Tales

A Tale is a short, time-limited story you post to your 12sell profile — like a Story on social apps, but built for B2B context. Tales appear as small avatars at the top of the home feed and disappear automatically after 24 hours.

Tales are different from Deals (transaction posts) and Showcases (permanent product galleries). Tales are about presence and brand — daily updates that say "this business is active, here's what's happening today".

When to use Tales

Tales work best for:

• New stock arrivals — "Pallet of iPhones just landed, full deal coming this evening."
• Live events and trade shows — show your booth, your team, your activity.
• Behind the scenes — packing, shipping, factory tours, QC.
• Customer shout-outs — a happy customer, a delivered order.
• Quick announcements — opening hours, holiday closures, a flash inventory drop.
• Daily activity signals — keep your profile alive even on days when you're not posting Deals.

A profile that posts Tales regularly feels active and trustworthy. A profile with no Tales feels static.

What a Tale contains

A single Tale is a slideshow of one or more items. Each item is a photo, a video, or a content card that links to a Deal or Showcase.

Limits per item:

• Photos: any common image format. Photos are auto-cropped to a vertical (1080×1920) frame and compressed for fast loading.
• Videos: up to 50 MB. Larger videos won't upload.

How to post a Tale

1. Tap your avatar at the top of the home feed (or the + button → Tale).
2. Add one or more items:
   • Photo — pick from your library (the built-in cropper frames it for the vertical Tale format), or tap Generate with AI to create one from a title and description. AI images cost 10 tokens each.
   • Video — pick from your library. Stays as-is, plays in full.
3. Optionally add a title or description to each item — these overlay the media.
4. Reorder items by dragging.
5. Tap Post.

You can also turn an existing deal or showcase into a Tale: open it, tap Share → Add to Tale, and a live content card is published to your Tale for 24 hours.

That's it. Posting a Tale is free — the only optional cost is AI image generation.

The Tale goes through automatic moderation (usually instant) and then appears at the top of the home feed for everyone you reach. It expires automatically 24 hours later.

Where Tales appear

• Top of the home feed — anyone who follows you, plus people whose profile setup matches your business, see your Tale's avatar at the top.
• Your profile — the active Tale is also shown as a small avatar on your profile.
• In Messaging — when you reply to a Tale via the message option, the chat references it.

When someone taps your avatar, the Tale plays through all your items in order. Tap to skip, hold to pause, swipe to go to the next person's Tale.

Acting on someone's Tale

When you watch someone else's Tale, you can:

• Message the poster about something you saw — opens a chat in Messaging with the Tale referenced.
• Tap-and-hold to pause and read the caption.
• Skip to the next Tale.
• Report content that breaks the rules.

Who can see your Tale

Tales follow the same audience logic as Deals and Showcases: your followers, plus businesses whose categories and brands match yours. The 12sell feed shows Tales most relevant to each viewer first.

Lifecycle

• Active — visible at the top of feeds for the next 24 hours.
• Expired — automatically removed after 24 hours. Expired Tales aren't recoverable; if a moment matters long-term, post it as a Showcase too.
• Removed — Tales that violate the rules (irrelevant content, prohibited material, spam) are removed with a reason.

Common questions

How long does a Tale last?

24 hours, automatically. There's no way to extend a Tale — for permanent content, post a Showcase.

Can I add multiple photos and videos to one Tale?

Yes. A Tale is a slideshow — add as many photos and videos as you want, reorder them, and viewers play through them in order.

Are Tales free?

Yes. Posting a Tale doesn't cost tokens. Tokens are for Deals and Showcases.

Why is my video too large?

Videos must be 50 MB or smaller. Trim or compress before uploading. Most phone cameras let you record in lower resolutions or trim long clips.

Can I delete a Tale before 24 hours are up?

Yes. Open your profile → tap your Tale avatar → use the menu to delete the whole Tale or individual items.

Why can't I see who viewed my Tale yet?

View counts and viewer lists for Tales are tracked. Open your active Tale on your profile to see how many people have watched.

What if my Tale gets rejected?

Automatic moderation rejects Tales that aren't business-relevant, contain prohibited content, or look like spam. The rejection reason is shown on your profile. Re-record or rethink, then repost.

Can a Tale link to a Deal or Showcase?

Yes. Add a content card to your Tale — either from the Tale composer, or by opening a deal/showcase and tapping Share → Add to Tale. Viewers see a live, tappable card and can like, follow, or message straight from it (and open the full deal/showcase). A common pattern: post a photo of new stock arriving as item 1, then a content card for the matching Deal as item 2.

Next steps

• Deals — the transactional sibling of Tales.
• Showcases — for content that should live longer than 24 hours.
• Messaging — handle replies that come from your Tale.