Online store

You can set up an online store on your Wild Apricot site to sell merchandise or services.

The online store is only available to paid accounts. 

Who can manage your store?

Only full account administrators can perform all store functions. 

A restricted administrator who has been assigned the store manager role can perform the following functions:

• Add and modify products
• View, fulfill, cancel, or export store orders
• View a list of the latest unfulfilled orders on their Dashboard. 

Store managers cannot perform the following functions:

• Add or modify delivery options
• Modify store emails
• Set store payment methods 

What can you do with the store?

Wild Apricot's store currently includes the following functionality:

• Add multiple product catalog pages, and filter each using product tags
• Display a shopping cart icon on every site page
• Add products to your product catalog, with multiple images for each product
• Offer multiple variations (e.g. sizes or colors) for each product
• Set prices, including special member prices
• Set stock limits
• Specify delivery options and shipping charges
• Automatically apply taxes to an order (and optionally, the shipping charges)
• Send automatic email notifications
• Customize automatic store emails
• View and process orders
• Sort and filter the orders list
• Cancel an existing order (administrator only)
• Export orders

You can use the Store API call to retrieve information about online store orders and products, and set the status of an existing order.

What can't you do with the store?

The following functionality is not currently available:

• Place an order on behalf of someone else
• Modify an existing order
• Process returns
• Generate reports
• Allow customers to track or cancel orders
• Charge different taxes rates based on buyer's location
• Provide different shipping options for different products

Steps involved in setting up your store

The following steps are involved in setting up your Wild Apricot store:

1. Add products to your product catalog.
2. Choose your store settings and delivery options.
3. Create a site page and add a catalog gadget.
4. Add a cart gadget to your page template(s).

These steps are described in detail below.

Adding products to your product catalog

To add a product to your product catalog, hover over the Store menu and select the Products option. On the screen that appears, click the Add product button.

You'll then be asked to choose the product type.

Depending on the product type you choose, different options will appear on the Add product screen. 

For physical products, you can:

• control access to the product
• provide a product name and description
• add images
• specify both regular and member pricing
• set your inventory policy
• add product variants e.g. sizes, colors

For digital products, you can:

• control access to the product
• provide a product name and description
• add images
• specify both regular and member pricing
• attach a digital product file or enter a digital link

When you are finished adjusting your product settings, click the Save button at the top of the screen.

Product settings

The following settings are available when adding a product.

Public/Admin only

Controls whether the product appears in the public product catalog. Set this to Admin only until you are ready to make this product public.

Important Note: Digital products are limited to a maximum inventory of 100 items within public catalogs. Admin-only catalogs are limited to a maximum of 2,000 digital items.

Product name

The name of the product to be displayed below the cover image on the public product catalog.

Regular price

The price for visitors to your site who are not logged as members.

Member price

The price for logged in members who have a membership status of Active, Pending Renewal, or Pending Level Change (not Pending New, Lapsed, or Suspended).

Tags

Used to organize products into categories. You can filter your product catalog by tags to display only certain kinds of products.

Images

You can add up to 6 images for your product. The images must be in PNG, JPG, or GIF format, and up to 2 Mb in size. The image in the first slot will be used as the cover photo in your product catalog.

To add your first image, click the Upload photo button within the image area, or drag and drop an image onto the image area. 

To add more images, click one of the empty image slots then click the Upload photo button or drag and drop an image.

To rearrange the order of your product images, drag and drop an image from one slot to another.

Description

You can enter a description that appears on the product details page within your product catalog.

Inventory policy (physical products only)

For physical products, you choose whether you want to specify a stock quantity, so you can track inventory and cut off sales after the available stock has been sold.

To specify stock quantity and track inventory, select the Track inventory option. If you have no product variants (like size or color), you can enter the stock quantity for the product in the Stock field.

If you have product variants set up, you specify the stock quantity for each individual variant in the Variants section (below).

Your products list will display the stock quantity you have specified, or Unlimited if you haven't specified a stock quantity.

As customers purchase your products, the stock quantity will be automatically adjusted to indicate the remaining quantity.

On your store, the available quantity left in stock is displayed on the product page. If there are product options, the quantity is displayed after the customer chooses their options.

At checkout time, the customer will be prompted to update their cart if the quantity they requested is no longer available.

Variants (physical products only)

For physical products, you can add up to 3 product options – like different sizes or colors – to create multiple product variants (like Small, Red or Medium, Blue).

To add a product option, click the Add option button under Variants.

