Seller Policy

Soulse is a platform that is built from the ground up to help cool and upcoming brands to make a name for themselves and sell their products directly to buyers.

We’re glad to have you on our platform. We want to ensure that both you and your buyers have a positive experience on Soulse. Please read this document to find out more about your rights, and your responsibilities, as a seller on Soulse.

This policy is part of the Soulse Terms of Use. By listing your products on the Soulse Platform, you are agreeing to this policy and our Terms of Use.

1. Selling on Soulse

Our promise to you - zero commission and listing fees

No commission. Soulse does not charge you any commission for sales you make through our platform. We know it’s hard to grow a new brand no matter how hip and cool you are. So we don’t want to additionally drain your resources.
No listing fees. Soulse does not charge you any fees for listing your products on our platform. It’s entirely up to you whether you want to list some of your products or certain collections of products or all of your products on our platform.
We’ll make you look good. Our branding and marketing experts will spare no efforts to make your brand and your products look good on Soulse to help you attract eyeballs and buyers. From time to time we will add new tech and branding features on our platform to help you tell your story in the best possible way to your target audience.
We may invite you to showcase your brand during our online popups. Soulse runs theme-based online popup events from time to time where chosen brands can showcase their products, participate in panel discussions, watch parties, AMAs and other online events and interact with potential buyers, experts in the field, influencers, peers and others attending the online popups. Our popup curators may reach out to you from time to time to invite your brand to participate in an online popup that might be a good fit.
You set the rules of the game for your buyers: Any transaction made on Soulse is made directly between you - the seller, and your buyer. Soulse is not a party to any such transaction and, therefore, incurs no liability in relation thereto. As such, you can set your own policies with respect to your sales on such things as processing and delivery times, as well as exchange/return/refund/cancellation policies, etc. We do encourage you strongly to make your sales terms customer-friendly, as this will help you make more sales. Please note that we do ask you to offer free shipping to buyers who purchase from your brand for a total order volume over Rs. 499, as is common practice.
We may provide you tools to manage and grow your business. We are building a series of tools to help sellers like you manage and grow their business. These tools include solutions for order management, inventory management, customer success, data insights, etc. We may offer these tools to you in a paid subscription or freemium or other business model.
We may provide you access to revenue-based loans: Once you have established a sufficient track-record for sales made through Soulse, you may qualify for receiving revenue-based loans from Soulse or our partner financial institutions to help you grow your business further.

