Seller Guidelines

How to Use This Guide

These Seller Guidelines explain the operating standards for businesses that list or sell products on BERTHA Marketplace. They supplement the BERTHA Marketplace Terms of Service, Seller Agreement, fee schedule, returns policy, prohibited-products policy, privacy requirements, and any category- or country-specific rules.

ORDER OF PRECEDENCE Mandatory law controls first. A written program or category rule controls for that specific program, followed by the Seller Agreement and Terms of Service, these Guidelines, and general help content.

"Must" and "required" identify mandatory rules. "Should" identifies a strongly recommended practice. The Seller Dashboard may display additional requirements, deadlines, and performance targets for a seller's category or country. If the Dashboard conflicts with a general target in this guide, the more specific Dashboard requirement controls.

1. The BERTHA Seller Promise

BERTHA Marketplace is designed to connect customers with trusted businesses and authentic products across the United States, Africa, and other approved markets. Every Seller is expected to protect customer trust and contribute to a fair, inclusive, and reliable marketplace.

• Sell authentic, lawful, safe, and accurately described products.
• Treat every customer fairly and communicate with professionalism.
• Ship the correct product on time and provide valid tracking when required.
• Take responsibility for product quality, safety, returns, warranties, and regulatory obligations.
• Protect customer information and the integrity of the BERTHA platform.
• Maintain records that demonstrate product origin, ownership, compliance, and responsible sourcing.

2. Seller Eligibility and Onboarding

3. Identity, Business, and INFORM Act Verification

Sellers must keep legal, contact, banking, tax, and ownership information accurate. BERTHA may verify information using submitted documents, trusted databases, payment providers, government records, video or biometric checks where lawful, and other reasonable methods.

High-volume third-party Sellers may be subject to the U.S. INFORM Consumers Act. BERTHA may require covered information within 10 days, annual certification, public disclosure of certain Seller details, and a reasonable response to customer inquiries. Failure to provide or verify required information may result in suspension of future sales.

• Identity: provide valid, unexpired government identification matching account records.
• Business: keep formation records, licenses, and physical address current and consistent.
• Tax: provide lawful EIN, TIN, VAT, GST, or local-equivalent forms and update status changes.
• Banking: use an authorized payout account and report changes promptly.
• Ownership and contact: disclose beneficial owners, controllers, directors, and working contact details when requested.

4. Seller Account Security and Authorized Users

The Seller is responsible for authorized-user activity and must maintain internal approval controls for refunds, price changes, bank changes, bulk listing actions, and data exports.

• Use a unique password and multi-factor authentication whenever available.
• Create separate authorized-user access; never share a primary password.
• Grant the least access each employee, contractor, or service provider needs.
• Remove access immediately when a person changes roles or leaves the business.
• Review users, payout changes, API connections, and login activity at least quarterly.
• Notify BERTHA immediately of suspicious access, credential compromise, or unauthorized payout changes.

5. Product Eligibility and Prohibited Products

A Seller may list only products permitted by law, BERTHA policy, the Seller's approved categories, and the destination country. Category approval is not a guarantee that every product is permitted.

6. Responsible Sourcing and Supply-Chain Records

Sellers must know their suppliers and be able to trace products to a lawful source. Maintain records for at least seven years, or longer if law, category rules, tax rules, warranty periods, or a legal hold requires.

BERTHA may request records to confirm authenticity, origin, safety, regulatory compliance, or responsible sourcing. Records must be genuine, legible, complete, and provided within the deadline stated in the request.

• Purchase orders, commercial invoices, supplier names and addresses, payment records, and authorization letters.
• Manufacturer, importer, distributor, factory, country-of-origin, and production-lot information.
• Bills of materials, certificates of analysis, test reports, safety data sheets, and conformity documents where relevant.
• Labor, forced-labor, sanctions, anti-bribery, environmental, and chain-of-custody due diligence appropriate to risk.
• Import entries, customs classifications, valuation records, licenses, permits, and duty documentation.
• Complaint, defect, return, warranty, incident, recall, and corrective-action records.

7. Product Safety, Compliance, and Recalls

8. Creating Accurate, High-Quality Listings

A listing must enable a customer to understand exactly what is being offered, who is selling it, what it costs, how it will be delivered, and any limitations or risks.

