Vendor Agreement

Vendor Qualifications and Our Promise

We want creative people to create. Our mission is to help inspired professionals give life to their ideas by establishing and growing successful businesses and products. To foster this creative economy, we strive to include in our store mostly items that are original, handmade, unique, vintage, repurposed, or designed or produced locally. We will prioritize shops that fall under these categories. By agreeing to our terms and conditions, you commit to only sell products that fall under this criteria or are explicitly stated otherwise. Anything not in compliance with these efforts, delightful as it may be, will not be accepted or will be pulled from the store.

We do not accept “resale” products, including MLMs, or “party”-type businesses. If we have questions regarding the nature of your products, we will email you to clarify before disqualifying your application. Our store is juried to ensure our vendors are the cream of the crop. Even more so than our markets. We sure hope that’s you!

Vendor Information & Agreements

Each vendor interested in selling with us will fill out an application form and then, if accepted, will work with Ritual to get their products into our store by signing a vendor agreement. 

We offer two agreements so that vendors can choose which fits their store the best.

Consignment Agreement

If the consignment option is chosen vendors will not pay any booth fees, but a 40% commission will be taken from each sale with the artist keeping 60%.

  • Ritual will curate the store - meaning if accepted into the shop we will look at your product offering and decide which items we think will sell best. Not all products will be picked initially, but products we don't select at first may be selected for future seasons.

  • Your products will most likely be mixed with other products in the same category, like a typical retail store. You will not set up a booth with this option.

  • Benefits of this option:

    • Low risk - There is no upfront cost to sell with us. If you don' t sell, it costs you nothing. As such, it's a great option for trying out a new product line.

    • Cheaper than wholesale - You only pay a 40% commission, so you keep more of the retail price than if you sold wholesale.

    • We provide all shelving, tables and displays - You don't need to do anything besides make, label and drop off your products. We take care of the rest.

Booth Agreement- 

If you choose the booth option you will be required to pay a $350 monthly fee for your booth space, plus a 20% commission on all your sales.

  • If chosen you will be given a standard booth space of 3'x5'

  • You are required to provide any displays needed.

  • You are responsible for the setup and take down of your booth.

  • You may request access to electricity. While we will try to accommodate this request, not all booth spaces will have access.

  • You will be able to curate your products and design your booth however you see fit.

  • You may restock whenever and as often as you'd like.

  • Monthly payments for booth fees will be invoiced and required up front, but a commitment of only 3 months is required.

  • To keep it simple, and to keep our sanity, we will not offer the option to have your booth fee taken out of your sales.

  • Benefits to this option:

    • Lower commission

    • Control over display

    • Opportunity to display your logo and build your brand awareness

 

Important information about both options:

  • Booth spaces will be limited. Accepted vintage sellers will be automatically given the booth option, if requested. Everyone else will be determined by how much space we need to fill in that category. (For example: if you sell bows you probably won't get a the booth option. There are just too many vendors who sell bows and to be fair we would want to carry more than 1-2 brands).

  • Declined or discontinued vendors are more than welcome to reapply in the future. Some products do better during certain seasons.

  • *Fine Artists will be required to choose the Consignment option. We will carry a limited amount of fine artists at a time gallery style and plan on swapping them possibly more frequently than our other products. We are working on options for our Fine Art category and more information will be sent as it gets decided.

Products, Prices and Inventory

  • If you have a vendor ID already you may request to use it on our application form.  If you do not include a preferred vendor ID in your application, one will be assigned to you and emailed to you after acceptance.

  • All products will be barcoded by us.

  • You will need to email us a couple days before you bring your product in with the description of your item, quantity & price of that item.

  • You no longer need to label every item although if it’s a clothing item you should have your own tag that we can put our barcode sticker on./

  • You have the option to inventory your products with us.

    • If you opt to inventory your items:

      • We require that every product delivery be inventoried by our staff at the time of drop off.

      • At the end of the inventory period we will do a final inventory of the products we give back to you.

      • Because we have the opportunity to inventory your products, we will assume the responsibility of theft, damaged and lost products. You will be paid for every item you delivered, minus the products you take back, regardless of what our point of sale system shows. Less risk for you!

      • If at any point you deliver products and choose not to inventory them with our staff or you take some or all of your products for any reason (including sales at other locations and online) we can no longer pay based on inventory, as we will no longer have the ability to verify and track your inventory (see the next section).

    • If you do not opt to inventory your items:

      • As with our past markets you are responsible for lost or stolen goods. We know this seems harsh, but we need the opportunity to count and verify the quantities of product you have delivered if we are going to pay you for the difference.

      • We will continue to do our best to maintain a secure store.

         

  • Products you bring to the store must be in compliance with all applicable local, state and federal laws for the type of products you offer. It is your responsibility to know which laws apply to your products and to ensure that they are in compliance with all copyright, food handling, labeling, labor, and any other laws, rules or regulations that apply. All products from vendors that are found to be in violation will be removed from the store immediately.

