How to Sell?

 Seller Dashboard Overview 

It’s easy!

Think of PIPEHUB.COM as a mall. It’s one location but with many stores inside. We are not one company selling products like everyone else out there. PIPEHUB.COM is a collection of all sorts of people including pipe carvers, pipe collectors, shop owners, ebay sellers, and regular folks too from all over the world who have made their own independent, self operating, shops one the website. 

If you want to sell on PIPEHUB.COM you will first need a PayPal account so that you can receive payments and withdrawal your funds. If you do not yet have a PayPal account you can follow this link to the PayPal website where you can easily and quickly create one: www.paypal.com

You must also create a buyer account by clicking on the "Sign Up” button in the top right of any page, and then fill out the NEW USER section of the form. Once you have followed the step by step instructions and created your user account, you will be asked to fill out a "Seller Request Form”. This is required in order to sell items on PIPEHUB.COM. One of our main goals is to protect the piping community and getting to know a little bit more about each seller and how they intend to use the website is crucial to achieving this goal.

Once you have finished filling out the Seller Request Form your buyer account will instantly be activated and you will be able to access the site, make purchases, and use any of the buyer tab features. However you will need to wait for your seller account to be approved and activated in order to have access to the supplier tab and its features. We will review all Seller Request Forms as soon as we can and you will receive an email notification with the status update of your application.

 How To List Your Items For Sale

Data Tab

Links, Atribute, & Option Tabs

Shipping Tab

Discount & Special Tabs 

Validate Tab

SELLER DASHBOARD LEFT HAND MENU ITEMS

DASHBOARD 

This will always take you to right back to the front page of your user dashboard where you will find helpful information like the total amount of sales you’ve made, the total number of orders place, how many unread messages you have, and your personal info. You will also find a graph that shows your total sales over the months compared to your total profits. This is calculated by subtracting your cost of goods information from the sale price of your item. At the very bottom you will also have quick access to your latest 5 orders. 

ACCOUNT INFORMATION

The PERSONAL INFORMATION tab will function virtually identical to the BUYER TAB version of this page. However as a seller you will also have access to the RETURN ADDRESS INFO tab where you will be prompted to enter all of your return shipping information in case a buyer needs to return any items to you. 

MESSAGES

This button will function virtually identical to the BUYER TAB version of this page. Here you can view all communications with customers and others. 

FOLLOWINGS

The followings button will function virtually identical to the BUYER TAB version of this page. This feature will allow you to keep track of followed keyword and followed shops and you will receive an automatic email with any new products that match your followed key words or if a followed shop lists a new item. For more details on this feature please visit the HOW TO BUY page.

MANAGE OFFERS

The manage offers page will function virtually identical to the BUYER TAB "Sent Offers” version of this section. The only difference will be that you as the seller will have control over offers. You will be able to accept, decline, and counter offers directly from this section. Each of these options are separate tabs at the top of this section. 

AUTHENTICATIONS

Here you will see a list of the authentication requests you have initiated. You will see each requests status. They can either be pending, accepted, or denied. If the request is accepted then you the authentication badge will display on the product listing page for all buyers to see!

SALES

Here you will find all of your sales data and you will be able to completely manage all of your transactions  from this section. 

WATCH LIST

This feature will function virtually identical to the BUYER TAB version of this page. Here you can keep track of the various shops and items you have selected to watch. 

MY PRODUCTS

From here you will be able to view and manage all of your product listings. You will be able to pause items, edit listings, and delete listings as well. You can always add products by selecting either ADD A PRODUCT or LIST YOUR PRODUCT at the top of any seller dashboard page. 

SHOP

This is where sellers will be able to manage their shop settings and information from. 

a. The SHOP NAME will be the title of your shop which will be displayed publicly. 

b. The DESCRIPTION is an optional field where shop owners can describe themselves, their history, etc. to give visitors a little more information about who the seller is.  

c. The shops location fields don’t need explaining. 

d. The SHOP LOGO and SHOP BANNER are the images that will display along the top of your shop page. The optimal demotions of the shop logo are 252x218 and the optimal dimensions of the shop banner are 1200x361.

e. The DISPLAY STATUS is where shop owners can choose to make their shop live fore the public to see, or if OFF is selected, the shop will be hidden from the public.