• Use a plain, specific, accurate title with brand, product type, key variant, and quantity where useful.
• State material features, dimensions, materials or ingredients, condition, intended use, included items, limitations, and care instructions.
• Show the actual product or accurate representation with clear, well-lit images and no misleading scale, edits, badges, or watermarks.
• Map each size, color, flavor, quantity, or configuration to the correct image, price, identifier, and inventory.
• Accurately identify condition and disclose material defects.
• Provide valid SKU, GTIN, UPC, EAN, model, batch, or exemption data when required.
• Substantiate health, environmental, performance, origin, cultural, comparative, and certification claims before publication.
• Include required warnings, allergens, age grades, compatibility, subscription terms, warranty terms, seller identity, and other legally required information.

9. Images, Brand Assets, and Intellectual Property

Repeated or serious infringement may result in listing removal, withheld inventory, suspension, or termination. Knowingly false infringement complaints or counter-notices are also prohibited.

• Use only images, video, text, music, trademarks, designs, patents, and other content that you own or are authorized to use.
• Keep licenses, releases, wholesale invoices, brand authorization letters, and creator agreements.
• Do not copy another Seller's listing or use a person's name, image, likeness, or testimonial without permission.
• Do not imply that BERTHA endorses, certifies, manufactures, or co-brands a product unless BERTHA authorizes it in writing.
• Respond promptly to intellectual-property notices and do not relist removed content without written clearance.

10. Pricing, Promotions, Taxes, and Fees

The Trusted Sellers Service Excellence Incentive may reduce an eligible Merchant Vendor's otherwise applicable Marketplace commission rate by one percentage point in accordance with Section 16.1 and the current Seller Dashboard.

11. Inventory, Order Acceptance, and Cancellations

• List only inventory that is available, saleable, and correctly located in the stated fulfillment node.
• Synchronize inventory frequently enough to prevent overselling.
• Review orders at least every business day and more often during promotions or peak periods.
• Do not substitute a different product, size, color, quantity, or condition without the Buyer's documented approval and BERTHA-permitted workflow.
• Cancel promptly when fulfillment is impossible and select the accurate cancellation reason.
• Do not ask a Buyer to cancel to protect Seller performance metrics.

12. Packaging, Shipping, Tracking, and Delivery

13. Cross-Border Trade and Customs

For cross-border orders, the Seller must know and document who is the exporter of record and importer of record. Do not misstate origin, classification, value, quantity, or product description, and do not mark commercial shipments as gifts.

Customs delays do not automatically excuse inaccurate delivery promises. Build realistic handling and transit times for each route and product category.

• Classify products accurately under the applicable tariff system and maintain supporting records.
• Provide truthful commercial invoices, licenses, permits, certificates, and country-of-origin information.
• Screen parties and transactions against applicable sanctions and export-control restrictions.
• Conduct supply-chain due diligence for forced-labor risk and retain traceability evidence.
• Disclose duties, taxes, brokerage, delivery terms, and return consequences as required.
• Do not route transactions through another country, entity, or account to evade controls.

14. Returns, Refunds, Warranties, and Chargebacks

15. Customer Service and Buyer Communications

• Be courteous, accurate, concise, and solution-oriented.
• Keep transaction communications in BERTHA-approved channels.
• Never request unnecessary sensitive information, passwords, one-time codes, or off-platform payment.
• Do not discriminate, harass, threaten, shame, retaliate, or pressure a Buyer.
• Use translation carefully and confirm critical details such as size, ingredients, warnings, return instructions, and delivery addresses.
• Document agreed resolutions in the order record.

16. Reviews, Ratings, and Marketplace Integrity

• Do not buy, sell, trade, reimburse, or condition benefits on positive reviews.
• Do not review your own products, competitors, or affiliated products without required disclosure and BERTHA approval.
• Do not ask a Buyer to change or remove an honest review in exchange for a refund or other benefit.
• Do not manipulate traffic, search ranking, clicks, favorites, inventory, orders, cancellations, or conversion data.
• Report reviews that violate policy through the approved process; disagreement with a rating is not itself a violation.
• Do not retaliate against a Buyer, reporter, employee, competitor, or rights owner.

17. Privacy, Data Protection, and Cybersecurity

Buyer and platform data may be used only to fulfill transactions, provide authorized support, comply with law, and perform other purposes expressly permitted by BERTHA and the Buyer.

