Proposals are lightweight contracts you draft that proposes which Supplier products you wish to sell along with the terms for the partnership. Suppliers will have a chance to negotiate these terms, meaning they are not final until they review and approve the proposal. The video below will walk you through how to draft a proposal!
Inbox Tab
Under Inbox > Proposals you'll be able to see an overview of all of your proposal negotiations. You can filter for proposals that are approved or pending and proposals that require you to take action will have a 'Your Turn' badge in the left hand menu. When you click into a proposal, you'll easily be able to find all current and past versions of a proposal. Any differences between proposal versions will be noted on the newest proposal. You can also send your partner a message directly on the proposal thread. Both Suppliers and Retailers will get notifications about all proposals changes or messages via email.
Proposal Overview
There are three key parts to a proposal:
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Products & commission: Retailers can send proposals for any product Suppliers have listed on Canal. We recommended you use Supplier's default commission, however, you do have the ability to propose a new commission.
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Shipping: Canal recommends selecting "Supplier's shipping rate" which will use the default settings of the Suppliers store. If this is not an option, we recommend "Fixed rate per order" where the average rate is ~$6.
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Promotional details: In this section, share details of how, when, and where you plan to sell these Supplier products.
Proposal Workflow
- Suppliers receive an email notification when a Retailer sends a product proposal. Suppliers can Approve, Counter, or Decline this proposal.
- If Suppliers have any feedback on the proposal, they are able to suggest a different commission, add or remove products, or change shipping terms. If a counterproposal is sent by the Supplier it will be up to you to Approve, Counter, or Decline.
- After both parties agree on the terms of the relationship, you can add the agreed upon products to their store and start selling!
A note on commissions
We recommend all Retailers request a commission higher than 15% to ensure you will be profitable with Canal. When selecting commissions, Retailers need to factor in fees and payment processing when paying suppliers. Payment processing fees depends on which method you choose for paying Suppliers, fees are (2.5% + $0.30 per transaction) for credit card or (0.4% transaction fee) for ACH.