This policy forms part of our Terms of Use. You are showing your acceptance of this Policy in addition to our Terms of Use by opening a Kinwi store. You also agree to abide by our Prohibited & Restricted items Policy and will not list any items that are banned from our marketplace. Please read this Policy and the links provided carefully and check back from time to time for updates.
Throughout this document, the terms “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Kinwi Limited. The terms “you”, “your” and “Vendor” refer to you, the vendor. “Platform” means our provision of the marketplace at kinwi.co.nz.
We provide an online marketplace to bring together Kiwi buyers and vendors. You understand that we provide the Platform only and do not act as an agent for either party.
You must reside in New Zealand, have a legitimate New Zealand bank account and valid residential address to register to sell in the Kinwi marketplace. All items must be located in New Zealand, or are made personally by you to order. We may contact you to verify your details and request further information regarding the items you are selling.
License to Use Our Platform: We grant our vendors a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use the Kinwi Platform subject to the following Terms.
When you open a Vendor account on the Kinwi marketplace you are deemed to be “In Trade.” This gives buyers peace of mind knowing they are protected under the Fair Trading Act and the Consumer Guarantees Act. When you sell goods and services in New Zealand it is important that you understand and comply with these consumer laws. Please familiarise yourself with your obligations and responsibilities here.
The Fair Trading Act covers all aspects of the promotion and sale of goods and services. It includes anything you say about a product or service, either verbally or in writing. It also includes an impression given by pictures, advertisements, or by something which is not said – but is important information that is left out. Listings must be honest, factual and not claim to be something they are not. The Fair Trading Act prohibits false or misleading representations about goods or services and promotes product safety.
The Consumer Guarantees Act states you must meet minimum guarantees for the quality of products and services you sell to consumers. Further information about product safety can be found here.
Guidance for selling online can be found here and it includes;
When you sell goods or services online, you must:
The Consumer Guarantees Act states there are minimum guarantees that apply to all products and services. This includes, but is not limited to, that goods should;
If you do not meet one these guarantees, a customer can legally get a remedy from you – either a repair, replacement or refund.
When you make products for personal or household use you must make sure your products;
Your responsibilities for product safety
You are responsible for the safety of your products and for putting it right if your products are found to have safety issues. You must follow the product safety requirements for the type of products you are selling stated here.
You are responsible for:
If you do not meet one of these guarantees, you must legally repair or replace the product within a reasonable time, or pay damages for the loss in value compared to the purchase price.
You don’t have to give a remedy if the customer:
Our Kinwi marketplace is for items that are;
Crafted by Kiwis
Grown by Kiwis
Crafted by Nature
Craft or growing supplies
Kiwiana & Vintage
Items must be handmade by you, designed by you, grown by you, or natural (such as crystals & stones). You may only list “used” items in the “Kiwiana & vintage” & “Music, Movies and Books” categories. Vintage items are items over 20 years old. We may ask for verification of age for these items. All items listed in the Music, Movies & Books category must link to New Zealand and/or Kiwi talent. Craft and growing supplies do not need to be handcrafted, but they must be located in New Zealand.
A craft is defined as any activity requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill. This encompasses a myriad of activities, such as; baking, carving, floral art, cardmaking, scrap booking, candle making, jewellery making, woodworking, weaving, metal work, knitting, sewing, felting, soap making, beverage making, painting, drawing, pottery and the good old Kiwi number 8 wire inventions.
All items must be located in New Zealand and cannot be shipped outside of New Zealand. Kinwi reserves the right to remove listings that do not follow our policies and Vendors will be liable to pay any fees incurred in listing such items.
Handmade definition: the item must be made and/or designed by you, the Vendor.
Kinwi has the right to request additional information from a Vendor to ensure these expectations are met. Providing false, inaccurate, or misleading information is prohibited by our Terms of Use and may result in termination of your Vendor account.