• Do not sell, rent, enrich, profile, or use Buyer data for independent marketing without a valid legal basis and required consent.
• Do not add Buyers to marketing lists because they purchased through BERTHA.
• Limit collection to necessary information and restrict access to trained personnel.
• Encrypt sensitive data in transit and at rest where appropriate; use supported software and patch systems promptly.
• Do not download order data to unmanaged personal devices or unapproved third-party tools.
• Delete or securely dispose of data when no longer needed, subject to lawful retention requirements.
• Notify BERTHA without undue delay—and immediately when feasible—of any incident affecting BERTHA, Buyer, or transaction information.

18. Performance Standards and Account Health

BERTHA evaluates performance over the periods shown in the Seller Dashboard. The initial general standards below may be adjusted by category, fulfillment model, country, account history, or risk.

A metric is not the only basis for action. BERTHA may consider severity, recurrence, deception, safety risk, customer harm, category norms, unusual events, corrective action, and legal requirements. Sellers should review Account Health at least weekly and daily during peak periods.

• Order defect rate: below 1.0%.
• Seller cancellation rate: below 2.5%.
• Late shipment rate: below 4.0%.
• Valid tracking rate: at least 95%.
• Message response: within 24 hours.
• Safety and compliance: zero unresolved critical violations.

19. Enforcement, Corrective Action, and Appeals

BERTHA may use education, warnings, listing suppression, category restriction, payout reserve, order limits, inventory hold, suspension, or termination. Action will be proportionate to risk and may be immediate for serious safety, counterfeit, fraud, cybersecurity, sanctions, legal-order, or customer-harm concerns.

• Advisory: education, correction deadline, and monitoring for a minor first-time issue with low risk.
• Warning: formal notice, listing edits or removal, and corrective-action plan for a repeated or material policy issue.
• Restriction: selling limits, category block, payout reserve, or document review for elevated operational or category risk.
• Suspension: stop new sales, hold listings or payouts, and require remediation for a serious or unresolved violation.
• Termination: account closure, permanent restrictions, and lawful fund and record handling for fraud, evasion, severe harm, repeated failure, or legal necessity.

20. Payouts, Reserves, and Records

Payout timing and fees are displayed in the Seller Agreement, fee schedule, and Dashboard. BERTHA may delay or withhold payouts, establish reserves, or set off amounts for returns, chargebacks, fraud, safety claims, legal process, negative balances, account risk, or policy violations as permitted by the governing agreement and law.

• Reconcile orders, refunds, fees, taxes, reserves, and payouts at least monthly.
• Keep payout and tax accounts current and respond promptly to verification requests.
• Report discrepancies within the applicable statement or dispute period.
• Maintain financial, tax, customer-service, compliance, sourcing, and transaction records for at least seven years or the longer required period.
• Do not alter, fabricate, backdate, or destroy records relevant to a complaint, audit, investigation, claim, or legal hold.

21. Business Continuity and Incident Response

Sellers should maintain a written continuity plan appropriate to their size and risk. The plan should address key-person absence, supplier failure, inventory damage, carrier disruption, cyber incidents, extreme weather, civil disruption, utility outage, and product recall.

• Maintain current emergency contacts and escalation owners.
• Back up critical inventory, order, supplier, and compliance data securely.
• Identify alternate carriers, suppliers, and fulfillment locations where practical.
• Use vacation or capacity controls before service deteriorates.
• Notify BERTHA promptly when an event may materially affect orders, safety, data, or compliance.
• After an incident, document impact, response, customer remedies, and preventive improvements.

22. Seller Exit and Account Closure

A Seller may request account closure after resolving open orders, returns, claims, chargebacks, negative balances, recalls, legal holds, and required record transfers. Closure does not eliminate pre-existing payment, warranty, tax, safety, indemnity, data, or record-retention obligations.

• Stop new listings and promotions in an orderly manner.
• Fulfill or lawfully cancel outstanding orders.
• Continue customer service through the applicable returns and warranty periods.
• Export permitted business records and securely delete data that no longer may be retained.
• Maintain monitored contact information for post-closure claims, recalls, tax reporting, and legal notices.

23. Creator Community Partnerships and Sponsored Content

BERTHA's Creator Community allows registered users to create short-form video content featuring or reviewing products on the Marketplace. Sellers may engage with Creators through two structured pathways: organic partnership requests initiated by Silver-tier or above Creators, and paid sponsored content briefs posted by Sellers and available to Gold-tier and above Creators. Both pathways are managed through the BERTHA Collaboration Hub.