If you’re tired of using a third party software or manually processing sales for your organization, Wild Apricot’s new online store will soon take care of everything for you.
With the Online Store, you can sell products (like merchandise) straight from your Wild Apricot website. On the backend, all orders, email notifications, and payments will be handled automatically — all you have to do is give your customers their products.
In this post, I’ll be covering some common questions we’ve received about the Online Store.
When Is the Online Store Launching?
The Online Store is one of our newest features launching on April 3, 2018.
What Can I Sell With the Online Store?
You can use the Online Store to sell any product, service, or online resource (like a PDF) that you like.
How Do I Add Products and View Orders?
Once the Online Store goes live on April 3, 2018, you will see a new menu option in your Admin View called Store.
Under the Store menu, you will be able to add, edit, or remove products, as well as view orders and change settings.
You will also be able to customize product details. Here’s what you can do:
- add and edit names and descriptions of products
- set prices
- set special member prices, which will be automatically available for logged in members
- set a product category by adding a tag (used for filters)
- hide or show products on your website
How Do I Add the Online Store to My Website?
Once the Online Store goes live on April 3, 2018, simply drag and drop the Catalog gadget onto a webpage. This gadget is called Catalog, because it will show a catalog of all the products your organization offers online. Here’s how to add it:
- Go to the Admin View of your Wild Apricot website
- Click Website, then Site Pages and find the page you’d like to add the Online Store to.
- Click Edit
- Click Gadgets
- Scroll down to the Catalog gadget, then drag and drop it onto your page
- Save your changes
Here’s a GIF that illustrates this action:
How Do Customers Buy Products From the Online Store?
Once your Online Store is set up on your website, customers will be able to view your catalog of products. If you have set special member prices, non-members will also be able to compare regular and member prices (setting a member discount on products can be a great incentive to become a paid member).
Customers will also be able to view product details, add a product to their cart, and checkout the order.
Here’s a GIF showing the process a customer goes through to checkout their order:
What Happens After A Customer Orders a Product?
When a customer orders a product through your Online Store, they will receive an automatic email with their invoice and details of their order. You can also choose to have a copy of this email sent to an administrator of your organization.
In the backend, an Administrator can view all open orders. For physical products such as merchandise, the administrator will have to manually fulfill the order, then go into the backend and mark the order as fulfilled. The system will then send out an email to the customer notifying them of their order status. For online resources, the link to access the resource can be included in the confirmation email that goes out automatically.
How Do I Set Up Payments?
If you have set up online payments for your membership and event fees, then you will not have to complete any additional actions.
Where Can I find More Details about the Online Store?
Stay tuned! This is just a sneak peek of what you can do with the Online Store. As we get closer to the launch date of April 3, 2018, we will be sharing more details on the full capabilities.
Future Plans for the Online Store
We are eager to hear your feedback when the Online Store launches on April 3, 2018 and will continue to improve functionality and features thereafter. Be on the lookout for more updates about the Online Store.