Managing Retailers

When you create Rewards (Pledges) in Hive, you can mark one (or more) of them as "Is Retailer". This signals to the system the fact that this reward needs to be allowed only to "Verified Retailers" in Hive.

The Verification of a retailer is done within our system. It starts when a backer selects one of the "Is Retailer" pledges. At that point the system (BEFORE allowing them to continue with their checkout process), will ask them to fill out a form and give us their business information.

We then manually check each entry and we try our best to verify that they are an actual retailer. We check business registries, validate EU VAT IDs, check social media, etc. This process can take up to 2 business days.

IF they are approved then they receive an email notification and they can access their pledge and continue their checkout. If not, then they either need to resubmit their business information (in case they filled it our incorrectly the first time) or they need to select a regular pledge and not the "Is Retailers" one.

Defining a Retailer Pledge

Before we proceed with the way retailer discounts can be defined in our platform, we need to clarify how rewards/pledges and add-ons work. This may be obvious but it still needs attention.

All backers start by selecting one Pledge Reward. Just like in Kickstarter, each backer can choose only one such Pledge Reward to begin. THEN they can proceed to the Add-ons section and add as many Add-Ons they wish.

A backer can not add the same Pledge Reward more than once. If you want to give them the ability to do so, then you must create an add-on that gives the same content as the pledge, so that the backers can add as many of them as they want.

For example, if you want the retailer to have to pledge for a minimum of 4 games, but also be able to add more on top of that, then you need to:

• Create a pledge marked as "Is Retailer" that has the right price and gives to the retailer 4 copies of your game.
• Create an add-on for a single extra copy of your game. The retailer can add as many of them as they need to their pledge.

Defining a Retailer Discount

In your project's Basics tab, you can fill the field "Retailer Discount". This discount applies to "Add-Ons" and only "Add-ons" (not to the pledge rewards). The retailer will see the regular price backers see stroke through and next to it the price they pay with the discount already applied.

You also have the option to set an MSRP for each add-on. When you do so, then the price the retailer sees is the MSRP and not the backers' one. Also, this price is visible only to the Retailers, not to the backers.

For example you can have an add-on priced for the backers at $50, that has an MSRP of $60 and the Retailer Discount set to 50%. The backers will see and pay $50, the Verified Retailers will see $60 stroke through and next to it $30 which is the amount they need to pay for that add-on.

Customizing Add-ons

You can also create "Add-Ons" that are "Available only to Retailers". This means that regular backers will NOT see them when they checkout. Only backers that are "Verified" AND have selected the "Retailer's" pledge will see them.

You also have the option to activate in the "Is Retailer" reward the flag "Hide non-Retailer Add-ons". This means that the Retailer will ONLY see the Add-ons that are marked "Available only to Retailers", they will not see the rest.

The retailers pay shipping normally (no discount is applied to it). Since your costs will be based on weight, the retailer will get a better rate "per game" since the costs to ship more game together will be a better one than shipping individual ones.

If you want to give a discount to the Retailers on their shipping costs then you can:

• discount directly the shipping costs for heavier packages. 99.9% of your backers will get either one or two games. If the Retailers start with a pack of 4 or 6 (as many as you can fit in one carton), then their weight is already much higher. You can apply the discount directly to the shipping cost calculation rules.
• give a coupon to specific retailers. This option should be used only for exceptions, when you want to give a special rate to a specific retailer. You can create a coupon that either gives them a flat discount and/or gives them free shipping. See the Coupons tab of your project for more information.

All backers (retailers included), after they finish their pledge they will be able to download an Invoice for their pledge from within Hive. That invoice is generated in PDF format and has your business information on it.

You define the information show on this invoice from the "Account Information" page (use the left menu to access it).

All backers (retailers included) pay inside our platform, using the payment method they prefer (Paypal, Stripe, etc). The amount they pay is added into your account, and when it is time for a payout our fee is applied. Our fee depends on your selected pack (Basic-3% or PRO-4%), which you can see in your "Account Information" page.

Please remember that the payment processor (Paypal, Stripe, etc) also applies a fee in all transactions. This varies from 3% to 5% depending on the amount and the payment method used.