Reselling: means selling an item that you, the Vendor did not make, design or grow. Reselling is only permitted in our “Kiwiana & Vintage”, “Music, Movies & Books” category or for crafting & growing supplies. Prohibited reselling includes, for example, making gift baskets of repackaged commercial items, or selling items or gift baskets of items that another person made.
Prohibited & Restricted items Policy: Please read and familiarise yourself with this policy so you do not list an item that is banned from our marketplace.
Content that you post on the Platform is your content (“Your Content”) and we don’t make any ownership claim to it. This includes content such as shop names, profile pictures, item photos, listing descriptions, reviews, comments, videos, usernames etc.
Include an honest description and accurate images: Listings must be accurately represented, complete and include all relevant information to allow a buyer to make an informed choice. Images used must be of the actual item and not stock images unless stated otherwise, such as, for example, a made to order, personalised item. Items which are materially different to the description in a Vendor’s listing when received by the buyer may be treated as “not as described.” You will be liable for the return shipping cost and refunding the buyer in this instance.
You must not list an item that is banned on our Prohibited & Restricted items Policy.
We currently have a cap of 50 listings for each Vendor to allow fair use.
If you choose to use our payment gateway to allow you to accept credit/debit card payments, you must offer clear shipping options with specific pricing on your listing. Shipping charges should not be inflated for profit, and must be a fair and reasonable reflection of the actual packaging and postage costs.
Pre-owned items: you may only sell used items in our “Kiwiana, Music, Movies & Books” category. Please view the guidance below to ensure your items are “as described.”
“As New” condition
“Very Good” condition
“Good” condition
“Acceptable” condition
Substantiating Claims
Please make sure there’s evidence from credible sources in facts and figures to prove what you’re saying about an item is true. Provide the documentation or information that you have collected that substantiate your claim. Do not make claims that are anecdotal, pseudoscience, unsupported or contested. If you can’t back up your claims, a browser or buyer on our Platform may make a complaint directly to the Commerce Commission.
Therapeutic claims
If you “cannot adequately substantiate all of the claims relating to the therapeutic benefits of the product, reasonable grounds do not exist for the claims to be made. Such claims are therefore in breach of the Fair Trading Act.” Please see further information under the “TAPS Guidelines” tab at this link. Often it is a simply a question of using the right wording. For example, a statement in your listing, such as “provides support for ….” escapes therapeutic specificity whereas, “prevents, treats or cures…” attracts liability and would be prohibited under the Medicines Act.
Categories
You may list your item in up to 2 relevant categories. For example a knitted jersey for a child can be listed in the “Knitted” category under “Yarn craft & Sewing” as well as the “Children’s Fashion” category in “Apparel & Bags.” Please choose the most appropriate categories for your item. Do not create multiple listings for a single item.
Listing prices
Your advertised prices must be listed in New Zealand dollars and include any GST. You are solely responsible for the payment of applicable taxes. If you choose to use our payment gateway to allow you to accept credit/debit card payments you must offer clear shipping options with specific pricing on your listing. When deciding on your pricing, you must take care not to mislead or deceive consumers. Any representations you make about price must be clear, accurate and unambiguous. Transaction and administration fees are to be paid by the Vendor. You may not add these fees to the price stated on your listing after a sale has been made.
Images & videos
These must comply with New Zealand law and not be deceptive, objectionable or infringe on a third party’s intellectual property. You are welcome to include a video showing further information about a particular product, but this should not have annotations, advertising features, links promoting the sale of the item outside of Kinwi or your contact details. If you include video content from YouTube or another third party then you are agreeing to that party’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Please see our “Creating a listing” document for guidance on image sizes and further information about listing a product.
Please read the link here for information about Intellectual Property Rights. For more information on New Zealand copyright law, please follow the link here.
Kinwi can’t speak on behalf of intellectual property owners, nor is Kinwi in a position to offer legal advice or make legal determinations whether a store’s content infringes someone else’s intellectual property. However, if we “know or have reason to believe” that a listing on our Platform breaches copyright, we need to remove it by law. We will contact you to let you know the infringing content has been removed and the reason/s why.
