About the Marketplace and Community

Q: What is the online merfolk community?

A: The online merfolk community is a group of creative, passionate, imaginative individuals inspired by the ocean and merfolk. They come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, races, genders, and sexes.  While it’s not a requirement, many do own tails they can swim in, some of which are very realistic silicone and can run thousands of dollars.


Q: What is mermaiding?

A: ‘Mermaiding’, a term you will see on the site, is a general term for the hobby of swimming in a costume tail as a mermaid or merman, or participating in the merfolk fandom and community.


Q: Are there ‘professional mermaids’?

A: Absolutely!  There are merfolk who work events, both public and private, corporate events, children's parties, Renaissance Faires, reading events, and all kinds of others.  These individuals are very dedicated to their craft, and tend to spend a lot of money on their tails, outfits, and accessories.


Q: What is The Mer-Cantile?

A: The Mer-Cantile Marketplace is an online, multi-vendor marketplace dedicated to handmade crafts and accessories for the mermaiding community.  As an online platform, we’re modeled pretty closely after other large multi-vendor online craft marketplaces (just without a lot of the fees!)


Q: What is a ‘Mermaiding Accessory’?

A: Anything specialized a mermaid or merman needs to complete their desired look.  These tend to be things used for the hobby that don’t have a lot of application outside of it, like crowns, tridents, bracers, tops, mermaidy things like that.  This also includes the tails themselves, monofins, weight belts, etc.


Q: What is being on-theme for the Mer-Cantile?

A: Our theme is merfolk so think ‘things that ‘merfolk’, or people who are really INTO merfolk, would like’.  Beachy, splashy, ‘Under the Sea!’.  We’re looking for the best in mermaid crafts and mermaiding accessories.  


Q: Where is the marketplace located?

A: The marketplace itself is purely online.  The company is based out of coastal Fairfield County Connecticut (Norwalk/Darien area).

Q: Do you buy wholesale?

A: No, we’re exclusively a multivendor marketplace and do not buy or sell products on behalf of vendors.


Listing Items

Q: What information do my listings need to include?

A: All items must include:

  • A description of the item
  • A statement of who made the item
  • A statement of whether or not the item is ready to ship immediately, or if there is a lead time for completion.
  • Descriptive, original pictures or video of the item. No stock photos or AI-generated images will be accepted
  • A statement of or link to your return policy

Q: What listing guidelines are there?

A: Complete listing guideline and formal policy coming soon. For now, use these guidelines:

  • What can I list?
    • All items must be ‘on theme’ for the marketplace
    • All items must be handmade by you.
    • All items must be legal for sale online.
  • What can’t I list?
    • Items not legal for sale online
    • Non handmade items
    • Re-sold wholesale items
    • Weapons or anything that would be considered a weapon
    • Drugs or drug paraphernalia
    • Food or items meant to be ingested (supplements, etc)
    • Items that infringe on intellectual property of another (copyright, trademark, etc)
  1. Signing up
  1. What fees are there?
  1. No fees per se, just the site commission. There are different paid vendor tiers depending on your needs, but those are completely optional.
  1. What is the site commission?
  1. 7.5% on sales
  1. What are the vendor tiers?
  1. Basic: Free tier, provides up to 25 posted items, great for trying out the shop. This limit WILL be increased.
  1. Why is there a limit?
  1. To keep a handle on cloud expenses as we ramp up.  Once we have a better handle on data flow and storage needs, these will be increased.
  1. Basic Plus: $2.50/month, provides up to 50 items. This will also be increased with time.
  2. Pro: $5/month, provides up to 100 items and a ‘vendor microstore’ which is a mini-shop all to yourself, with your own URL, and only your items shown in browse and search. Perfect for promoting in your social and marketing channels!
  1. Getting Paid
  1. Money flow depends on what account(s) you have linked and how customers ultimately pay.  Paypal, for example, deposits directly to your PayPal account.
  1. Depending on your PayPal Business account status, PayPal may place a hold on your funds which will be released after a couple of days, per PayPal policy.
  1. Shipping Orders
  1. It is STRONGLY recommended to ship ALL orders tracked, and with insurance, to avoid disputes and return scams.  It will be much easier to resolve shipping disputes, especially on your behalf,  if orders are tracked and insured.
  2. What if a package is stolen?
  1. If it can be proven that it was delivered through tracking, theft is a matter for the police.  A police report should be filed, and a claim on insurance made.
  1. What if a package was delivered to the wrong place?
  1. The buyer should work with the shipping company to resolve any mis-delivery on the part of the delivery company.
  2. This may be covered by the recommended shipping insurance if the package can’t be located
  1. Handling Questions
  1. Questions from customers are handled by the vendor they were addressed to.
  2. Questions should be answered within 48 hours to provide a good customer experience for your shop.
  3. Any questions that need to be forwarded to the Marketplace can be sent to help@mer-cantile.com which will open a support ticket to track the issue.
  1. Handling Returns
  1. The vendor is responsible for setting their own return policy and handling returns
  1. You are required to have a return policy posted on your profile
  1. In the event of a dispute that the vendor can not resolve, the Marketplace can be asked to step in and mediate.
  2. The marketplace-wide return policy can be viewed here: https://app.termly.io/policy-viewer/policy.html?policyUUID=ea1748b0-6e8d-40a7-ab7a-dc32bcfa9424
  1. This policy is secondary to the policy of your own and is in place if the Marketplace needs to step in and mediate
  1. All returns to the Marketplace (rather than to the Vendor)  require a Return Material Authorization to be approved by the Marketplace..
  1. Handling disputes
  1. The shop owner/seller is responsible for the first handling of any disputes that arise around the offer, purchase, or return of their items.
  2. If the dispute can’t be brought to a satisfactory resolution within 30 days of first contact from the customer, the Marketplace can be asked to assist.
  1. Please email help@mer-cantile.com to open a support ticket
  1. Marketing
  1. Who handles marketing for the marketplace?
  1. The Mer-Cantile will handle marketing for the marketplace as a whole
  2. This will be primarily through Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Google Ads
  1. We also intend to advertise/sponsor events such as the MerMagic Con mermaiding convention
  1. Who handles marketing for my specific shop?
  2. We’re still looking for thoughts on this but for the most part, shop marketing is handled by the shop owner themselves.  There may be some promotions like ‘Product of the Day’, ‘Seller of the Week’ but at present, the marketplace intends to largely refrain from advertising specific shops to avoid playing favorites.