f. ACCEPT STOREWIDE OFFER is where the seller can activate or deactivate the OFFER feature storewide. If accept storewide offers is turned on, then no matter what you set in the offers setting on each product listing page, every product you list will automatically allow users to make offers on them. If you have the accept storewide offers feature set to no, then you will be able to decide on each individual product if you would like to accept offers or not. 

g. Each shop can set its own payment policy, as long as they comply with the TERMS AND CONDITIONS of PIPEHUB.COM.

h. Each shop can set its own PAYMENT and DELIVERY POLICIES, as long as they comply with the TERMS AND CONDITIONS of PIPEHUB.COM.

i. Each shop can also set its own REFUND POLICY, as long as they comply with the TERMS AND CONDITIONS of PIPEHUB.COM. Our general policy is that all items purchased on PIPEHUB.COM are eligible for a refund up to 7 days post delivery of the item as long as its returned in its original condition. If a seller wants to offer a longer return period, they are more than welcomed to do so. However they can not set a shorter return period than 7 days after confirmed delivery of the item. 

j. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION is where a seller can add anything else not yet mentioned. 

SELLER INFORMATION, META TAG TITLE, META TAG KEYWORDS, META TAG DESCRITION are all fields that are not required or important unless you want to optimize your SEO settings. 

CANCELLATION REQUEST

Here you can keep track of and manage all the orders buyers have initiated cancelations on.

RETURN REQUEST

Here you can keep track of and manage all of the orders buyers have requested returns for.

CHANGE PASSWORD

This is where you can change your login password.

CHANGE EMAIL

Here is where you can change your email address. This is the address where you will receive all communication from PIPEHUB.COM. This includes messages from the admin, site newsletters, your shop and keywords followings notifications, and new offer notifications when buyers make offers on your products. 

Bulk Import / Export

This feature is still under development. You will be able to mass import content into your store using this feature. You will also be able to download your stores activities as well. 

PRODUCT LISTING PAGE TOP MENU TABS

1. General

1. Product Title – This is what people will see when they viewing your item. 
2. URL Keywords – These populate automatically while you type your title.
3. Selling Price – This is your asking price.
4. Cost Of Goods – This is to keep track of how much you paid for the items you are selling. This will also be used to calculate the graph on your seller dashboard showing your profits. 
5. Activate Offer – This can be set to yes or no. Here you can select whether or not you want to accept offers on this product you are creating. If you would like to accept offers on all products you list, this can be done through the shop setting "Accept Storewide Offer” "Yes”.
6. Quantity – Set quantity of this item which you have in stock 
7. Model – Here you can add a bit more information about the product you’re selling. For example if there is a grading mark or anything you would like to mention.
8. Sub Model – These can be added and removed with the + button. These function like the Model field above, you can use these to insert additional tidbits and description such as the color or size, etc. 
9. SKU – If you have a tracking system for your items you can enter that figure here. 
10. Product Condition – Please select NEW if the item is brand new unused. REFURBISHED if the item was used but restored or refurbished. USED if the item was used and not refurbished. No matter which condition you select, a detailed description along with adequate photographs of the item are still required. 
11. Photos – Here you can upload the product photos. Use your own judgment on how many photos to upload. But be aware that the more photographs you provide the buyers, the more likely you are to sell your item. Also, the more photos there are, the less likely a buyer will be to complain that you missed something in your product details and they want a refund. 
12. Product Description – Here you can write out a detailed description of the product you are selling. If you want to get fancy you can use the CMS features to spice up your listing. If you are able to get extra fancy, you can even open up the HTML viewer and go to town!
13. Meta Tag Title, Meta Tag Description, Meta Tag Keywords –These are all SEO heightening options which most sellers will not care about or need to worry about. If you know what can do the feel free to use them. If not, don’t worry, you’re not mission out on anything. 
14. Tags – Here you will want to enter in all of the tags or phrases you want your product to be associated with. These tags will pull your products up when a user is doing a search. For example the search bar will search product titles, but it will also search tags for items that match the searched phrase. So if your product is titled "Red Rain Coat” you will want to add the tags, coat, red, red coat, rain coat, jacket, winter, etc. The more tags you can provide the more you’re items will show up throughout the site; so its worth the extra time to gain more visibility. However don’t abuse the tags. If you get caught adding tags that don’t correspond to your product, your account will be temporarily restricted. 

