Introduction

As a marketplace, you may want to offer one or more payment services to customers, allowing them to delay or spread payments over a period of time. A common example would be AfterPay, PayPal or Klarna. 

Fee Handling

These services typically levy a fee on the merchant, in the form of a fixed or percentage-based amount. Out of the box, the marketplace will be one to absorb this fee, instead of the vendor. Many of our marketplaces operate in this way, as it removes friction when trying to sign vendors up to the marketplace.

If you instead want the vendor to absorb the cost of the fee, the easiest way is a negotiation on the commission rate. This is relatively straightforward when using a percentage-based commission. The marketplace will effectively up their take to cover the fees incurred. 

If negotiating the commission isn't viable, there is also the Landed Cost feature in Onport (Setup > Landed costs) to help. These can apply fixed or percentage-based fees, per order or line item. For example, you could reduce the payout by $2 per order to cover the fee. You can also turn it on or off per vendor.

Keep in mind, in this example, it will reduce the amount by $2, regardless of the payment method selected by the customer. It will also repeat for each vendor. So, with 4 vendors on an order, the marketplace will have a collection of $8 in fees. 

If none of these solutions work, you can use the Onport API to potentially build a more tailored flow. For example, looking up the payment method using the Shopify API. Then, make a manual adjustment on a vendor invoice to cover that fee. However, this will require an external developer to write the code.

However, in general, the more straightforward approach is to ensure the fees are accommodated in your initial commission negotiations with the vendor.