Your promise to us

Play fair with us and with your customers. By selling on Soulse, you agree that you will:
1. Provide honest, accurate information to Soulse;
2. Honor the shop policies you have communicated to us for sales on Soulse, including for such things as delivery times, returns/exchanges/refunds/cancellations, etc;
3. Ensure that any content about your brand that you have provided to us, or uploaded on the Soulse website, such as any text, photos or videos used to represent yourself, your brand, your shop or your listings abide by Soulse’s policies;
4. Accurately represent your items in listings and listing photos;
5. Respect the intellectual property of others. If you feel someone has violated your intellectual property through conduct on Soulse, you can report it to Soulse by sending an email to info@soulse.in; and
6. Not take any action directed at circumventing Soulse’s policies; and
7. Not poach Soulse users with the aim of having them purchase from you directly, or through another platform, rather than through the Soulse platform. You agree, therefore, that you will not exchange any contact and financial information, social media handles, external ULRs or other information with Soulse users for the purposes of evading the checkout process on Soulse.
Sell at Your Best Price on Soulse. You agree to sell your products at your best price on Soulse. In other words, if you decide to lower your prices, or offer discounts or other purchase incentives (e.g., freebies, free shipping for small-value items, free returns, etc.) for your products on other platforms (whether on your own instagram account, your own website, on other e-commerce or social media platforms, or otherwise), you agree that:
1. You will notify Soulse in advance of any such planned changes so that your pricing and purchasing terms on Soulse can be promptly updated accordingly;
2. You will instantly offer such same price cuts, discounts, or other purchase incentives to buyers on Soulse as well; and
3. If a buyer informs us or you that products they’ve purchased through the Soulse Platform were, at the time of their purchase on our Platform, being offered at a lower price or at better purchasing conditions on other platforms, you will reimburse such buyer for the difference so that they obtain your product at its best price/purchasing terms.
Offer free shipping (at least) for orders above Rs. 499. You agree to not charge for shipping fees, if a buyer purchases items from you on our Platform with a total order value exceeding Rs. 499. The reason we ask you to agree to this is that, based on customer surveys we’ve conducted, most consumers are deterred from completing a purchase, if they are being charged separately for shipping fees. At the same time, we understand that foregoing shipping fees for small value orders may put too much pressure on your margins as a small brand. Accordingly, we think it’s fair to ask buyers to pay a standardized shipping fee on all orders with a total order value of Rs. 499 or less, while offering them free shipping for higher value orders. Of course, we will pass on any shipping fees due to you as part of the buyer’s total payment.
Provide great customer service. Soulse relies on its sellers to provide consistently excellent customer service. As a business owner, creating strong relationships with your customers is key to the success of your shop. Putting in the effort to connect with your clients can have a powerful impact in terms of getting positive reviews, repeat sales, and exposure on Soulse. Soulse may reach out to you if you fail to provide a satisfactory customer experience. By selling on Soulse, you agree to:
1. Honor your dispatch and processing times, your exchange/return/refund/cancellation policies, as well as any other terms you’ve included in your listing or otherwise communicated to your buyers;
2. Respond to messages from buyers in a timely and polite manner;
3. Resolve disagreements or order issues directly with the buyer. In the unlikely event that you can’t reach a solution, we’ll try our best to help;
4. Promptly notify the buyer and us, as well as cancel the order, if you are unable to fulfill an order. If you have already received payment for an order, you must promptly return the full payment received to us (including shipping fees, if any) so that we can then reimburse the buyer: and
5. Refrain from sending unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations or spam to any users.
Comply with all applicable laws. By listing a product for sale on Soulse you understand and agree that you are responsible for complying with all applicable laws and regulations for the products you list for sale, including any required labels and warnings. Soulse assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, labeling, or content of your listings.

2. Taking Part in Soulse’s Online Popups

Soulse organizes theme-based online popup events from time to time (guess how we got our name?). These are a great way to showcase your brand and promote your latest collection, as well as build a strong rapport with your customers. If you are interested in participating in one of our popups, please reach out to us by email at info@soulse.in. We may also reach out to you, if we believe your brand would be a good fit for a particular popup event.
If you have committed to participating in one of our online popups, we encourage you to market your brand’s participation at the online popup to your community on social media.
We encourage you to offer special product discounts for purchases made through the Soulse website during, or relating to, Soulse popup events you partake in, including, for example, by providing users with “Soulse” discount codes.

3. Some Additional Rules So Things Run Smoothly

Delivering Your Items to Buyers. Sellers are responsible for packaging and dispatching their sold items to buyers. If you're using a delivery or fulfillment service, please keep in mind that you are ultimately responsible for making sure that your buyers receive their orders. By selling on Soulse, you agree to:
1. Provide an accurate “dispatches from” address and dispatch to the address provided by the buyer;
2. If your are unable to deliver an item by the processing time promised for a specific order, you must inform the buyer about such change, and obtain buyer’s consent to such change;
3. Dispatch items as soon as possible. Important: When dispatching your products to the buyer, in addition to the buyer’s phone number, please also include Soulse’s phone number (6366589620) in your shipping software dashboard (like Shiprocket or Pickrr) so Soulse is aware when your product was shipped and delivered.

In the unlikely event that a buyer does not receive your order, be prepared to provide valid proof of dispatch. Valid proof of dispatch must show that the item was actually dispatched and that it was sent to the address provided by the buyer on Soulse.

