Thread

If you're not able to set the donation to zero, then it's fraud. If they're only trying to trick you into donating, then I would file it under "standard shady tactics". It's certainly less appealing than other methods.

it can be set to 0%. when you do, it shows a poop emoji which is cheeky but I think is off putting. I'm not sure if I'm too upright or if it is humourous. yeah, I agree there are better methods. I think a marketplace skimming a percentage of sale is a very lazy way of approaching it. A person using the site to sell a 1 million sat item versus a 10k sat item are using the site in the same way. The site is providing both people the same value so why should the seller of more expensive goods pay more simply because their goods are valued more? The site should be paid based on the value it provides. Maybe a percentage works for some businesses. But there ought to be other avenues like a flat rate per sale, monthly subscription, premium feature subscription, one time donation, etc. I do think their approach with the default 10% is shady as hell though. The language surrounding this setting is also very cagey.

If users are clearly warned and it's easy to change, that doesn't seem too bad

I didn't even think to look for a setting like it cuz it said zero fees. I only came across it because I clicked on every single thing in the Dashboard. The language of it isn't very clear that it is diverting a percentage of sales to other wallets. I would say there was no clear warning but it was easy to change, once you knew where to look.

It's common for sales reps to be compensated with a percentage of sales, but that's also different than being a retail outlet. I think the real issue here is this marketplace hasn't established an income method. Instead of hiding behind the fact that money is needed to operate, it's better to be up-front about how (and how much) they want to be paid. Then approach the demohraphic that resonates.

That seems very shady. I assumed the setting displayed when adding a product, or something similar.

yeah that's true. a salesperson does get compensated more for making a bigger sale but often it's because bigger sales are more complex and involve more people. My only experience with sales is in software sales and construction equipment sales. Part of me thinks that the site owner's intent is not to be shady even though it comes off that way but rather they're inexperienced, maybe a younger person, who isn't comfortable or confident with being upfront about getting paid for their work. I see this with greener professionals who don't display their prices whereas experienced professionals will be very upfront and say "this is my price. take it or leave it."

Dark pattern design. Scammy