In the Option name field that appears, you identify the option (e.g. Size), and in the Option values field, you enter the values for the option, separated by a comma (e.g. S,M,L).

You can specify up to 10 option values.

For each option, a dropdown will appear to your customers on the product details screen using the option name as its label and the option values as its contents.

Each variant your customers choose will appear as a separate item in their shopping cart and in your product order.

If you've set the product's Inventory policy to Track inventory, you can specify the stock quantity for each variant.

Digital product setup

Within this section, you can attach a digital file or provide a URL linking to a hosted file or virtual meeting.

Note: Digital products are limited to a maximum inventory of 100 items within the Public catalog. Admin catalogs are limited to a maximum of 2,000 digital items.

In both cases, you can also enter a note to be included in the email with the link to the file or URL. 

Files to be attached cannot exceed 100 MB and must be a supported file type. You can only attach a single file, but you could attach a zip file containing multiple files. Digital product attachments do not count towards your overall file space limit.

If you choose to provide a link rather than attach a file, you can also enter an access code or password provided by an external service (e.g. Zoom).

Entering your own access code will not restrict access to the link.

Removing a product

You can remove a product from your product catalog without affecting any existing orders (or related invoices) for that product.

To remove a product from your product catalog, follow these steps:

1. Click the product within the products list.
2. Click the Delete button at the top of the screen.
   
3. When prompted to confirm your intention to delete the product, click Yes.

Delivery settings

To set up your delivery options, hover over the Store menu and select the Delivery option. On the Delivery options screen, you can set up multiple shipping options and pickup options for physical products.

For each shipping option, you can specify a shipping charge. Pickup options are always free.

To create a new shipping charge, click Add shipping option.

On the screen that appears, you can specify an option title, a price, and a description. For free shipping, enter a price of zero.

As part of your tax settings, you can choose whether to apply your default tax rules to shipping charges. You cannot provide for different tax rates to be applied for store orders or shipping charges based on the customer's location.

To add a pickup option, click Add pickup option. On the screen that appears, you can specify an option title and description.

You can change the order of your shipping and pickup options by dragging and dropping them within the Delivery options screen.

The shipping and pickup options you specify will appear on the Delivery step within the cart checkout process.

Customers can choose either a shipping option or a pickup option. The first option in the list will be selected by default. 

If your customer chooses a shipping option, they will be required to complete the address fields before proceeding.

The delivery option they choose will appear as a separate line item on their order details and their invoice.

If you don't set up any delivery options, the Delivery screen will not be displayed as part of the checkout process.

Store settings

On the Store settings screen, you can customize the emails sent to customers and administrators, and choose whether to accept online payments, offline payments, or both.

Customizing store emails

You can customize each of the emails that are automatically sent when the status of an order changes.

To customize a store email, click the blue link for the message you want to customize.

You can customize the following automatic store emails:

• Order successfully created
  Sent to the customer and organization contact once the customer finishing checking out. Not sent to free digital products.
• Order shipped/fulfilled
  Sent to the customer and organization contact when the status of the order is set to fulfilled.
• Order canceled
  Sent to the customer and organization contact when the order is canceled.
• Digital product link
  Sent to the customer once a digital product order has been paid. The link to an attached file will expire 7 days after it is sent.
• New order
  Sent to the organization contact once the customer completes checkout.

You can also provide for these messages to be forwarded to other recipients using email routing.

When customizing your store emails, the following macros are available:

• {Order Number}
  The order number.
• {Order PlacementDate}
  The date the order was placed.
• {Order ShippingAddress}
  The customer's shipping address.
• {Order DeliveryInfo}
  If a shipping option is selected, displays:
  Shipping to FULL_ADDRESS. SHIPPING_OPTION_TITLE, SHIPPING_OPTION_DESCRIPTION.
  If a pickup option is selected, displays:
  Pick up, PICKUP_TITLE, PICKUP_DESCRIPTION
  If delivery options are not set up, displays:
  "Delivery method not specified."
• {Order Comments}
  The instructions added to the order by the customer.
• {Order Contact Phone}
  The customer's contact number
• {Order Table}
  A table displaying the product, price, quantity, and total cost for each item.
• {Product_Name}
  The name of the digital product.
• {Product_Link}
  The link to the digital product.
• {Product_Emailnote}
  A note to be included in the email with the link to the digital product.
• {ProductLink_AccessCode}
  The access code or password for the hosted file or meeting.
• {ProductLink_ExpirationNotice}
  Text explaining that the link to an attached file will expire after 7 days.