To submit a report of alleged infringement against usernames, store names, images and videos on a Kinwi store page, please contact us with the details. We usually require registered proof of intellectual property rights.
Kinwi will at our sole discretion terminate selling privileges to any Vendor who is subject to repeat or multiple notices of intellectual property infringement. If we believe a person has attempted to open a new store in any way after termination of the initial account, we reserve the right to refuse all services to that person. Kinwi reserves the right to terminate account privileges at any time, for any reason, and without advance notice.
Shipping is strictly limited to New Zealand addresses only. The cost for shipping will depend on the delivery company, and the origin, destination, weight and dimensions of the package. Shipping charges should not be inflated for profit, and must be a fair and reasonable reflection of the actual packaging and postage costs. We do not currently take a commission on the shipping cost so we trust that the cost passed on to the buyer is “reasonable.” If you are accepting credit/debit cards as a payment option, the delivery cost must be clearly visible on the listing so it can be included in the transaction.
Vendors are solely responsible for packaging and dispatching their sold items to buyers. Please ensure the packaging is adequate for the item you are sending as you are responsible for ensuring the item arrives in the condition as described in your listing.
You must promptly dispatch or deliver a sold item to the successful buyer once payment has been completed, or arrange pick-up with them. This should be done no later than 2 business days after notification that payment has been received. This is unless you are making a custom item for a customer and you have agreed to a mutually acceptable delivery timeframe.
We strongly recommend that you use a shipping agent that provides tracking, and only mark the order as shipped once it has been allocated a tracking number for collection, or physically dispatched. Providing a tracking number gives proof of dispatch to reduce the risk of refunds and chargebacks.
Items are treated as delivered to the buyer only when delivered to the buyer’s physical address (as notified to the Vendor). A Vendor’s failure to deliver an item to the correct address may be treated as a “non-delivery.” The Vendor agrees to provide tracking details or proof of postage to facilitate any delivery dispute.
Your obligations as a Vendor: You agree to the following;
Damage in transit: If a buyer’s item has been damaged in transit, then it is the Vendor’s responsibility to initiate a refund to the buyer. The Vendor may choose to recover this cost by making a claim against the shipping company.
Non delivery: If an order does not arrive, please be prepared to provide valid proof of dispatch with a tracking number. Valid proof of dispatch must show that the item actually was dispatched and that it was sent to the address provided by the buyer. If a buyer does not receive their order, they may file a dispute or chargeback against your store. It is important that the order is sent via tracked mail for this reason. A claim can then be made against the carrier for the lost item.
Each Vendor will be required to open a standard ‘Stripe’ connected account to accept payment directly from a buyer.
Please read the Stripe Connected Account Agreement here.
This Stripe Connected Account Agreement (“Connected Account Agreement”) is an agreement between Stripe and you, being the person or legal entity (including sole proprietors) identified to Stripe as the owner of the Stripe Account that is to be integrated with third-party platform providers that use Stripe Connect (“Connect Platforms”). Stripe Connect allows the Kinwi Platform to help you use the Services, which includes the ability for you to receive payments.
Stripe will have the right to deduct from your Stripe Account balance both Stripe’s fees for Services and the Kinwi Platform Administration fee. If your Stripe Account balance becomes negative, you authorize Stripe to debit the amount owed from your Payout Account.
The Stripe Transaction fee and Kinwi Administration fee are automatically deducted and the balance paid to your bank account. Vendors have a direct relationship with Stripe and are therefore responsible for Stripe fees, refunds, and chargebacks. You authorise Kinwi to perform our Platform Services and to communicate Connected account data to Stripe.
Kinwi will only use Stripe Connect and Connected Account Data consistent with our Terms of Use and Privacy policy. Please refer to the Stripe Privacy Policy. We will obtain consent from Connected Accounts before using Connected Account Data for any purpose other than providing Platform Services. Kinwi will use all reasonable efforts to protect and secure Connected Account Data from unauthorized use or disclosure.
