OnceWed Transition to PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com
Our goal is to provide a bridal marketplace where everyone is protected and can have a smooth and seamless experience. To make this happen, as of June 6, 2023, OnceWed will become part of POWD (PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com).
When your item sells after June 6, we will help you with the entire sale process and you will receive 80% of the listed sale value (85% if you are a bridal salon). We reinvest the majority of the commission we take into marketing your items and our marketplace, including retargeting brides who have looked at your listing to bring them back to it. We're committed to getting your item seen by the exact brides who are seeking them.
Here's what we've got for you in return:
Payment Protection & Affirm
Sellers let us know that they didn’t like working with PayPal and that they wanted to be better protected during their transactions, so we’ve decided to take care of this ourselves. Our first step to protecting sellers specifically from scammers is owning the payment processing via a secure system (Shopify) with built-in Fraud Analysis. We rebuilt explicitly on the Shopify platform to take advantage of their advanced fraud prevention features. POWD absorbs the payment processing fee (similar to the fee you would have paid if you used PayPal on our old system to invoice a buyer).
In addition to this, we're able to offer "buy now, pay later" services with Affirm🙌🏻. This allows buyers who normally couldn't afford a certain price range to buy their dream dress and you get paid upfront!
Shipping, Logistics, & Insurance
We will handle the shipping process - we provide our sellers and buyers with prepaid UPS shipping labels that include 100% insurance coverage.
We will monitor all shipments and coordinate with UPS if there is an issue. In the rare event that your item is lost or damaged during transit, POWD takes on the coordination with UPS and our insurance provider. If the shipment cannot be recovered or the item repaired, we pay you out as if the buyer said yes to the dress.
Dress Inspection & Protection
We provide detailed instructions (and examples) to our sellers on properly protecting themselves with pictures and videos before shipping their dresses out, see Sellers, Before You Ship. These instructions will be linked for ease of access in our instruction emails when your dress sells.
To minimize the risk even further we instruct the buyer to complete an unpacking video when they receive their order - this video should record the unboxing of the dress as well as an inspection of the entire dress the moment it comes out of the box to record the condition they received it in.
Having both the buyer and seller record the last/first moment they handle the dress allows both sides the opportunity to feel protected with proof of condition. If either side chooses not to follow our directions on this, and an issue arises upon receipt of the item, they will be liable for any issues found because they won't have proof it was preexisting. This is the same process we use for our return process if a seller offers returns.
Dispute Resolution
Prior to rebuilding and launching the new POWD marketplace last year, dispute resolution was left between buyers, sellers, and PayPal if they used our PayPal invoice integration. With the old model, often times when a dispute was opened by a buyer with PayPal after they received their item PayPal sided with the buyer as they do not know all the ins and outs of selling wedding dresses and what can be expected as normal wear and tear, fit, etc. With our experience in the bridal industry, we are able to provide a fair and proper investigation if an issue arises.
Additionally, buyers were previously able to open disputes through PayPal about their purchase for up to 180 days - we only allow buyers up to 72 hours after receiving their purchase to let us know if there is a concern. Read more about our returns and refund policies and processes here.
You can read about what to expect when your item sells here: Your Item Sold! | Next Steps.