Merchant Vendor Agreement

Service Level Agreement

This document sets out BERTHA Marketplace's binding commitments to Merchant Vendors covering payout cycles, support response times, listing moderation, returns processing, and platform reliability. All targets are measured on a rolling calendar-month basis unless otherwise stated.

Effective: November 1, 2026·Version 1.0·Issued by: BERTHA Global Online Sales Platform

How to read this document

Target — the measurable commitment BERTHA makes to you.

How We Measure — the data source and method used to track attainment (visible on wider screens).

If Breached — the remediation action BERTHA will take if a target is missed (visible on widest screens).

Priority levels: P1 = critical (real-time monitoring) · P2 = high · P3 = standard.

BERTHA operates a monthly payout cycle. All eligible net earnings from a calendar month are aggregated and made available for disbursement by the 1st of the following month.

Payout Schedule

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
PAY-01	Payout Period	One full calendar month (1st through last day, UTC).	Earnings from orders with payment status paid or refunded during the period, dated by delivery date where available, otherwise order creation date.	Finance Operations Lead notified; affected Merchant Vendors contacted with revised timeline.
PAY-02	Payout Generation	Payout statements generated automatically on the 1st of each month for the prior calendar month.	System generates per-vendor draft payout rows and a consolidated period summary; finance@bertha.info receives a notification email.	Manual trigger by Finance Operations Lead; root cause documented.
PAY-03	Payout Timeliness (SLA 37)	At least 99.5% of eligible payouts submitted to the payment provider by the published contractual due date.	Provider-accepted submission; receipt confirmed where observable. Permitted holds and held balances tracked separately.	Affected Merchant Vendors notified; Finance Operations Lead executes approved recovery plan.
PAY-04	Statement Accuracy (SLA 38)	At least 99.9% of payout statement lines match approved order, fee, refund, and reserve records.	Automated reconciliation of all lines; correction value and line count both reported.	Statements and amounts corrected with full audit trail.
PAY-05	Daily Reconciliation (SLA 36)	100% of daily payment and order transactions reconciled by the next business day.	Provider records, orders, refunds, fees, and settlement ledger compared; every discrepancy has an assigned owner and documented reason.	Unexplained cash or order differences escalated immediately.

Net Payout Calculation

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
PAY-06	Gross Sales	Sum of all order item prices for paid orders in the period.	Refunded orders tracked separately; gross sales are not inflated by refunds.	N/A — informational.
PAY-07	Platform Commission	Default rate: 5% of gross sales. Individual vendor rates may vary by category or agreement.	Effective rate = base rate minus any applicable rating discount. Founding Vendors with an active fee waiver pay 0% during the waiver period.	Commission disputes reviewed by Finance Operations Lead within 4 business hours.
PAY-08	Rating Discount	High-performing vendors may receive a commission rate reduction based on their platform rating.	Discount percentage applied against the base commission rate; net rate cannot fall below 0%.	Rating disputes reviewed by Merchant Success Lead.
PAY-09	Refund Deductions	Approved refunds deducted from the period in which the refund was processed.	Refund amounts tracked separately from gross sales; net payout = gross sales minus commission minus refunds.	Refund disputes reviewed by Finance Operations Lead.

Payout Statuses

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
PAY-10	Draft	Payout row created; pending finance review.	Auto-generated on the 1st of each month.	N/A.
PAY-11	Approved	Finance team has reviewed and approved the payout for disbursement.	Admin action in the Finance Payout Report.	Escalate to Financial Controller if approval is delayed beyond the published due date.
PAY-12	Paid	Funds submitted to the payment provider for transfer to the Merchant Vendor registered bank account.	Provider-accepted submission confirmed; receipt tracked where observable.	Finance Operations Lead notified; Merchant Vendor contacted with status update.

BERTHA is committed to responsive, high-quality support for all Merchant Vendors. The following service levels govern how quickly and effectively we respond to your needs.

