How-To and Marketing Tips for Vendors Selling on Zulily

Are you thinking of selling on Zulily? Find out how to become a Zulily vendor find out what you can do to help boost sales of your brand’s wares selling on Zulily, Amazon or any third party e-commerce site.

Is Selling On Zulily Right for Your Business?

Zulily is a fast-growing ecommerce company with over $1 billion in net sales. It is highly ranked among on lists of top online retailers by such noted organizations as Fast Company, the U.S. Apparel & Accessory Online Retailer Ranking, and National Retail Foundation’s Top 50 Favorite Online Retailers. The great reviews Zulily has received from brands make it hard to find any downside to signing up to sell your own products, especially if segments of the e-commerce site’s vast customer base fall within your own target markets.

How Does the Platform Support Vendors Selling on Zulily?

Zulily does a lot of marketing work on behalf of its brands. The platform’s sophisticated tools make a brand’s products visible to the right customers which include more than 5 million active U.S. customers as well as customers from more than 80 other countries. Of their U.S. customers, many are loyal, with 88 percent of the site’s North American orders being placed by repeat customers.

Zulily vendors can expect the platform to have their products up on the site and ready to sell in just a few days. Platform tools make it easy for vendors to display their products professionally by including photography and design services at no cost with a vendor account. The site also provides free copyrighting services to vendors for added peace of mind.

Vendors selling on the platform currently represent more than 15,000 brands; but since the e-commerce site is currently one of the fastest growing, there is no reason that new vendors will not find similar success in bringing their inventory and new products to the public using this platform. Specifically, the site suggests it could be a great way for a brand to:

  • Launch a new brand or product
  • Sell through limited-quantity or seasonal products
  • Clear out excess inventory

We’re obsessed with offering customers something special every day at amazing prices.” – Zulily.com

The First Step to Selling on Zulily is Becoming a Zulily Vendor

If you are interested in selling on Zulily or finding out whether it’s a good fit for your brand, you can apply to become a Zulily vendor online or by contacting them 855-396-3642 or email at newvendor@zulily.com

The site’s vendor pages even offer an overview of how to get started selling on Zulily and what to expect during your brand’s sales event in this “Zulily 101” video that lists a simple five step process for vendors:

  • Send a list of your product SKUs and inventory quantity(s)
  • Send your own product images or send samples for Zulily to photograph
  • Your event will launch within a short period of time, usually running for three days, during which you can access real time sales reports
  • Zulily will send you a purchase order on the first day of your event and another one when your event has ended
  • After you receive the purchase orders, you ship the products ordered to Zulily’s warehouse and then they ship individual orders out to customers

Zulily vendors have access to real-time sales reports during their event, and can even manage their event by PC or mobile device. In addition, the platform provides vendors with product, shipping and billing information as well as detailed geographic and sales reporting.

How Fast Do Zulily Vendors Get Paid?

As a vendor, you’ll be expected to have inventory on hand, or have the ability to produce the inventory needed to fulfill the orders sold during your event by the time the 3-day event has ended, so that you can fulfill the purchase order right away. Because the platform must allow for returns and refunds, Zulily vendors may wait about two months — upwards of 60 days — to receive payment from the site.

Zulily vendors can receive payment the same day that they have a promise of payment from Zulily by factoring their promised payment instead of waiting 60-90 days for Zulily to forward payment. The vendor factoring process is identical to invoice factoring, in that the vendor factors the invoice with us for a low fee (as low as 1 percent of the invoice amount) and receives a same-day advance of up to 98 percent of the invoice amount – or the amount Zulily has promised to pay the vendor.

By factoring Zulily vendor payments, vendors can expedite cash flow to reinvest in growing their brand more quickly, taking on new orders and taking advantage of the momentum of new brand awareness and popularity as a result of their exposure on Zulily.

How Can Vendors Selling on Zulily Maximize their Marketing ROI?

Vendors selling on this and other third party e-commerce sites receive a lot of added value from brand exposure on the platform, but that doesn’t mean they can’t engage in marketing activities of their own to get even more marketing ROI from their event. Vendors and manufacturers that want to maximize marketing ROI when selling on Zulily, Amazon and other e-commerce sites should:

  • Build a strong following on sites like Facebook and Pinterest which are used by the fast majority of Zulily customers to facilitate brand engagement with Zulily customers
  • Promote the event on their own social networks
  • Send an email announcement to suppliers, vendors, employees, and other stakeholders about the event, and ask these types of partners to share the event on their social networks as well
  • Publish one or more blog posts in the weeks leading up to their event, during the event and following the event highlighting successes and providing a “save the date” for future events
  • Use email newsletters to let contacts know about their Zulily vendor event
  • Publish a press release simultaneous with the beginning of the event to reach customers via news publications
  • Sponsor social posts on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest with links to their event and products on the e-commerce platform

Vendors should also take advantage of any content areas provided on the e-commerce site to display their logo, tell their company story, speak to values and provide other marketing messages. This is the type of content that can create a personal connection with customers, so they become interested in the brand itself, follow it on social networks or even look for retail outlets where they can purchase more products from the brand.

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If you are a Zulily vendor who is interested in finding out more about how you can expedite cash flow using Zulily vendor factoring services, simply submit the form below:

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