  • We strive to offer products that are good for the environment and for the community. As you design, produce and package your products, please do your best to minimize packaging, reduce waste, reuse materials and recycle. Please also do your best to ensure your products are sourced ethically. Trust us, any additional cost or effort will pay off in the long run, plus we'll love you all the more.

 

Setup & Product Drop off

 

  • Product Drop off will occur ongoing during any of our open hours.

  • The following items are required at setup for booth vendors and product drop off for all other vendors. All items will be required in order to setup/drop off:

    • Booth fee - If you are a booth vendor we will verify that your booth fee has been paid.

    • Direct Deposit Agreement - All vendor payments will be made by direct deposit. A completed Direct Deposit Agreement is required. Your completed agreement will need to be submitted with a stapled, voided check. If you don’t have checks, get a direct deposit printout from your bank and staple it to your agreement instead. If you have submitted an agreement to us before and your banking information has not changed, a new one will not be required.

    • Consignment Agreement - Please review our Consignment Agreement. You will be required to sign the agreement at booth setup/product drop off.

    • W9 - A completed W9 from our friends at the IRS is required. If you’ve submitted one of these to us already in this calendar year, and if nothing has changed, a new one is not required.

    • Product Inventory - If you opt to inventory your products, we require that it be completed on our form, the quantities checked by our staff, and the form signed by you and our staff. (see the previous section for more information). Additional storage for inventory is available so don't be afraid to bring extra stock.

  • Any booth spaces not occupied by the setup deadline will be considered forfeited and will be offered to a vendor on our wait list.

Re-Stocking

  • If you have chosen the consignment option we will let you know if you need to restock.

  • If you have chosen the booth option, you are required to keep tabs on when to restock your booth, however we will also keep an eye on what needs restocking and let you know if we have time. Feel free to text the store asking for pictures of your booth. 224-231-7898.

  • You may store additional inventory in our basement. There is plenty of storage.

  • Ritual staff and volunteers will do their best to keep your booth space tidy and restocked, but feel free to come back any time to do your own restocking and straightening.

  • If you opt to inventory your items, you will be required to complete and have signed an inventory sheet.

Checkout

  • We provide a central checkout for all vendors, with the exception of select food and beverage vendors we invite.

  • We accept cash and all major credit cards.

Turnover

  • All vendors accepted into the market will be granted 1-2 months in our store with reinstatement happening by review every month.

Advertising

  • You may be spotlighted on our website, blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest while your products are for sale in our store. We’ll pull from the photos you submit with your application or from your feeds with permission, so make sure to send us images you’re proud to share!

  • We will provide you with an electronic packet of graphics to use on your social media accounts to advertise the store, grand opening, any specials or promotional days and workshops that we arrange.

  • We will release announcements to the press, do extensive social media advertising to get traffic to the store. If you would like posters to take to local businesses, please make sure to pick some up when you visit us in store.

  • We encourage vendors to advertise through their own Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.

Payment

  • All vendors will receive payment by direct deposit for their net earnings, issued monthly.

  • Vendors will also receive a closing financial statement by email that will include sales quantities at every price point you use every month.

Fees:

Consignment Agreement Fee

If the consignment option is chosen vendors will not pay any booth fees, but a 40% commission will be taken from each sale going to Ritual with the artist keeping 60%.

  • That's 40% of gross sales (that’s the total earned before deducting costs—we always have to look that one up). This fee is used to cover credit card processing, any discounts we choose to offer as promotions, and other expenses, along with our commission.

Booth Agreement Fee

If you choose the booth option you will be required to pay a $350 monthly fee for your booth space, plus a 20% commission on all your sales.

  • Booth fees will be invoiced monthly and must be paid in order to keep your products on the floor.

  • Warning emails will be issued, but if booth fees are not paid within 7 days, your booth will be removed from the store floor and replaced with another vendor.

  • The commission is 20% of gross sales (that’s the total earned before deducting costs). This fee is used to cover credit card processing, any discounts we choose to offer as promotions, and other expenses along with our commission.

Labeling Fee

  • If an excessive number of your items are mislabeled or not labeled with your vendor ID and item number (requiring extra work on our part to track down the correct information), you will be charged $25 each day. We will inform you if this is a problem as soon as possible so you can fix your labeling before the next day. We don’t want the $25 nearly as much as we want everything to go smoothly!

Taxes

  • All vendors must complete and submit an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) W-9 form. You may be subjected to a penalty by the IRS if you do not provide this form. We only need one W-9 from you each year.

  • Sales tax will be collected through the central checkout and will be paid by us to the required agencies. One less thing for you to do!

  • You will be issued a sales receipt with your payment. This can be used to submit your income for tax purposes.

*This agreement is subject to change without notice. Please check this site for updates.