Designer Terms

These terms govern your use of eshtery as a seller. They are between you (the Designer) and eshtery (we, us). If you are shopping rather than selling, the Terms of Service apply to you instead. How we handle information is described in the Privacy Policy.

You accept these terms when you create a designer account or list a piece, whichever happens first.

1. What eshtery is, and is not

eshtery is a marketplace and a storefront host. You remain the seller of your pieces. You set your prices, you decide what to list, you own your brand, your photographs and your product descriptions, and you keep every right in them. Nothing here transfers ownership of anything you make or publish.

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to display, resize and reformat your images, names, descriptions and brand marks for the purpose of operating and promoting the Service — your storefront, the marketplace, editorial features, product feeds to search engines, and emails to shoppers who bought from you. That licence ends when you remove a piece or close your account, except for copies we must keep for records, for orders already placed, or in backups until they expire.

2. Your responsibilities

• Accuracy. Your listings must describe what you are actually selling — materials, sizing, condition, what is in the box, and how long you take to make and dispatch it.
• The right to sell it. You must own or be licensed to sell every piece you list, and to use every image, name and mark in the listing. You must not list counterfeits or anything that infringes someone else's rights.
• Fulfilment. Where you ship yourself, you dispatch within the time your listing states and add tracking when you have it. Where eshtery concierge ships, you mark the order packed and have it ready for collection.
• Stock. You keep quantities current. Selling something you cannot supply is the fastest way to lose a shopper, and repeated failures are grounds for us to suspend listings.
• Your own law. You are responsible for your own business registration, licences, and any tax you owe where you operate. We do not give tax advice.
• Your customers' information. A shopper's name, address and phone number are given to you to fulfil an order. Use them for that, and for service messages about that order. Do not add them to a marketing list, sell them, or pass them on. This is a condition of selling here, and it reflects obligations we both have under privacy law.

3. Commission and what you are paid

We charge commission on the value of goods you sell through eshtery. Your rate is shown in your studio before you list anything and on every order. Commission is calculated on the amount actually paid after any discount you funded, never on money nobody paid.

Discounts you create are funded by you. A code you issue reduces your own subtotal, so your commission and your payout both fall accordingly. eshtery does not fund your promotions and does not take commission on the discounted portion.

Shipping charged to the shopper is passed to whoever bears the shipping cost for that order.

4. Payouts

• Payouts run monthly, for orders that have shipped or been delivered in the period. An order that has not shipped is not yet earned.
• There is a USD 50 minimum. A balance below it is not lost — it rolls into the next month and keeps accruing until it clears the minimum.
• Payouts settle in US dollars. Where your prices are in another currency, we record the exchange rate used at the time of the order and apply that rate consistently.
• You receive a statement for each period showing sales, shipping, commission, refunds, the amount paid and the balance carried. A statement, once issued, is a fixed record and is not rewritten.
• You are responsible for the payout details you give us being correct. We cannot recover money sent to an account you mistyped.

5. Returns and refunds

You set your own returns policy and it is shown to shoppers before they buy. If you do not set one, we will say so plainly on your storefront rather than invent terms on your behalf.

When an order is refunded, your commission on it is reversed, and the refunded amount is deducted from your balance. eshtery absorbs any currency movement between the sale and the refund — you are not charged for exchange-rate drift you did not cause.

We may issue a refund without your agreement where we are required to by law or by a payment provider, where an order was never delivered, or where a piece materially differs from its listing. We will tell you why.

6. Who sells to the shopper

Depending on the arrangement for your storefront, either you or eshtery is the merchant of record for a given order — the party that takes payment and appears on the shopper's statement. Which applies to you is shown in your studio. This affects who is responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax or VAT on the transaction. Where eshtery is merchant of record, we handle it. Where you are, you do.

7. Suspension and ending the arrangement

You can stop selling at any time: unlist your pieces or close your account. Orders already placed must still be fulfilled, and payouts owed to you are still paid.

We may suspend or remove listings, or close an account, where a listing breaks these terms or the law, where orders repeatedly go unfulfilled, where we believe a listing is counterfeit or infringing, or where fraud is involved. Except where the problem is serious or legally urgent, we will tell you what is wrong and give you a chance to fix it first.

8. Editorial independence

eshtery is a publication as well as a shop. Whether we feature a brand editorially is our own judgement and is not for sale. Paying more commission does not buy coverage, and declining to be featured does not affect your ability to sell here.

9. Liability

You are responsible for your pieces: that they are as described, that they are safe and lawful to sell, and that they do not infringe anyone's rights. You agree to indemnify eshtery against claims arising from your pieces, your listings, or your handling of customer information.

We provide the Service as it is. To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the commission we charged you in the twelve months before the claim arose. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

10. Changes

We may change these terms. Where a change materially affects what you are paid or what you are responsible for, we will tell you in your studio and by email at least 30 days before it takes effect, and you may close your account before then without penalty. Continuing to sell after that date accepts the change.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and the courts of California have jurisdiction. If you sell from outside the United States, this does not remove protections you have under the mandatory law of the country you operate in.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: designers@eshtery.com. Questions about information and privacy: privacy@eshtery.com.

These terms are a draft prepared for review. They have not yet been reviewed by a lawyer, and should be before any designer is asked to accept them.