Frequently Asked Questions
From Retailers
If you choose to upgrade your plan prior to your monthly anniversary day, your new Membership Plan will be effective immediately. The initial cost of your upgraded plan will be charged to your credit card at the time of upgrading. The amount will be pro-rated based on the number of days until your anniversary day and discounted by the number of days remaining in your current billing cycle.
The first full cost of your new plan will be charged 30 days from the day of your upgrade and will be renewed monthly.
If you choose to downgrade your plan prior to your monthly anniversary day, your new Membership Plan will not be effective until the end of the current month cycle. There are no pro-rated refunds for downgraded accounts.
TopDawg offers access to our real-time shipping calculator through the Shopify marketplace integration. With this integration you can display real-time shipping costs in your cart, allowing your customers to receive actual shipping costs at check out. No more estimating shipping costs!
To activate the third-party carrier-calculated shipping, your store needs to be on the Advanced Shopify plan. For more information, contact Shopify Support.
The shipping cost API integration provides real time shipping cost calculations to your marketplace at the time of checkout. This is designed to remove the headaches behind shipping costs and the numerous variables involved for your orders.
Our API accounts for every product's shipping origin and destination, product's shipping dimensions, and total weight of all products per order. After taking these factors into consideration, the integration will provide you the best real-time shipping price and carrier option between USPS, UPS, and FedEx.
When a package is shipped internationally, it may be subject to import taxes, customs duties, and/or fees imposed by the destination country. These charges will typically be incurred once the shipped goods arrive at the country of destination.
Such charges are not included in the product price or shipping and handling cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility as we are only charging the transportation fee for your order.
TopDawg does not have any responsibility for these additional charges that may apply.
The buyer is responsible for obtaining information regarding their country's laws, regulations, and restrictions that may apply when purchasing our products. By placing an international order, the buyer is responsible for abiding by their country's laws, regulations, and restrictions.
If a product is seized and destroyed by customs, or returned to the supplier, TopDawg will NOT be responsible for the losses, product, or shipping refunds. It is the buyer's responsibility to cover the shipping costs when the buyer wishes to have a second delivery attempt after the product is returned to the supplier.
TopDawg does not guarantee at any time a certain delivery date or time frame for delivery for any product or order. Any listed time for a shipping method is an estimate only. For orders with deadlines please order well in advance and we will arrange it for you.
TopDawg sources products from multiple suppliers and manufacturers around the world. Product return policies are determined by each supplier independently. The suppliers provide TopDawg with their individual return policy outlined in our master product catalog available in a csv file format to download. You may also view this information by clicking on any product in our catalog and selecting “Additional Info.”
Most products can be returned within 30 days of delivery; unless otherwise stated in the individual supplier’s policy, and with written approval from TopDawg. To initiate a product return, you must first contact TopDawg for an RMA number. Any attempt to return products without an RMA number will be declined. If the items are eligible for return, the RMA number and return address will be provided. All costs associated with product returns (restocking fees, return shipping, etc.) are determined by each supplier and remain the responsibility of the customer. Once the product return has been received and processed, a credit for returns will be issued to the retailer’s TopDawg account and can be applied to future product orders.
If your customers notify you that their order has not arrived (lost) or has been received in damaged condition, please notify our support team at support@topdawg.com to file a claim.
Lost Orders: If the shipment has been lost, we will file a trace with the carrier to locate your order. If the shipment is found, the package will be delivered. If the shipment is unable to be located, we will issue full credit back to your account.
Damaged Orders: If an order has been received damaged, please take photos of the damaged item as well as the box it arrived in and send those images along with the order number to support@topdawg.com. TopDawg will file a damage claim with the carrier on your behalf. Once a claim has been filed, we can either reship the order to your customer or issue a full refund to your account.
When adding items to your store from TopDawg, shipping rates will not be included. You will need to set up the costs of shipping separately, as the costs of the products themselves will not include shipping. There are many ways to cover the cost of shipping when selling products online. Since TopDawg offers thousands of products from hundreds of different suppliers, we cannot provide a simple weight-based rate sheet to calculate shipping. All of this seems very complicated, but do not stress! We have a couple of strategies for you on the best way to set up shipping!
1. Manual Shipping Quote: Select any item in the TopDawg catalog and click on “calculate shipping for this product”, then enter the destination zip code to get an estimate for that item. (Please keep in mind, different zip codes will return different rates.) You can also add an item to your cart, or group of items, and select a customer to see the actual rates for shipping. This will help you understand the costs associated with shipping the products you have decided to sell.
Once you understand your average shipping costs for the products you are going to sell, you have a few ways to build that cost into your website:
• Flat Rate Shipping – Set up a flat rate shipping fee that will cover your expected shipping costs. This is typically a pre-set shipping fee per order, and the set shipping fee will be added to the order total at checkout.
• Free Shipping - Instead of setting a fee for shipping, simply add your estimated shipping costs to your product price directly. This option has pros and cons. Pros are that your order volume might be higher since you are offering free shipping. The cons are that the products you are selling may appear to be overpriced for customers that compare prices online, as they may not recognize that the item cost includes the cost of shipping.
• Tiered Flat Rate - This is a good option if you sell a variety of products with various sizes and weights, as well as different price points. With a tiered flat rate system, you can determine the tiers based on product weight or price. For example, you could charge a flat rate of $5 for shipping items weighing 0-1 lb., $7 for products weighing 1.1-5 lbs., and $10 for products weighing 5.1- 10 lbs. Same thing would apply for pricing tiers. For example, $0- $10 you charge $3 for shipping. $10.01-$49.99 you charge $8, and anything $50 or greater is free shipping. This is a great way to incentivize your customers to purchase larger orders to get free shipping.
• Hybrid Shipping - Simply split your estimated shipping costs by increasing your product price as well as setting a low flat rate shipping fee. An example would be that if your estimated shipping cost is $6, you can add $3 to the cost of the product and charge a $3 flat shipping rate.
2. Fully Integrated Shipping Solution: TopDawg offers a fully integrated shipping solution that will allow you to easily calculate shipping on your website. With just a few clicks, you can easily connect TopDawg’s API shipping cost integration into your website to accurately charge your customers for shipping. TopDawg API Shipping Integration offers lowest rate shipping options from multiple carriers by calculating the actual shipping cost in real time based on the total weight of the order and the ship from and ship to locations. This integration will be the best way to easily integrate shipping into your website as well as providing the lowest shipping rates possible to your customers. To learn more about TopDawg’s fully integrated shipping solution, contact customer support at support@topdawg.com.