We’re excited to launch a new monthly program that recognizes sellers who provide the highest standards of service for their Whatnot community. 

These “Premier Shops” will receive the following benefits:

• Reduced Commission: Whatnot will reduce its commission for Premier Shops by 10% (e.g., our standard 8% commission becomes 7.2%). 
• Premier Shop Badging: The Premier Shop badge will be prominently displayed across Whatnot, including on the seller profile and in show thumbnails.
• Increased Discoverability: Premier Shops’ products and shows will feature more prominently in search results and recommendations
• Prioritized Support: Premier Shops will receive prioritized Seller Support from the Whatnot team.

The Premier Shop badge is a signal to buyers that the seller and their products are the best that Whatnot has to offer. As such, Premier Shops have a minimum tenure/activity requirement and ongoing performance requirements.

Eligibility Criteria

1. You have been selling on Whatnot for at least 90 days
2. You have a history of following our Community Guidelines
3. In the last 90 days, you have:
   1. Hosted at least 10 shows
   2. Sold at least 250 orders
   3. Generated at least $50,000 in sales

Performance Criteria

On the first of each month, we will evaluate eligible sellers against the following criteria over the previous three months:

1. You create accurate listings: At least 80% of the listings you sell must contain an accurate title, at least one real photo of the item, product condition, and an accurate shipping profile. 
2. You ship on time: At least 95% of your orders must be shipped within 48 business hours. (Shipping timeframes may differ for carriers outside the United States.)
3. You reliably fill orders: Maintain at least a 99% order success rate: no cancellations (by you or by Whatnot due to your error) and no Whatnot-issued refunds.

In addition to the above three criteria, the following criteria will also apply to sellers in our Customer Service program starting on January 1, 2025.

1. You respond to buyers quickly: You respond to at least 95% of buyer requests within 48 business hours, or have no more than three requests responded to outside of 48 business hours. A response counts as either replying to an order message or completing a customer service action, such as issuing a full or partial refund, providing a replacement item, or declining the buyer’s refund request.
2. You do the right things when buyers have issues: You should have no more than three refund escalations overturned. If you exceed three refund overturns, you will still qualify if at least 99.97% of your orders have been completed without an overturned escalation.

Sellers will be able to track their eligibility and performance in Seller Hub analytics. Those who are evaluated as meeting the criteria will automatically be granted Premier Shop status for the month.

Premier Shops will first be recognized December 1, 2024, based on the period of October 22 through November 30, 2024.

FAQs

Program Benefits

Q: If I qualify for Premier Shop, what time of day will I get the Premier Shop benefits?

Your Premier Shop benefits, including a 10% reduced commission, will activate on the first of each month at 12 PM EST / 9 AM PST. You’ll receive an email confirmation when your benefits are activated.

These benefits will remain active until 12 PM EST / 9 AM PST on the first of the following month (unless you qualify for Premier Shop again).

Q: If I receive reduced commission as a Premier Shop, what will happen to my commission rate when Whatnot does a promotional event? For example, 4% commission on the Fourth of July.

You will always receive the lower of the two commission rates.

Q: What orders will the reduced commission apply to?

All sales you make during a time period in which you have Premier Shop status will receive reduced commission. 

For example, if I first qualify for Premier Shop on April 1, all orders placed from April 1 through April 30 will have commission reduced by a relative 10% (e.g., 8% commission becomes 7.2%). If I again qualify for Premier Shop on May 1, then all subsequent orders will have reduced commission (and so on).

Q: What does it mean to receive prioritized Seller Support?

Requests to Whatnot’s Seller Support team will be placed in a prioritized queue with faster average response times.

Evaluation Cycle and Timing

Q: How frequently do you evaluate potential Premier Shops?

We evaluate potential candidates for the Premier Shop program monthly, on the first of each calendar month (e.g., January 1, February 1, etc.). We will evaluate your performance based on the last three full calendar months. 

For example, on the evaluation cycle starting on April 1, we will evaluate your performance from January 1 through March 31. All eligible sellers are then re-evaluated on May 1, based on their performance from Feb 1 through April 30.

Q: Once I qualify for Premier Shop, is my Premier Shop status permanent?

No. Eligible sellers are assessed for Premier Shop status on the first of each month, based on their performance over the previous three months. If a Premier Shop’s performance drops below any threshold it will not be automatically renewed at the beginning of the next month. 

Significant Community Guidelines infractions - including but not limited to Hate Speech, Harassment, Fee Avoidance, Gambling or non-compliant mystery or breaks - may also result in immediate loss of status (outside of evaluation cadence).

Q: Do I need to apply?

No. All eligible sellers will be automatically evaluated on the first of each month.

Q: I have multiple seller accounts on Whatnot for my business. Will these accounts be evaluated separately?

Yes. Separate seller accounts that are associated with the same owner will be evaluated according to each account’s individual performance. 