2. Exchanges, Returns, Cancellations (by Buyer), Refunds. For transactions on our Platform, you determine which policies apply to exchanges, returns, cancellations, and refunds regarding your products.

As a default, we will display on our site the relevant policies you have listed on your own website, if any, at the time of onboarding you as a seller. If we need to make any updates to those terms, please let us know. If you have not listed your relevant policies online, we will ask you to provide them to us separately;
If you agree to issue a refund to a buyer for a product purchased through our Platform, please inform us promptly and return the relevant payment amount to us so that we can reimburse the buyer accordingly.

3. Play Fair with Other Soulse Sellers. Interference occurs when a seller intentionally interferes with another seller’s shop in order to drive away or poach their business. Interference is strictly prohibited on Soulse. Examples of interference include:

Contacting users to warn them away from a particular seller, shop, or item;
Posting in public areas to demonstrate or discuss a dispute with another seller;
Purchasing from a seller for the sole purpose of leaving a negative review;
Maliciously clicking on a competitor's ads in order to drain that member's advertising budget, also known as "click fraud"; or
Creating or using an independent buyer account to maliciously up-vote another shop’s negative reviews in order to position those reviews more prominently; or
Speak derogatively about another seller’s brand on the Soulse site or during a Soulse popup event.
You also agree not to ask buyers to leave a biased, inauthentic, or untruthfully positive review of your store, whether as an act of friendship, against compensation, or otherwise.

4. Reviews. Reviews are a great way for you to build a reputation on Soulse. Buyers can leave a review, including a one to five star rating and a photograph or video of their purchase. On the rare occasion that you receive an unfavorable review, you can reach out to the buyer or leave a response. Please note that reviews and your response to reviews may not:

Contain graphic, mature, or obscene language or imagery, or any content that is subject to our mature content policy;
Be about things outside the seller’s control, such as a delivery company, Soulse or a third party;
Include shilling or otherwise falsely inflate a shop’s review score;
Undermine the integrity of the review system.

4. Privacy and Protecting Personal Information. You are responsible for protecting members’ personal information you receive or process (e.g., buyer name, email address, phone number, and delivery address), and you must comply with all relevant legal requirements. This includes applicable data protection and privacy laws that govern the ways in which you can use Soulse user information. By selling on Soulse, you also agree to Soulse’s Privacy Policy.

If you disclose personal information without the buyer’s proper consent, you are responsible for that unauthorized disclosure. This includes, for example, disclosures you make or unintentional data breaches. For example, you may receive a buyer’s email address, phone number, or other information as a result of entering into a transaction with that buyer. This information may only be used for Soulse-related communications or for Soulse-facilitated transactions. You may not use this information for unsolicited commercial messages or unauthorized transactions. Without the buyer’s consent, and subject to other applicable Soulse policies and laws, you may not add any Soulse member to your email, Whatsapp, sms or other marketing list, use that buyer’s identity for marketing, or obtain or retain any payment information.

5. Your Seller Account and Soulse’s Terms. In the event a brand's shop sees unusual order activity, or we otherwise believe that your actions or shop may result in buyer disputes, chargebacks, increased risk of fraud, counterfeiting, or other claims, Soulse may take actions such as limiting visibility of your account, or placing restrictions or reserves on your payments account, in accordance with our Terms of Use, including this Seller Policy. When appropriate and permitted by law, Soulse will communicate information to the affected seller about the issue

Soulse may make changes to onboarding or authentication processes for Sellers at our sole discretion. Completion of these processes may be required for Seller account activation or continued access and usage. If Soulse has reason to believe you, Your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms, including this Seller Policy, we may deactivate Your Content to some or all users, or suspend or terminate your account (and any accounts Soulse determines are related to your account) and your access to the Services. Generally, Soulse will notify you that Your Content or account has been suspended or terminated, unless you’ve repeatedly violated our Terms or we have legal or regulatory reasons preventing us from notifying you.

[Last updated December 5, 2023]