Wish Becomes ‘Invite Only’ for New Merchants

Wish eCommerce app

In what it’s calling an attempt to improve product quality, mobile eCommerce platform Wish has introduced an “invite-only” process for selecting merchants.

Beginning Wednesday (Feb. 2), new merchants who want to sell on Wish will need to take part in a “multi-step qualification process,” the company said in a Wednesday (Feb. 2) news release.

Wish says this move is part of a larger effort to boost user trust by giving priority to merchants that provide great services. The invite-only plan replaces Wish’s previous open sign-up process, but will not affect merchants already using the platform.

“Our overall goal is to create a fun environment for users to shop for quality products online, and this starts at the moment of merchant sign-up,” Wish Vice President of Product for Merchants and Logistics Mauricio Monico said. “The addition of an ‘invite-only’ sign-up experience will go a long way as we focus on partnering with higher-quality merchants. It’s just one of many features we will be rolling out this year to improve the user experience on Wish.”

New merchants who want access to Wish will need to first fill out a short questionnaire on merchant.wish.com. From there, the Wish team will review each request, looking at factors such as product categories, channel partnerships, and ecommerce performance history.

Read more: eCommerce Platform Wish to Offer BNPL with Klarna in US

Wish is one of the biggest eCommerce platforms, offering more than 90 million users in 100 a curated shopping experience and personalized shopping feeds and access to 550,000 merchants worldwide.

Last year, Wish announced it was expanding its eight-year older partnership with the retail bank, payments and shopping service Klarna to allow for more flexible payments in the U.S.

Wish said the expanded partnership would allow it to offer more buy now, pay later, (BNPL) opportunities, with customers paying for the first 25% of the four payments at checkout. The following payments are collected automatically every two weeks after.