FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Issimo Markets?
Issimo Markets is a community of Market Operators, Stallholders and Visitors who believe that we can do more together then we can apart. Issimo Markets provides one place to manage markets, find new stallholders and markets, and communicate.

Does Issimo run any markets?
Nope! Our role is to provide great tools and support to make life simple for anyone who wants to run or attend a market, to get more visitors to markets and to promote how great markets are in general for our communities.

Who sets the rules for how a market operates?
The markets do, since they own, operate and manage them. But within that structure, software can certainly help by letting everyone know exactly what the deal is, feeding updates to everyone as soon as something changes, providing great dashboards, and generally automating as much as we possibly can so everyone can get on with it and do what they do best.

Can I choose who attends my market?
Of course! It's your market and we know that stallholder curation is a vital part of running it. We aim to make it easy for stallholders to apply, reusing as much of their information as possible each time, and easy for you to accept or decline with just a click. Whatever the outcome, we let stallholders know quickly so that they can continue planning their upcoming dates.

How do I get paid?
We use a service called Stripe to process Credit/Debit card payments.

Issimo asks you how far ahead of each date you'd like to receive payment. Staggering the payment dates like this means stallholders can manage their cash flow more easily rather than having to make one big payment, but allows both you and and the Stallholder to plan on attendance and payment details far in advance. Once approved and closer to the date, the stallholder's payment is charged and deposited into your Stripe account. Your Stripe then automatically makes a deposit into your bank account every Day/Week/Month, depending on your Stripe settings.

You can also choose to use bank transfers or cash on the day still, however we find that managers quickly switch those options off once experiencing just how much time they save when the system just handles everything.

Do my regulars have to apply each time?
The idea is that regulars should apply for a whole year in advance, and then you approve the dates that work. However markets can also send invitations to any stallholder whose email they've been given, and we've found that markets are using this each time to send invitations to regulars as a useful way to remind them to confirm that they'll be there. We also have in beta testing the ability to simply mark a stallholder as attending on their behalf, and the ability for stallholders to toggle on and off authority for the market to create new site charges, so that they don't have to take action every time they wish to attend. This model gives full control and information to both parties, while also proving to be quite convenient. If you'd like access to this feature early we'd be quite happy to include your market in the beta.

What happens if a stallholder cancels?
A stallholder has the power to cancel their booking up until they have paid in their dashboard. After payment, the stallholder must contact the market in order to make arrangements. Bookings can be moved to other dates or cancelled by the market manager. If the market chooses to refund the booking - refunds are processed through Stripe

As a Market Manager, do stallholders see when we allocate a site?
No, we understand that allocations can change right up to the very day (and sometimes on the day!) so the allocation information is not visible by stallholders. A release is planned that will allow you to publish your site map to stallholders and visitors once it's ready for release.

How hard is the system to use?
Everything we do is aimed around making the most accessible and easy to use system. Stallholders and market managers will not need to be an IT pro to use Issimo Markets.

How long will it take to set my market up?
It’s pretty quick - you can do this yourself, and we're also happy to handle it for you. Once we have all the information we needed from you we can usually turn the settings around in a day or so, and often we can grab everything required from your existing booking form or website.

The information needed to setup is quite straightforward:

• What is the name of your organisation?
• What is the name or your market (or markets)?
• How often do your markets run?
• How much does a site cost?
• Do you sell extras such as tables, power or hay bales?
• What level of documentation do your stallholders require?
• Is there any other information you'd like to ask them, to better work out if they're a good fit?
• Would you like us to upload your existing stallholders to your community from a spreadsheet?

Afterwards, you'll have access to your market dashboard, an application link to send stallholders to, be able to invite stallholders directly from your dashboard, manage and message stallholders by date, update bookings manually, allocate sites, connect your bank account to get paid, export your data, and generally just get on with it!

What if something goes wrong?
We're a small, hard working team, located near Mount Buller in Mansfield, Victoria. Once setup you'll be able to easily reach us over phone or email, and our dev team is also local so we can act quickly to make sure it's all working for you. We are dedicated to making Issimo Markets a pleasure to use.

How much does it cost?
Our pricing model is simple and incredibly affordable. The cost is $2 per booking which goes to Issimo Markets plus a Stripe merchant fee (30c + 1.75% per transaction) which goes to Stripe for handling credit cards.

E.g: a site fee of $50 becomes $52, plus $1.12 if receiving payment via credit card.

Either or both of these can be added on top of your site fee, or included into it. There's no minimum or monthly cost, so if one of your dates doesn't run then the cost to you is truly $0. On the flip side, we win when markets do well and increase the number of stallholders, so it's in our best interest to help markets of all shapes and sizes to grow and flourish.

How do I update my payment details?
As a stallholder, your payment details are in your Dashboard. Sign into www.issimomarkets.com and head to the Dash. Click on the Stallholder profile you wish to edit and head right down the bottom to 'Accounts' in this option you can remove and add payments types.

I have a problem or an idea for improvement
Let us know! if you think something isn't right or you have an idea - email us at support@issimomarkets.com