Q: Is Whatnot going to cap the number of sellers who can become Premier Shops?

No. All eligible sellers who meet the criteria will be granted Premier Shop status.

Eligibility Criteria

Q: How do you determine seller eligibility?

Eligible sellers meet the following criteria:

• You have been a live seller on Whatnot for at least 90 days
• You have a history of following our Community Guidelines
• In the last 90 days, you have:
  • Hosted at least 10 shows
  • Sold at least 250 orders
  • Generated at least $50,000 in sales

Once you are eligible, you must continue to meet the eligibility criteria on the first of the next month to be considered for Premier Shop status. 

For example, on the evaluation period on April 1, we will first check whether or not you meet the eligibility criteria over the last 90 days (e.g., $50,000 sales, 250+ orders). We will then evaluate your performance criteria (e.g., quality listing rate, on-time shipment rate) from Jan 1 through Mar 31 to determine if you will receive Premier Shop status for the month of April.

Q: Is this program available to sellers globally? 

Yes. This program is available to all sellers globally. 

Q: Does the 250+ order minimum include giveaways?

Yes.

Q: Do the order and GMV minimums include orders that are eventually canceled or refunded?

Yes, we take your total number of completed orders and sales from those orders. However, canceled and refunded orders count against your fulfillment success rate, which is one of the performance criteria for Premier Shop. 

Q: How do multi-quantity BIN orders count towards the order minimum?

Each quantity of a product sold counts as an order. For example, if a buyer purchases a BIN product with a quantity of 5, that will count as 5 orders.

Q: What does it mean to be a live seller on Whatnot for at least 90 days?

You were first granted live sales access at least 90 days ago. 

If you’re a new seller on Whatnot, this means you’ll need to wait at least 90 days to be eligible for Premier Shop status. If you achieve eligibility with less than 90 days left in a period, you will be evaluated during the next evaluation period (the first of the next month).

Performance Criteria

Q: What are the performance criteria for a seller to achieve Premier Shop status?

On the first of each month, we will evaluate eligible sellers against the following criteria over the previous three months:

1. You create accurate listings: At least 80% of the listings you sell must contain an accurate title, at least one real photo of the item, product condition, and an accurate shipping profile. 
2. You ship on time: At least 95% of your orders must be shipped within 48 business hours. (Shipping timeframes may differ for carriers outside the United States.)
3. You reliably fill orders: Maintain at least a 99% order success rate: no cancellations (by you or by Whatnot due to your error) and no Whatnot-issued refunds.

In addition to the above three criteria, the following criteria will also apply to sellers in our Customer Service program starting on January 1, 2025.

1. You respond to buyers quickly: You respond to at least 95% of buyer requests within 48 business hours, or have no more than three requests responded to outside of 48 business hours. A response counts as either replying to an order message or completing a customer service action, such as issuing a full or partial refund, providing a replacement item, or declining the buyer’s refund request.
2. You do the right things when buyers have issues: You should have no more than three refund escalations overturned. If you exceed three refund overturns, you will still qualify if at least 99.97% of your orders have been completed without an overturned escalation.

Sellers will be able to track their eligibility and performance in Seller Hub analytics. Those who are evaluated as meeting the criteria will automatically be granted Premier Shop status for the month.

Q: How will I know whether or not I’m meeting the Premier Shop performance criteria?

You can see a summary of how you’re progressing against Premier Shop performance and eligibility criteria in Seller Hub Analytics. 

Sample:

Q: If I’m not participating in the Customer Service program, will I be evaluated against my Customer Service Response SLA and escalation approval rate?

No. Only sellers participating in the program will be subject to those performance criteria starting on January 1, 2025. 

If you join the Customer Service program after December 1, 2024, your Customer Service criteria will not be evaluated until the next cycle on February 1, 2025.

Q: Does my time in vacation mode contribute towards my performance criteria?

Yes. Our evaluation cycle and lookback period is on a fixed timeframe (i.e., the last three full calendar months), so your time in vacation mode is considered as part of this assessment.

Quality Listing Criteria

Q: What is a “quality listing”?

To qualify for Premier Shop, at least 80% of your sold listings must be considered “quality,” meaning they each contain:

• An accurate title that describes the item being sold (not “Random Pull” or “Item #1”)
• Completed product “condition” field, if applicable
• At least one real image of the item (stock photos are only acceptable if the item’s condition is “new” and undamaged)
• Accurate shipping profile that represents the appropriate weight of the shipment

Learn more about the quality listing definition.

Q: Why does Whatnot care about quality listings?

Detailed listings help buyers make more informed purchase decisions, increasing their satisfaction and reducing the likelihood or disputes around variants such as condition or size. 

Q: What listings will be considered in my evaluation period?

