Not understanding how funds work in MarketConnect

[jmbronson]

Hello all,

I'm new to WHMCS and had a couple questions. I'm confused as to how the checkout process works and how it relates to MarketConnect and adding funds. Help me understand the entire process of how it works.

So I am under the assumption that we (the company using WHMCS) has to pay each supplier (i.e. Sitelock, weebly, GeoTrust) to receive their products or services, am I correct? So when the user checks out - the money they spend doesn't automatically go to the supplier? I assume we, the company, are responsible for "passing" along this fee, yes? Does the product get activated instantly or must an Admin allocate the necessary funds to the supplier prior to activation?

I'm wondering how this is all tied into the "deposit funds" area within MarketConnect - what is this used for?

 

Sorry for the silly questions but the tutorials don't really explain the relevance or importance of adding funds to my account. I assume it's a necessary step in the selling process, as it's listed as a "to-do" right before making your first sale.

[ZeroGravity]

The deposit funds on MarketConnect acts like an "escrow" account when providing products via MarketConnect. You add funds to your market connect account to cover your clients purchases. The balance is shown in points but points seem to directly correlate to the dollar amount.

In the MarketConnect admin you can see your wholesale price and set the retail price you want to charge your clients. You can set the retail price to whatever you would like to charge though setting your price for a RapidSSL certificate to $150 (wholesale $9.95) mightn't get you many sales. 🙂

When a client makes a purchase an invoice is generated for them using your retail price. When the order is provisioned your MarketConnect funds balance is charged the wholesale price. If your funds balance is insufficient to cover the MC price it won't be provisioned until you add more funds.

Your profit is the difference between the MC price and the retail price you set. Hope that makes sense.

[WHMCS Sachin]

Just like you use a domain reseller account (i.e. you add funds to your domain reseller account first and then when a customer orders a domain, the cost price of that domain is deducted from your account funds and the domain is registered in your account), you add funds to your MarketConnect account beforehand, in order to sell and provision MarketConnect services automatically. Whenever a customer places an order for a MC service (like SSL or Weebly account), the cost of that service is deducted from your MC account and the service is provisioned. 

 

The payment that the customer makes goes to your account (and not to any other service provider). You pay for the services from your Marketconnect funds. This is exactly why it is required to have some funds added before you can make your first sale. 

 

Hope it clears it up a bit. Let me know if you have any further queries. 

[jmbronson]

Thanks for the replies!

You have both cleared up my confusion! Thanks again folks!