Choosing payment methods

You can choose whether to accept online and/or offline payments for store orders. The online option is only available if online payments have been enabled for your site.

Depending on which payment method option you choose, different payment workflows will take place.

• If only offline payment is enabled, then an invoice will be emailed to the customer after they click the Invoice me button – unless invoice emails have been disabled from the Invoice and receipt settings – and the invoice details will be displayed. From the invoice details, the customer can choose to pay the outstanding invoice online.
• If only online payment is enabled, then a Pay online button will appear. Clicking the Pay online button will take the customer to the online payment screen for your site's payment provider, where they can pay the store invoice. Other outstanding invoices will not be taken into consideration.
• If both online and offline payment is enabled, then two buttons will be displayed: Pay online and Invoice me. Clicking the Pay online button will take the customer to the online payment screen for your payment provider. Clicking the Invoice me button will result in the customer being emailed an invoice – which they can pay online or offline – and the invoice details being displayed. From the invoice details, the customer can choose to pay the outstanding invoice online.

When paying using PayPal Payments Pro, the Pay online button with be replaced with two buttons: Pay with credit card, and PayPal Express Checkout.

Tax settings

In the initial implementation of taxation support for Wild Apricot's online store, you can only choose whether to apply the default tax settings to online store purchases. You cannot override the default tax settings based on the purchaser's location. 

You can choose whether to enable taxes for store shipping costs, as well as product costs.

To enable taxes for your online store, follow these steps:

1. Hover over the Finances menu and select the Taxes option. 
2. Choose up your default tax settings using these instructions. 
3. Within the Tax scope section, check the Online store option, and optionally, the Online store shipping option.
4. Save the changes to your tax settings.

For more information on setting up taxes in Wild Apricot, click here.

Adding a catalog gadget

So that visitors to your site can view and purchase your products, you need to add a catalog gadget to a page on your Wild Apricot site.

To add a catalog gadget to a page on your site, follow these steps:

1. Begin editing the site page where you want the product catalog to appear.
2. Click the Gadgets icon to display the list of available gadgets.
   
3. Drag the catalog gadget from the Gadgets list, and drop it on the desired location within the page.
4. Hover over the catalog gadget and click the Settings icon.
5. Within the gadget settings on the left, choose the order in which you want products to appear in your catalog. You can sort the product list by date added, price, or name, in ascending or descending order.
6. Choose whether you want to show all products on your product catalog, or just those products with a particular product tag.
7. Click the Save button to save the changes to your page.

You might want to add a content gadget with welcoming text above your catalog gadget.

Adding a shopping cart gadget

So that visitors to your site can jump to their shopping cart from any page, you need to add a cart gadget to one or more page templates.

To add a cart gadget to a page template, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Website module and click the Page templates option at the top of the screen.
   
2. Within the list of templates on the left, click the template you want to modify.
3. Click the green Edit button at the top of the screen.
4. Click the Gadgets icon to display the list of available gadgets.
   
5. Drag the cart gadget from the Gadgets list, and drop it on the desired location within the page.
6. Hover over the cart gadget and click the Settings icon.
7. Within the gadget settings on the left, you can control the horizontal alignment of the cart.
8. Click the Save button to save the changes to your page template.

Placing an order

Visitors to your catalog page will see the name, pricing, and cover image for your products. To view product details and place an order, they can click the image or the product title below it.

Currently, administrators cannot place an order on behalf of a contact.

On the product details screen, visitors can view other product images, read your product description, choose product options (like size or color), view the remaining stock quantity, adjust the order quantity, and add this order to their shopping cart.

You can add content (like instructions) above or below the product details by modifying the Online store product system page.

To add the order to their shopping cart, the visitor clicks the Add to cart button.

With the order added to their cart, the visitor can view their shopping cart by clicking the View cart link beside the Add to cart button, or by clicking the Cart option where you placed the cart gadget.

From their shopping cart, visitors can adjust the quantity of their items and proceed to checkout. 

You can add content (like instructions) above or below the cart by modifying the Online store cart system page.

On the first checkout screen, customers enter their contact information.

If the customer's email address is stored in your contact database, they will be prompted to log in once they click the Continue button. If the customer's email address is not already in your contact database, a new contact record will be created with that address once they place their order.

Any required rules and terms fields that you have added to your common fields will appear at the bottom of the form.

You can add content (like instructions) above or below the checkout forms by modifying the Online store checkout system page. You cannot currently choose which fields appear on these forms.

If any delivery options have been set up for physical products, the next screen allows customers to enter their delivery information and choose a delivery option.