1. Subtract Stock – Here you can select YES or NO if you would like the stock quantity you set on the general tab to be deducted from with every purchase.
2. Track Inventory – You can set this to TRACK or DO NOT TRACK and this will essentially keep an eye out for you and notify you whenever your stock level reaches a preset number. If you would like to know when you only have a few pieces of a particular item left in stock so you can order more, this is where the option is turned on and off from. 
3. Alert Stock Level – This is where you can enter how low the number of in stock items needs to hit for the Track Inventory feature from above to send you a notification saying you are low on stock. 
4. Youtube Video – This is where you can enter the URL of a youtube video if you would like to embed one in your listing. You do not need the embed code from youtube for this. Simply cut and paste the actual webpage where the video is found into this field. 
5. HTML5 Video – If you are using any 3^rd party photography of videography software that provide you with an HTML5 embed code, here is where you would paste that code. For example, you will see may pipe listings that have interactive 360 videos of items. This HTML5 embed code is provided by spinzam.com and can be entered in this field. 
6. Date Available – Here you can set when this item will be available for sale. 
7. Dimensions – Here you can enter some information about the dimensions of your item. 
8. Length Class / Weight /Weight Class – Are were you can select the measurement system used in the dimensions fields mentioned above.
9. Status – You can select YES or NO to make your product live and available for sale, or hidden from the public until you are ready to make it live. 
10. Display Order – If you have multiple products and you want them to be arranged in a particular order, here is where you can set each items position in reference to all the other items you are selling.

1. BRAND / MANUFACTURER – This is where you will enter the brand or manufacturer of the product you are selling. Once you start typing you will be asked to select from a list of preset options. If the your desired brand or manufacturer is not represented on our preset options please continue filling out the brand and finish creating your listing and make it live. Then please email us at [email protected], or contact us via the instant chat feature, letting us know you would like us to add another brand to our presets list. 
2. Product Category – Here you will be asked to assign your product to one of our many item categories. These item categories can be found as the options in the top menu of the website. Item categories can include, PIPES (New & Estate), TOBACCOS (Bulk, Tinned, Aged, & Cigars), and ACCESSORIES with all its sub categories. If you don’t find a category that suits your needs please email us at [email protected] or contact us via the instant chat feature so we can guide you in the right direction. 
3. Product Filters – Here sellers can select preset filters which will help buyers narrow down their searches on the website. For the moment the only filter category is COUNTRY OF ORIGIN so please select the country your item was crafted in. If the country you are looking for is not on or preset list, please contact us at [email protected], or via the instant chat feature, letting us know you would which country we should add to this list of locations.

1. Shipping Country – This is the country where you are shipping FROM. 
2. Free Shipping. You can enable or disable free shipping as on your product here.
3. Now to create a list of location you will be shipping to and how much it will cost for each location first you must click the + symbol to add a new line item. Next enter the country where you will be providing shipping to. Then select the shipping company you will be using. If the shipping company is not on our list of presets, please contact us at [email protected], or via the instant chat feature, and let us know that your desired carrier is missing from our list of presets. Next enter how much it will cost to ship the item to the selected country. If shipping will be free to this country, then enter in 0 as your cost. Finally you can enter in how much it will cost for each additional item you ship to the same seller in the same box. If you would like to set up shipping services to a different country, then select the + symbol as many times as you want and add the information mentioned above for each country which you will provide shipping to.
1. A helpful trick is to first add a shipping profile for your domestic shipments, and then add an additional shipping profile for how much it will cost to ship internationally. You can select EVERYWHERE ELSE as option if it will cost you the same to ship to all other locations other than the ones you have created shipping profiles for. 

1. Quantity – Select how many items will be available at the new discounted price. 
2. Priority – If you will be having multiple discounts planned one after another, here you can set the priority numerically for each discount. 
3. Price – The discounted price goes here.
4. Date Start / Date End – Enter when you would like your discount to go into effect and also end. 

Sales Tax

Each shop has the capability to charge a custom tax. This tax rate will be charged on every single item you sell no mater where in the world the buyer is from. At the moment PIPEHUB.COM does not offer sellers the ability to charge a sales tax only for a particular state or country. However this can be done using your PayPal account with just a few quick clicks. Follow the link below to get a step by step guide to setting up your custom regional sales tax directly through PayPal:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/customerprofileweb?cmd=_profile-sales-tax