You will be required to provide proof of identification and address directly to Stripe before your account is opened. This verification guards against fraud so is a positive attribute for buyers. You will have full access to your Stripe dashboard and also receive user support from both Kinwi and Stripe.
Documents for identity and home address verification
To verify individuals in New Zealand, Stripe will ask unverified individuals to provide two separate documents:
The information in these documents must be matched to the information on your Stripe account, so it is best to first confirm that the personal information listed on your Stripe account is correct before documents are uploaded. You can view your Stripe account personal information in your Dashboard and make any changes by clicking Edit beside your personal details. Both Proof of ID and Proof of Home Address document uploads must be successfully reviewed and matched to the information on your Stripe account before your identity can be verified. Reviews can take up to 24 hours for our team to complete.
A summary of document standards is listed below:
Proof of Identity document requirements:
Acceptable forms of identification:
Requirements:
Proof of Home Address document requirements
Acceptable forms of address verification:
Requirements:
Documents for business verification
Acceptable forms of legal entity verification:
Due to the highly sensitive nature of your verification documents, Stripe can only accept documents which are uploaded through the Dashboard. Documents must not be sent through email.
You can upload each document type in your Dashboard here:
Further details can be found at this link.
Our Payment policy allows both Buyers and Vendors to benefit from Kinwi having visibility into payments made on Kinwi because it can help improve trust, increase the security of users on our Platform, help reduce fraud, make our Platform easier to use and enables Kinwi to more effectively provide support to both Vendors and buyers if issues arise.
Available funds will be transferred into your bank account directly from Stripe. There is a 7 day delay for the very first transaction to allow Stripe to make security checks, and thereafter payment will be made on a 4 business day rolling basis in New Zealand. This is the time it takes for Stripe to do all the relevant checks and receive cleared funds. The actual timing of the deposit may also depend on how quickly a Vendor’s bank processes the request and may take 1 – 3 business days. It is the Vendor’s sole responsibility to ensure the bank account details on their Selling account are correct, and to keep their bank account information up to date to receive the funds.
You are not able to use your Stripe account balance to make a purchase, and account credit is not transferable between Vendors.
Disclaimer
Kinwi reserves the right to decline or refund transactions that we believe to be high risk, fraudulent, or in any way in violation of Kinwi’s Terms of Use. Such actions may include cancelling a transaction, disabling listings from your store, suspending or terminating your selling privileges.
Your use of our Platform constitutes your agreement to pay any selling fees that are due. These will be deducted automatically by Stripe for any sale you make. We may change our fees at any time. We’ll notify you about fee changes, usually by a Vendor dashboard announcement, and we’ll generally give you two weeks’ notice. Any updates will also be posted here.
You must not add any extra surcharge or impose an extra cost to a buyer to cover these fees once a sale has been made. Please take into account these fees when you are pricing your items. All of our fees are inclusive of GST (if any).
Free storefront and listings: We allow our Vendors to create their own storefront free of charge. We do not currently charge a listing fee, so your listings are also free of charge. The listing total is currently capped at 50 to allow for fair use.
Commission-free shipping and transaction fees: We do not take a commission on the shipping charge or the Stripe transaction fee.
Free advertising: if we promote your store or listings in any way, you will not be charged.
Administration fee: This is our commission on your sale and is currently set at 9% of the price you display for each listing, and excludes the delivery charge. If you offer optional personalisation for an additional fee, the additional fee for personalisation is added to the listing price you display and the total display price is subject to the same transaction fee. Administration fees are deducted from the proceeds of each completed order and the fee breakdown can be seen by clicking on the order number on your orders list. This will also be shown in your “New Store Order” email. Administration fees help us pay for ongoing costs to provide our Platform as well as advertising. We acknowledge that sometimes a transaction is unable to be completed and in these circumstances we will refund our administration fee by crediting your Vendor account.