When we evaluate your Premier Shop performance over the prior three months, we will look at all listings sold during that time period. For example, when we evaluate your Premier Shop status on April 1, we will review listings from all orders that were completed from January 1 through March 31 (even if the original listing was created before that timeframe). This includes orders that were eventually canceled or refunded. 

Q: If I retroactively edit existing listings to meet the quality listing requirements, will previously sold quantities of that listing now count as "quality"?

No. Listing quality is determined at the time of when a product is sold. If you retroactively edit a listing after several quantities of that product have been sold, those edits will not count towards the quality assessment of quantities that have already been sold. That said, once you edit a listing to be quality, all future quantities of that listing that are sold will positively count towards your listing quality rate -- so we encourage you to edit "active" listings.

Q: How do you consider listings with multiple quantities?

Each quantity sold from a listing will count as one listing, for the purposes of Premier Shop quality listing evaluations. 

For example, let’s say I create two listings:

• (A) One quality listing with quantity = 50
• (B) One low-quality listing with quantity = 50

In a show, let’s say I sell 30 products from listing A (the quality listing), and 10 products from listing B (the low quality listing). This means that out of all my listings sold, 30 out of 40 were “quality,” meaning my listing quality rate is 75%. 

Q: What does this mean for listings I create from Quick Add?

In order to meet the 80%+ quality listing requirement, we recommend using the standard “Create Quality Listing” flow. Please note that the Temporary Listing (formerly “Quick Add”) flow does not give you an opportunity to add an image to listing, so these listings will not be considered “quality” unless they are retroactively updated after creation.

Q: Do giveaways count towards my quality listing criteria?

Giveaways will not count during Premier Shop quality listing evaluations.

Q: Do break spot listings count towards my quality listing criteria?

As of December 10 2024, all listings created through Whatnot’s breaking feature will be counted as quality listings.

Q: What happens if I’m creating a listing in a category that doesn’t have a “condition” field?

Not all categories have “condition” available as an informational field in the listing creation flow. If a category does not offer the “condition” detail, then you are not expected to provide this information for a listing to be considered “quality.”

Q: Will a listing count as “quality” if I mention the product’s condition in the title or description?

The “condition” field must be filled out for categories that offer this option. Even if you mention the condition of the product in the title or description of the listing, this informational field must be filled out for the listing to be considered “quality.” 

Fulfillment Criteria

Q: USPS scan accuracy is not 100% accurate.  How does Whatnot make allowances for this?

Per our Shipping Policy, orders must be shipped within 48 hours (two business days). We allow for errors from other international carriers. 

Q: Why does Whatnot care about seller-initiated cancellations? 

When a buyer wins an auction or makes a purchase, they expect to receive their items as promised. A low cancellation rate increases buyer trust that they’ll reliably receive items they’ve purchased from your shop. 

Q: Will free pickup orders count towards my On-Time Shipment Rate?

No; these orders will be excluded.

Q: Does our 48 hour shipping policy account for international sellers, as well as times of day when sales were made?

We account for international sellers as well as different show times in our calculation for shipping times, based on scans and additional logic to assess seller shipping times. 

Customer Service Criteria

Q: Regarding the Service Response Rate, what counts as “responding” to a customer service request?

“Responding” to a customer service request includes:

• Actioning the request (e.g., full refund, partial refund, replacement item, decline) and/or
• Replying to an order message*

Either of the above actions must be complete with our SLA of 48 business hours.

*Note – replying to a regular Direct Message (outside of the Customer Service inbox), or any other form of buyer communication, does not count as a response. 

Q: Does “responding” mean I have to accept buyer requests for refunds or replacements?

No. Whatnot sellers are empowered to make their own decisions regarding buyer requests, abiding by Whatnot’s Buyer Protection Policy. ‘Responding’ is measured by either the time to issue a Customer Service action (e.g., refund, decline) or respond to an order message.

Q: What are “business hours” for response SLAs?

Business hours exclude weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) and national holidays. 

Q: Regarding the Customer Service Success Rate, what types of situations may result in buyer refund escalations that are overturned by Whatnot?

This includes most cases where a request is escalated and overturned. Buyers have the option to escalate a request when it is declined by the seller, or when the seller does not take action on the request within 48 business hours.  When these escalations occur, Whatnot support reviews the request, and will grant the refund if they find that the request was covered under the Buyer Protection policy.  

Q: If I have more than three refunds overturned during the lookback period, can I still meet the criteria for the Customer Service Success Rate?

Yes, however most small or medium-sized sellers will need to maintain three or fewer refunds overturned during the period. To meet the Customer Service Success Rate criteria, we require sellers to have three or fewer refund escalations overturned, or complete at least 99.97% of orders without an overturned escalation. For example, if I’m a high-volume seller with 20,000 orders in the last three months, and four orders result in refund escalation overturned, I would have 99.98% orders not overturned ((20,000-4)/20,000 = 99.98%) – so I would meet the criteria for the Buyer Protection Rate.

See here for more information on the Customer Service program.