How this works for buyers: Make a request
This is a place where everyone can make requests to get (almost) anything made. Creators then bid on the opportunity to design and/or make the item.
It's your opportunity to collaborate with a creator to get exactly what you want.
This guide will walk through the buyer’s side of a request.
Step 1: Making a request
It's free and easy to make a request. To begin, enter the details of your request here. Let's go over each bit of the request form in detail:
Title of your request:
This is what creators will see when they view a list of buyer requests. Try to make it short, but descriptive so that creators will know quickly if they want to look further into bidding on your request.
Ideal price per item:
This is the amount you would like to pay for each individual item. Please try to be realistic in your estimate. Creators can counter-offer on the price when submitting a bid. Ultimately, you and the creator will determine what is the fairest price. All transactions are in United States Dollars (US$).
Quantity:
This is the number of items you would like from this request. You can accept multiple bids from different creators on the same request, or purchase the entire quantity from a single creator.
Delivery deadline:
This is when you'd like the item to be delivered to you. Again, try to be realistic and understand that it might take time to find just the right creator. Also consider the time it may take to source the materials, make the item and ship it to you.
Your name:
Just to let people know how you like to be referred to.
Your email address:
This is the email address creator bids will be sent to. Please make sure you type in a valid address and set up your email so emails from ponoko.com are not sent to your junk folder – you can do this by adding myponoko@ponoko.com to your address book.
Your shipping address:
Enter your city, zip code, and country. These will be made available to all qualified creators to enable them to correctly calculate shipping costs. Once you both agree upon the terms of the bid you can then let the creator know your entire address.
Description:
Be sure to describe your project in detail so creators can make an informed bid. Include its purpose, materials, colors, size/measurements and any other important info. You can also include web links to relevant images, sketches or videos of your idea.
When you’re done have a look over your request before you submit it to make sure all the information is correct. Once you have submitted it you will not be able to make changes unless a creator contacts you with a question or bid.
Now click on the ‘Submit’ button to send your request to a selection of creators.
Step 2: The bidding process
Qualified creators will now bid to design and/or make the item you requested. These bids will be sent to the email address you have supplied. A bid outlines a creator's offer, including the estimated price (which may be different than the ideal price in your request), shipping costs and terms, payment terms, and a detailed description of the item they will create for you. Multiple creators can bid on the same request.
As the buyer, you now have a few options: accept, decline or request changes to any creator’s bid. You and the creator can communicate about changes by private email to one another. The creator can edit their bid at any time before it is accepted or declined by you, the buyer. You can accept multiple bids on the same request, if you would like items from different creators.
Before you accept the bid, make sure the creator has edited the bid with all changes you may have discussed via email. Sometimes things change in the time between a creator submitting a bid and you accepting it. For this reason, once you accept a bid, the creator must confirm that they are still available to design and/or make the item. Once a creator confirms they will design and/or make the item, the request/bid becomes a binding agreement and both you and the creator agree to follow through with the transaction.
Step 3: Send payment
Once the creator has confirmed the agreement on email, they need to collect payment from you in a mutually agreed way. You should then submit payment to the creator according to the terms of the bid outlined in the email.
Step 4: Item is designed and/or made for you
The creator will now design and/or make the item as agreed. If you wanted the creator to deliver a finished product, then the job is complete. But if you wanted the creator to deliver a product design, you may now upload this design into your own personal online factory and click to make for the product parts to be delivered direct from Ponoko.