Transaction fees: Credit/debit card processing fees are passed on directly from our payment gateway partner, ‘Stripe.’ We do not add any surcharge or take a commission on this. Currently the ‘Stripe’ payment fee is 2.7% + NZ$0.30 per successful transaction. This covers the cost of ‘Stripe’ services related to card payment processing, fraud analysis, and regulatory compliance.
Transaction fees are deducted from the total amount of your payment at the time the payment is processed. The transaction fee for each order is displayed on the completed order page. Just click on the order number on your orders list. This will also be shown in your “New Store Order” email. We reserve the right to modify the Transaction Fee at any time as this may be altered by ‘Stripe’ and is beyond our control. We will notify you in advance if there are any changes. Details on ‘Stripe’s’ current pricing can be found here.
For credit/debit card refunds, there are no extra fees to process a refund through our payment gateway, ‘Stripe,’ but ‘Stripe’s’ transaction fees on the original payment will not be returned in case of a refund. This is because a large portion of the underlying cost of payment processing is driven by fees assessed by banks and payment networks (like Visa and Mastercard). These networks set rules about which fees apply for refunded payments, and in many cases banks and card networks keep the entire upfront cost of a refunded transaction.
Chargeback fees: ‘Stripe’ currently charges a $25 dispute fee for all chargebacks, but if the merchant wins the dispute, the fee will be refunded along with the disputed amount. This fee is subject to change at any time and beyond our control. If the buyer wins a chargeback dispute, the dispute fee as well as the refund to the buyer will be debited from your Stripe account
Store policies are very important for your e-commerce Store. These can be set by logging in to your Kinwi account and going to your Store manager here, and then choosing the “Store Policies” tab. These Policies will be shown on all your product pages but can be overidden on each product listing, say if you have a listing/s for custom made products.
We recommend that you complete your Store Policies to reduce the risk of refunds, cancellations and chargebacks. You can also make it clear what your policy is if you supply made to order, custom items. Your Store Policies must comply with Kinwi’s policies, as well as New Zealand legal requirements.
The Vendor will be responsible for the return shipping charge if the return is due to Vendor liability. If the Vendor accepts change of mind returns, then the buyer will pay the return shipping charge. If the item is hazardous to ship due to being broken in transit, then images will suffice and a claim may be able to be made with the shipping company (dependent upon their policies).
If you need to process a refund to a buyer for any reason, this can be requested in your Vendor dashboard under the Order tab > Actions > Refund button. You can request a full or partial refund and include the reason. This will show as a debit in your Ledger Book.
Refunds issued by Stripe will be in the original form of payment. If the customer paid by credit/debit card, the refunds will take 5-10 days to appear on a customer’s statement. ‘Stripe’s’ transaction fee for the original payment won’t be returned, but there are no additional fees for the refund.
Kinwi reserves the right to refund buyers where the Vendor has been refused service by Kinwi in accordance with Kinwi’s Terms of Use; and/or in circumstances where the Vendor has unfulfilled or overdue orders.
The Vendor can also request a refund if the buyer contacts the Vendor before dispatch and wishes to cancel the order and this is in keeping with the Vendor’s policies. The order is unable to be cancelled if the Vendor has started making a custom item for the customer, or the item has already been dispatched to the customer.
Please respond to all messages promptly. You are bound by our Terms of Use and may not send messages that are abusive, threatening, offensive, discriminatory, defamatory, harassing, obscene in any way or use them for unsolicited advertising.
Product inquiries: Users of our Platform may send direct messages to Vendors to ask for further details about a listing or product. These will show up in your Inquiry board located on your Vendor “home” page as well as at the top right in your Vendor dashboard. We will also send you an email to let your know you have a new inquiry. Please respond to customer inquiries promptly. You have the option to save the inquiry and your answer on your listing. This can help promote your product.
Transaction details: We will inform Vendors of any transaction and updates using our standard electronic communication procedures as detailed in our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This will be by email and in your Notification board located in your Vendor account “home” page and the top right of your Vendor dashboard.