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
SLA-34	Routine Merchant Vendor Support Response	95% of routine cases receive a substantive response within 4 business hours.	Receipt across all supported channels. Urgent account compromise and widespread checkout issues follow P1 incident targets.	Case assigned to an owner; operational blockers routed to the relevant lead.
SLA-31	Application First Review	95% of complete Merchant Vendor applications reviewed within 2 business days.	Complete application receipt to approval, rejection, or specific additional evidence request.	Backlog reassigned; applicant informed of next step.
SLA-32	Verification & Activation	95% of eligible complete files receive a final activation decision within 5 business days.	Completed identity, business, tax, and payment evidence to final decision. Unresolved compliance risks cannot be waived for speed.	Escalated to reviewer; documented status update provided to applicant.
SLA-33	Listing Moderation	95% of complete new or amended listings reviewed within 1 business day.	Receipt to publish or reasoned rejection; checks cover product information, claims, imagery, price, and category eligibility.	Launch stock prioritized; required corrections explained.
SLA-35	Launch Readiness	100% of newly activated Merchant Vendors complete a readiness check before accepting orders.	Verification of test order handling, stock updates, packing, dispatch promises, returns, and payout setup; evidence preserved.	Sales remain disabled until all required checks pass.

BERTHA maintains clear timelines for returns processing, refund initiation, and dispute resolution to protect both buyers and Merchant Vendors.

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
SLA-26	Return Request Acknowledgment	95% of buyer return requests acknowledged within 2 business hours.	Request receipt to acknowledgment with next-step instructions.	Aging requests reassigned; buyer contacted with status.
SLA-27	Return Decision	98% of return requests receive an approval or rejection decision within 1 business day.	Acknowledgment to decision; decisions must reference applicable policy.	Escalate to Merchant Success Lead; decision issued within 4 hours of escalation.
SLA-28	Return Inspection	95% of returned items inspected and disposition recorded within 2 business days of recorded receipt.	Warehouse or Merchant Vendor return receipt to inspection record; absent scans tracked independently.	Aging returns prioritized; refund decision deadlines protected.
SLA-29	Refund Initiation	98% of approved refunds submitted to the payment provider within 1 business day.	Approval to provider acceptance reference. Bank posting is separate; estimated posting range disclosed to buyers.	Failed refunds retried; affected buyers contacted with verified status.
SLA-30	Dispute & Chargeback Response	100% of cases have evidence and response submitted at least 2 business days before the external deadline.	All cases with sufficient notice; short-notice cases submitted by external deadline and reported separately.	Missing evidence escalated same day; authorized decision secured.

BERTHA maintains rigorous uptime and performance standards to ensure your store is always accessible to buyers.

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
SLA-11	Critical Journey Availability	At least 99.95% per calendar month for browse, login, cart, and checkout.	Successful scheduled one-minute synthetic runs divided by all scheduled runs; each journey reported separately by supported market.	Incident response activated; remaining error budget reviewed.
SLA-13	Checkout Technical Success	At least 99.5% of eligible checkout attempts complete without a BERTHA technical failure.	Unique submitted attempts; issuer declines, user cancellation, and confirmed fraud blocks excluded but disclosed separately.	Failure spikes escalated; faulty changes rolled back.
SLA-12	Page Performance	75th percentile Largest Contentful Paint at or below 2.5 seconds.	Real user mobile and desktop sessions on product, search, and cart pages; reported separately by country.	Slow regions, media assets, and application bottlenecks investigated.
SLA-14	P1 Incident Communication	100% acknowledged within 5 minutes; incident commander assigned within 15 minutes; first user advisory within 30 minutes; updates every 30 minutes.	Each milestone measured separately from detection or credible report.	Backup on-call and executive delegate paged immediately.

Ref	Commitment	Target	How We Measure	If Breached
SLA-39	Payment Exception Decisions	95% of duplicate charge, captured payment without order, and failed refund cases receive a verified action decision within 4 business hours.	Receipt or automated detection to finance decision and customer update; actual refund initiation follows SLA-29.	Funds secured; escalated to Financial Controller.

Founding Vendor Benefits

Founding Vendors with an active fee waiver period pay 0% platform commission on all sales during the waiver term. The waiver is honoured through the last day of the month in which it expires. After expiry, the standard commission rate for your category applies. Your waiver end date is visible in your Vendor Portal under Payouts & Banking.

Questions about this SLA?

Contact your Merchant Success Lead via the Vendor Support Portal or email merchantvendors@bertha.info.

BERTHA reserves the right to update this SLA with 30 days written notice to active Merchant Vendors. Continued use of the platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Service Level Agreement

Payout Cycles & Financial Commitments

Payout Schedule

Net Payout Calculation

Payout Statuses

Merchant Vendor Support SLAs

Returns, Refunds & Disputes

Platform Reliability

Payment Exception Handling

Founding Vendor Benefits