The shipping address fields are displayed only if the customer chooses one of the shipping options. With a shipping option selected, your customer will be required to complete the address fields before proceeding.

On the final checkout screen, customers confirm the billing and shipping details. If the product and shipping are both free, the customer can complete the order by clicking the Confirm button. Otherwise, the customer completes the order by choosing a payment option – Invoice me or Pay online.

Once the customer completes the order for a physical product, or for a digital product that is not free, an order confirmation email is sent to the customer and a copy is sent to your organization contact. For free digital orders, the order fulfilled email is sent instead of the confirmation email.

You can customize each message, and provide for them to be copied to other recipients using email routing.

Viewing orders

To view a list of the orders from your online store, hover over the Store menu and select the Orders option. By default, the list is sorted in chronological order.

To change the sorting order, click the up or down triangles beside the appropriate column heading.

You can filter the orders list by entering a product name or customer name in the quick search field, and/or by selecting any or all of the following filters:

• date (last 30 days, 60 days, 6 months, 12 months, or a custom date range)
• invoice status (no invoice, paid, partially paid, unpaid, free)
• order status (fulfilled, unfulfilled, cancelled)

To reset the filters to their default values, click Reset filter.

To view the details of an order, click it within the list.

Within the order details, you can enter the text of the message to be displayed to the customer when you fulfill the order, and record internal notes that only appear within the order details in admin view.

You can click the Invoice link to display the corresponding invoice for the order and record payment, or click the customer's name to jump to the contact details for that customer.

Invoices and payments for online store orders will have an origin of Online store order. You can filter the invoices and payments list to display only store-related entries by choosing the Online store order filter.

Fulfilling an order

For orders, there are three statuses: Unfulfilled, Fulfilled, and Cancelled. A status of Fulfilled means that the order has been delivered to the customer.

The status of an order consisting of one or more free digital products is automatically set to Fulfilled when the customer clicks the Confirm button to complete the order. The status of an order consisting of one or more paid digital products is set to Fulfilled when the order is paid.

To change the status of a physical product order from Unfulfilled to Fulfilled, display the order details then click the Fulfill order button.

If the order is unpaid, you will be asked if you want to proceed with fulfilling an unpaid order.

Once the order is fulfilled, a FULFILLED stamp will appear over the order details.

The customer will receive the Order shipped/fulfilled email message, and a copy will be sent to your organization contact. If the order is for a digital product, then a Digital product link email with a link to the digital product will also be sent, one for each digital product. You can customize these messages, and provide for them to be copied to other recipients using email routing.

The link to an attach digital file will expire 7 days after it is sent. To resend the digital link email with a fresh link, click the Resend button within the order details.

You can also use the Resend button to resend a link to a hosted file or meeting.

Canceling an order

You can cancel a fulfilled or unfulfilled order. Canceling an order will not automatically void the corresponding invoice or refund the order payment.

You cannot undo the cancelling of an order.

To cancel an order, display the order details then click the Cancel order button.

Once the order is canceled, a CANCELLED stamp will appear over the order details. 

The customer will receive the Order canceled email message, and a copy will be sent to your organization contact. You can customize this message, and provide for it to be copied to other recipients using email routing. 

Exporting orders

You can export your store orders – as they appear on the Orders list – to to a spreadsheet. To do so, follow these steps:

1. From the Orders list, filter your orders to display only those orders you want to export. 
2. Click the Export button.
   
3. On the dialog that appears, select the export file format – XLS, CSV, or XML.
4. Choose which fields to include in the export file. 
5. Click the Export button.

While the export file is being generated, you can click the Continue working button and safely switch to another Wild Apricot admin screen. Once the file is generated, you'll receive an email with a link to the file.

If you waited until the export file was generated, the file will be automatically downloaded. As well, a dialog with a link to the file will appear, and an email with the link will be sent to you.

Before clicking the download link within the email, make sure you are logged into your Wild Apricot account as an administrator, and in admin view.

Free vs. paid products

The products in your store can be free or can come with a cost. They can be free for members but come with a cost for non-members, or vice versa. 

Physical products can be free but come with paid shipping.

You can offer free digital products like free webinars, or free physical products like printed membership cards or t-shirts for members. You can also offer free products as a way of checking out and tracking resources like books or gym equipment.

When a customer completes an order consisting of one or more free digital products, the status of the order is automatically set to Fulfilled and the order fulfilled email is sent instead of the confirmation email. Free physical product orders need to be fulfilled manually.