentation Fraud.

Escalations to BSM

Outside of the expected timing-based grace/buffer periods that CX will approve, there may be reasons for escalating a brand’s request.

• Timing reasons: Brand’s proof is older than the internal grace/buffer periods of 4 months/1 month past policy window, so the request is rejected and brand wants to push back on this.
• Grey areas: Brand’s proof does not meet our policies for non-timing reasons, i.e. the type of proof is not accepted (faire messenger screenshot, FB group, etc) and brand continues to push back on this.
  

Criteria when CX should escalate to BSM (assumes BSM Managed brand):

1. Churn: Brand states that they want to leave Faire
2. Major Divestment: Brand says that they will no longer use Faire Direct or refer their customers to Faire. This includes:
1. Brand says that they will no longer engage in marketing
2. Brand says that they will no longer use their Faire Direct link
3. Brand says that they will take down any mention of Faire from their website or other brand-owned surfaces
4. Brand says that they will no longer upload customers or leads to Faire
5. Brand says that they will no longer promote at tradeshows
6. Brand says that they will remove catalog items
3. Substantial Negative Sentiment: Brand expresses major negativity towards the Faire Direct policy and/or rejected request. This includes:
1. Brand requests to speak to a supervisor/manager
2. Brand asks that their request be escalated
3. Brand expresses they are upset that this type of request was approved in the past
4. Brand expresses that the updated Faire Direct policy doesn't work for them/is causing thrash
   

Escalation Process for BSM-owned brands

• Email Escalation:
1. If you receive a ticket with churn or major divestment threat (see criteria above), check the brand’s Admin account to locate the BSM name.
2. Add the BSM as a cc the ticket
   
3. Use the handoff macro [BRAND - EMAIL]::FD Policy BSM::Escalation handoff
4. Solve the ticket.
   
• Chat Escalation:
1. Send the macro CHAT::BRAND::Faire Direct::Escalation handoff
2. Submit the ticket as solved to close the chat ticket with the customer
3. Once the ticket has been solved, click Create follow-up” on the bottom right of the ticket
4. Add the BSM to the new ticket as a CC
5. Use the macro CHAT::CX TEAM::Triage Chat to Email (INSIDER PARTNERSHIP) and write a brief summary of the customer issue
6. The macro will generate a private comment on the ticket automatically and contain the following fields. Please complete as much information as possible to provide the BSM with context into the ticket.
1. Summary of issue: [Summarized overview of the situation]
2. Who: [brand token, bo_token, DRIs involved]
3. What: [What have you worked on with the ticket so far
4. Why: [copy and paste chat transcript]
5. Additional details: [Any additional applicable context]
7. Solve the ticket.

Additional Resources

• Workramp: Faire Direct Updated Policy Launch
• Notion: Feature Page
• Help Center: Faire Direct Policy