[[help:faq_merchants]]

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Frequently Asked Questions for Merchants

Posting Bargains

Can I post my products and submit my promotions as a merchant?

Yes, you can. You will need to register first.

Unlike other online communities/forums, at OzBargain we encourage merchants, service providers or store owners to post their specials on OzBargain. The reason is simple – if it is a good bargain, we want to know about it! However, there are a few points that a merchant may wish to consider.

  • Sockpuppeting is strictly forbidden and may result in a permanent ban from OzBargain. You should not create multiple accounts or pose as a customer. You should not ask your existing clients/customers to sign up on OzBargain to post positive reviews.
  • Posting as a merchant does not give your offer any special treatment, and it will be voted by our members in the same way that member-posted offers will be voted. If the offer you post is not a bargain, it will be voted down. Stores with unpopular deals will not be allowed to continue posting on OzBargain indefinitely (see performance-based store bans), so choose your promotions wisely before posting and make sure you follow our deal posting guidelines.
  • Remember to declare your relationship with a store. You can do this when you are posting a deal by checking the 'I am a Store Representative' checkbox, and when commenting on a deal by checking the 'I work for <store>' checkbox.
  • On OzBargain, vendors make a better impression when they post good deals that are open and honest by disclosing all conditions necessary for a sale. Make sure your deal is better than your competitors.
  • OzBargain members are price sensitive and each has their own sense of value, for example some rate service highly - others not.

What shouldn't I post?

General promotions (eg new store, 40% off sale etc) tend to be poorly received on OzBargain. Listing item(s) that are cheaper than your competition is a plus.

The following products or services are not well received and shouldn't be posted:

Services:

Products:

How much does it cost to post on OzBargain?

OzBargain is a free service for everyone. There is no charge for anyone to post, vote or comment.

How often can I post a deal?

Posting limits were introduced because some vendors were trying to post too many deals at once. Some members voted against these merchants, regardless of the deal posted. Other members posted complaints against the vendor in the vendor's posts as well as with the moderators.

  • Representatives are able to post a maximum 1 deal per 24 hours and maximum of maximum 2 deals per 7 days provided previous deals have been well-received. Please see the posting limits page for more details.
  • In addition to the default posting limits above, stores with poor-performing deals (poor vote average) will be automically banned from posting further deals on OzBargain.

Can I submit a datafeed to have all my inventories automatically posted?

No.

OzBargain is a bargain sharing community, and it is not a place for advertisements unless you have a special offer for our members. Automated or mass postings do not offer our members any value and are likely to bring negative feedback to your company which may result in the store being banned.

Why is my store banned/why can't I post any deal?

There are a few reasons why a store is banned. When posting a deal you will receive an error message saying “Posting deals from <your store's domain> has been banned…”. Some reasons for being banned are:

  • You have violated OzBargain's terms of service. (Sockpuppeting, spamming, etc.)
  • You have previously requested nothing from your site can be posted on OzBargain.
  • Your store has received too many negative votes from bargains posted over the last 30 days.

For a more detailed explanation on why an account is unable to post deals, see help on posting ban.

How do I remove a deal or competition that I have posted?

Generally we do not remove deals and competitions. By posting on OzBargain, you must accept that you will receive both positive and negative comments. Deals being received negatively, showing up in search engine results, marketing reasons or similar are not valid reasons to have your post removed. For exceptional circumstances please open a new thread on the Talk with a Moderator forum and discuss why you would want to have your deal or competition removed, after reading the above FAQ item. Moderators will assess on a case by case basis to determine whether the post should be removed as an exception.

What happens if I have sold all my products from the deal or the sale has ended?

Please click the Mark as expired link located beneath the description of the deal. A red expired notice will appear in the title and the description will be greyed out.

Store Representative

Can I have a personal account as well as a merchant account on OzBargain?

We do not allow individuals to hold multiple OzBargain accounts. Merchants who sign up for multiple accounts for different purposes will trigger our sockpuppeting and ghost account detection, which then may result in the store being banned.

I have more than one store. Can I create separate accounts for each store?

We do not allow multiple accounts per individual, as per our Terms and Conditions. However, you can be a store representative for more than one store per OzBargain account. Please contact us if you want to have your account officially linked to one or more stores.

How do I transfer my account to another user/employee or gain access to another account?

Note that OzBargain accounts are non transferable. Any new user/employee should create their own account rather than take over an existing users account. Usernames and email addresses can be changed in the my account settings. Should you have left a company that you were posting deals for, you can still continue to use your account for personal use and/or for use at a different company in the future.

Advertising

I saw some banner space on OzBargain -- how can I put mine there?

  • For more information on stats and advertising, please see our Advertise page.

OzBargain has closed all direct advertising on display banners. If you wish to advertise on OzBargain's display ads space, you can target OzBargain on Google Adwords.

Voting

Can I vote for a deal if I have some affiliation with the poster or company?

Do not vote on deals where you have some relationship with the business or if you are a competitor.

You can put in supportive comments which highlight the benefits of a deal, provided you fully disclose your relationship with the business.

Member Relations

What should I do to keep the relationship between the rep and members harmonious?

  1. It's a good idea to watch the bargains posted on the site for a number of days, before your first post. Pay particular attention to what shoppers like about good deals and avoid doing what encourages negative voting.
  2. Shoppers are always entitled to vote on a deal. We do have guidelines under which if they are not met we will revoke a negative vote - these are listed here.
  3. Reps shouldn't argue with shoppers as they are potential customers. If you think members have rated you unfairly, use the \\report link
    as that's the fastest way to call on the moderators for help.
  4. This is a bargain site where people are looking for bargains. Unlike other sites, we let representatives post here as a privilege.
  5. Posting unfavourable comments about a competitor is not permitted. Additionally, posting links to your products/deals in a competitors thread is also not acceptable. Both are considered as being conduct unbecoming and will invoke a penalty.

I just posted a good deal. Why aren't more people liking the deal?

  1. Some bargains are well received but *not all* bargains will become hits, no matter how good they are. A flood of posts can knock a deal off the front page before many people have seen it. Sometimes, a hotter deal is posted at the same time, which soaks up all the attention. At other times, members don't think a particular bargain is of interest to them.

I've seen deals on the front page with less than 25 votes. Why?

Hot Deals Can Reach the Front Page without Reaching Minimum Votes

We want to bring deals that gain enough momentum, i.e. getting many votes within a short period of time, to rise to the front page even when it has not yet reached the minimum votes (25). Because of the number of deals getting posted everyday, some of really good deals got pushed to page 2 of “New Deals” page within 2-3 hours without gaining sufficient votes. When you are on the 2nd page of “New Deals”, you are not likely to be graced by many users so they might never reach front page…

So we are now using a simple algorithm to determine whether a deal will be on the front page.

let v = positive votes - negative votes (total number of votes). let m = minimum votes (default=25)

A deal will be on the front page if

  • v >= m, or
  • v >= m /2 + (current time - deal posting time) / rate

Currently rate is that for every 30 minutes, new deals need one more vote above m /2 to be on the front page. Due to the way rounding works, a deal needs

  • Only 13 votes to be on the front page within the first 30 minutes
  • 14 votes if it has been posted for more than 30 minutes but less than an hour
  • 15 votes if more than an hour but less than 1 1/2 hours
  • 16 votes if …

m would be different if you have changed your front page minimum votes, but basically that's how it works behind the scene to bring recently posted deals to the front page even when it does not have enough votes.

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