Direct messaging to Kinwi admin: A Vendor can message us directly via the “Send Direct Message – To Store Admin” panel at the bottom of the Notifications page. We can then reply directly to you through this same Notifications panel. The message will also be copied to your email address to reduce the chance of it being missed.
Vendors agree to work to resolve any dispute directly with the buyer in the first instance. If a buyer is looking to return an item, get a refund, or otherwise notify a Vendor of a problem with their Kinwi order, the first thing they must do is contact the Vendor directly. As a Vendor, it is important that you fill out your store policies to address returns and refunds, and you should promptly respond to messages from your buyers.
If you are unable to resolve the dispute with the buyer, Kinwi will do our best to assist by reviewing the dispute further to help the buyer and Vendor work together to resolve the issue.
Kinwi reserves the right to resolve the dispute on your behalf, including, but not limited to, issuing a refund to the buyer if a transaction is found to be in violation of Kinwi’s policies and breaches the applicable legislation. In particularly complicated scenarios we may refer you to the Disputes Tribunal instead. Buyers and Vendors accept the advice of Kinwi as to whether a buyer will qualify for a refund, but this doesn’t affect the buyers’ and Vendors’ ability to refer the matter to the Disputes Tribunal or a Court.
Vendors will be held liable for:
It is your (the Vendor’s) responsibility to pay the shipping cost for the buyer to return the item to you in “not as described” and “late delivery” cases due to the Vendor not dispatching the item in the accepted timeframe.
Vendor will not be held liable for:
Banks and other credit/debit card issuers offer a dispute process for credit card or debit card payments also known as a chargeback process.
If a bank issuer investigating a chargeback requests information from Kinwi about the transaction, Kinwi may disclose such information to the issuer and/or buyer. Any disclosure of personal information will be made in accordance with Kinwi’s Privacy policy. The Vendor agrees to provide further evidence/information as requested, such as a tracking number, to facilitate this investigation.
Where an issuer determines that a transaction should be refunded, Stripe will provide a full refund to the buyer and deduct this from your account, as well as charging your Stripe account with the current $25 dispute fee.
Chargeback fee: ‘Stripe’ currently charges a $25 dispute fee for all chargebacks. This fee is subject to change at any time and beyond our control.
To avoid disputes and chargebacks: it is important to keep your Store in good standing and ensure you abide by our Policies as well as the New Zealand legal requirements. We recommend that you fill out all of your own Store policies to cover your dispatch timeframe, refund, return and cancellation policies.
Using accurate images and descriptions when you list an item and using the strategies below will significantly reduce the risk of any potential dispute;
If you receive a suspicious message concerning an item in your store, please proceed with caution and Contact Us to let us know.
Beware of buyers that;
Both the Vendor or Kinwi may terminate or suspend this contract at any time. Kinwi reserves the right to disable any listing, store, or account that we believe violates our Terms of Use, (including this Vendor Policy) Privacy Policy or Prohibited Items Policy. Kinwi also reserves the right to take action against abusers of our Policies.
Administration fee: this is our commission on the sale of an item. It is currently set at 9% of the item cost itself. We do not take a commission on the shipping cost.
Content: anything you post on the Kinwi platform, including your listings, shop name, images, videos etc
Item/Product: the goods you are selling
Listing: any information you post about an item for sale in your Kinwi store
Marketplace: our Kinwi platform allowing users to buy and sell unique and handcrafted items
Platform: our provision of the Kinwi marketplace
Platform user: any person browsing or using our Platform services in any way
Product page: your listing content and images/videos for a particular item you are selling
Services: everything we provide to supply our markeplace for your use
Site: our website kinwi.co.nz
Store: your shop on the Kinwi marketplace
Transaction fee: the fee charged by our payment gateway, ‘Stripe.’ We pass on our actual transaction cost set by ‘Stripe’ and do not add any commission on top of this.
