Vendor Best Practices

Minimum Requirements as a Vendor with Common Goods

You must have…

A legal registered business that is a sole proprietor, partnership or corporation in the country of Canada.
A business that manufactures, designs, produces or sells products and follows one of the three tiers; Canadian Manufactured, Designed and Sourced in Canada, and/or Canadian Based Business.
An active or live e-commerce shop supported by Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace, WooCommerce or your own independent website with a shopping cart system that features a minimum of four products.
One of our current product categories: Apparel, Footwear, Jewelry, Household Goods, Beauty and Personal Care Products, Art & Gifts, Stationary, Crafts, and Pet Products. Currently, Common Goods does not support food products or service based businesses.
A Branded Logo, Product Image or Founder Photo (that acts as your logo). Please refer to Logo and Product Photography below for a guideline on vendor best practices. Your logo must be 240px by 240px. AI-generated images are not permitted.

Especially at Common Goods, we LOVE Canadian pride and we are ALL political people. However, we have decided not to platform any stores that carry merchandise supporting a specific political party.

How to Succeed as a Vendor with Common Goods

Selection of your E-Commerce Platform

The E-Commerce Shop or Platform that you choose should have reliability, scalability, and ease of use.
Try and select a platform that coverts well for mobile phone use.
The best e-commerce websites combine functionality and beauty.
Common Goods currently functions best with Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace, and WooCommerce.

Shop or Website Navigation

Users want websites that are easy to navigate and have a simple check out process. They want to find your best products quickly; be able to research return policies and understand how much shipping costs with one click or reach out to you. Ask a friend or neighbour to go shopping on your website to receive feedback.

Is shopping on your website easy to navigate and purchase?

Can we find your products by listed categories?

For Common Goods purposes, your website should have an obvious Shop category or link on the menu or home page.

Production Descriptions

A good product description can significantly impact your sales. You know your product best and your customers want to know the story behind them. Although the ingredients or contents of the product is important; try to look beyond the features of the product and focus on the benefits.

Write your description as if you are talking to your ideal customer.

Your ideal customer wants to know.....

“What problem does the product solve?”

and “What makes it better than the competition?”

Logo and Product Photography

Common Goods would prefer your main profile logo to be from these selections, in this order: Branded Logo, Product Logo or Founder Photo.

Logos and founder images must be minimum of 240px by 240px. Product photos must be at least 500px x 500px and of the actual product. AI-generated images are not permitted.

Branded Logo - A logo is a symbolic visual representation of your company name and usually created by a graphic designer. It conveys your brand messaging and feelings.

Your Product Photos- Product images or models should have plain, solid colour backgrounds and be either square or portrait ratio. We love storytelling, but when your products are displayed in a grid next to hundreds of others - clarity is of utmost importance.

For this reason, your primary image for each product should have a transparent, white, or light grey background. As shown below, the model on the left has a solid background and the one of the right has distracting scenery in the background.The solid background on the left gives clarity vs. clutter on the right.

Your Founder Head Shot - A founder photo is not necessary if a logo is more suitable for your brand. However, in the case of brands that are true extensions of the founder(s), a headshot can help you connect with prospective customers in a way that a sterile logo never could.

Professional headshots are preferred. Medium shots and full body shots are acceptable with solid colour backgrounds like shown to the left. Avoid selfies where the face is hidden by sunglasses and distracting backgrounds like the image to the right.