Merchant Operating Standards

Our new Merchant Operating Standards are a set of guidelines that serve as an indicator of customer satisfaction. Merchants will be assigned a Merchant Tier based on these metrics as a way to gauge how they are performing. 

We will look at three key metrics to define our operational standards:

• Item confirmation rate (ICR) 

What it measures: Did the customer receive what they ordered? 

How it’s calculated: The percentage of items that were confirmed, out of all items totaled across all orders. Replaced items are not considered confirmed.

• Store rating

What it measures: Did the customer rate their experience well? 

How it’s calculated: Average star-rating of reviews left by customers (does not include deleted reviews)

• Refund rate

What it measures: Did the customer encounter issues that required a refund?

How it’s calculated: Percent of fulfilled sales that are later refunded to customers (missing items, bad replacements, etc.). Refund Rate = Refund Amount ($) / Order Revenue ($)

Note: All calculations are determined using fulfilled orders and exclude orders that were cancelled for a reason not due to merchant fault (e.g. Fraud, Customer Request). 

Merchant Tiers 

Benefits

We want to elevate our most reliable merchants by providing them with even more visibility to customers on Mercato. As a Tier 1 merchant, your store will get priority visibility over lower-tier merchants, special access to Mercato marketing resources and be featured on the store results page.

How it works

Merchant Tiers are calculated once per quarter and are a tool for us to recognize our most reliable merchants. Merchant Tier will inform how we rank and display stores on our site. A store must meet all criteria in a given Tier to qualify. In addition to the three criteria described above, a store must also meet a quarterly revenue minimum to qualify for Tiers 1 and 2. 

Note: New stores will automatically be assigned to Tier 2