Merchandise Store (Artists & Vendors)

Merchandise Store

Any Artist or Vendor can sell products from their own store — no separate feature toggle beyond your existing Artist or Vendor role, and both sell through the exact same store. A vendor's store doesn't depend on ever booking a stall (see Vendor Stalls for the stall-booking side) — it's available the moment Vendor is enabled. Go to Dashboard → Merchandise to get started.

Product Types

Every product you list is one of four types, chosen when you create it:

• Simple – a single standalone item with one price and stock count (e.g. a print, a mug).
• Configurable – an item with size and/or colour options, each with its own price and stock (e.g. a t-shirt).
• Virtual – a service or appointment with no shipping involved (e.g. a video call, a commission slot). You follow up with delivery details after payment.
• Downloadable – a digital file delivered automatically after payment (e.g. an ebook, a sample pack). Buyers get their download links right on their confirmation page.

Note: once a product has any orders, its type is locked — you'll need to create a new product to switch between physical and digital/virtual.

Variants, Shipping & Digital Files

• Every product needs at least one active variant with stock before it can be published — this is where price and stock live. The one exception is a product set to Pre-sale (below), which publishes without any stock.
• Simple and Configurable products additionally need at least one active shipping option (Dashboard → Merchandise → Shipping Options) — set these up once and they're reused across every physical product you sell.
• Downloadable products need at least one file uploaded from the product's own page before you can publish. Buyers get up to 5 downloads per file.
• Virtual and Downloadable products skip the shipping step entirely, both when you publish and when a buyer checks out.
• Courier Guy can be added as a shipping option too — just a label and a collection address (one of your own saved addresses). You'll also need to set that product's weight and dimensions on its edit page for Courier Guy to actually apply to it — without those it simply isn't offered for that product, your other shipping options still work as normal. Once set up, buyers see real, live Courier Guy prices at checkout for their exact address. Note: paying for Courier Guy doesn't yet book the collection automatically — check your order page for an “Action needed” notice and arrange the collection yourself via your own Courier Guy account until that's automated.
• Same-Day Delivery hands the job to a verified fleet — just a label and a collection address (one of your own saved addresses). At checkout, buyers who pick it pay the closest fleet's own same-day fee together with the order, and a paid delivery request is created for that fleet automatically. If the fleet declines, the buyer is refunded the fee and you fulfil the order another way. Each fleet keeps its own list of items it won't carry. If your product contains one of them, tick that fleet under Prohibited Items on the product's Add / Edit page. Checkout then skips that fleet and offers the next closest one.
• Fastway works the same way as Courier Guy above — a label plus a collection address, and the same product weight/dimensions requirement. You can add both Courier Guy and Fastway if you want buyers to see both live quotes at checkout. Same note applies: paying for Fastway doesn't yet book the collection automatically, so watch for the “Action needed” notice on your order page.
• Delivery by Distance is different — you deliver it yourself, so there's no collection to arrange. Pick your own location (one of your saved addresses) and set your own price bands by distance, e.g. “0–5km: R30”, “5–10km: R50” (leave the last band's “up to” blank to price everything further away too). At checkout, buyers see the price for whichever band their address falls into, worked out from real driving distance — no product weight or dimensions needed for this one. An address outside every band you've set simply won't be offered this option at checkout.

Adding Many Products at Once (Bulk Upload)

Go to Dashboard → Merchandise → Bulk Upload to add your whole range from one spreadsheet:

1. Download the template, or Download My Products to edit what you already sell.
2. Fill it in in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. Only the product name and price are required. Selling sizes or colours? Add one row per option with the same product name. Type category and subtype names as listed on the page.
3. Save it as CSV and upload it. You'll see a review of exactly what will be created or updated, and any rows that can't be used and why, before anything is saved. Click Import to go ahead, or choose a different file.

Add an image_url column with links to each product's photos (several links separated by a space; Google Drive and Dropbox share links work). They're downloaded in the background for products that don't have photos yet, and any link that can't be used is listed on your product list.

New products are saved as drafts. Add photos, then publish them from your product list. Uploading the downloaded file again updates matching products instead of creating duplicates. Prices like “R 1 200,00”, semicolon-separated files and column names like “Qty” or “Color” are all understood.

Publishing, Unpublishing & Deleting Several Products

On Dashboard → Merchandise, tick the products you want (or tick the header box to select every one on the page), choose Publish, Unpublish or Delete from the Action menu and click Apply. Each product follows the same rules as doing it one at a time: a product is only published once it's ready (stock, shipping option or digital file as needed), and only unpublished products with no pending, paid, or shipped orders can be deleted. Anything that can't be changed is skipped and listed with the reason. If your store itself isn't ready to publish yet (username, return and refund policies, approved banking), nothing is published and you're told what's missing.

Pre-sale & Waiting List

Launching something that isn't ready to ship yet, or want to collect demand before you produce it? Set the product's Sale Mode to Pre-sale (on the create/edit form while it's still a draft, or anytime afterwards from the product's own Manage Pre-sale & Waiting List panel). A pre-sale product can be published with no stock at all — it appears in your store and on Browse Merchandise with a Pre-sale badge, and buyers get a "join the waiting list" panel instead of a buy button.

• Joining the list is free by default. You can instead require a flat deposit to join (any amount you set, per product) — buyers pay it through the usual platform checkout to reserve their spot. Each deposit is credited to that product's earnings the moment it's paid, net of the platform's separate pre-sale deposit commission (an independent rate you'll find under Dashboard → Pricing).
• The list itself lives on the product's Pre-sale page in your dashboard: everyone waiting, who has paid, the deposit total, and the commission withheld.
• A buyer who hasn't paid anything can leave the list from the product page and join again later; a paid deposit is handled by support instead (no self-serve cancellation once money has moved).
• When you switch the product back to Available — or publish a product that was already set to Available while people were waiting — everyone still on the list is emailed automatically that it's on sale, once each.
• Guards: switching back to Available while the product is published needs at least one active variant with stock (there'd be nothing to buy otherwise), a pre-sale product can't be added to a cart, and one already sitting in someone's cart blocks their checkout with a pointer to the waiting list until the product is available again.

Getting Paid

Sold products credit your account for that product, net of the platform's merchandise commission. Shipping cost is passed through to you in full — it isn't commissioned.

If you're a vendor with Sales Agents working your Leads CRM, each product's edit page also has its own Sales Agent Commission % field — a separate, optional rate you pay an agent for selling that product, not related to the platform's own commission above.

Order Invoices

Once an order is paid, both you and the buyer can download a PDF invoice for it from the order's detail page ("Download Invoice" — buyers find theirs at Dashboard → My Merchandise Orders, you at Dashboard → Artist → Orders). It's generated on demand from the order's own details, so it's always available for any paid order. On the mobile app, buyers can browse and track every order they've bought from More → My Merchandise Orders — courier tracking events or a same-day fleet delivery's live driver/vehicle info, without needing the shipping notification that first linked to it.

Store Visibility

Your store is only visible to the public once you publish it. Artists publish from Dashboard → Artist (the Publish button, which also makes your artist profile page shareable) — until then you can still create, manage, and publish products, they just won't show up on your store page or the platform-wide Browse Merchandise page. Vendors publish their store from Dashboard → Vendor with the Publish store button, gated on your vendor type(s), an approved Certificate of Acceptability (food & beverage only), a username, at least one published product, and approved banking details (Profile → Banking). The dashboard lists anything still missing. Unpublishing takes the store offline again immediately.

Store QR Code

Once your store is visible, Profile → My QR Code shows a single Merchandise Store QR code covering your whole store — one code to hand someone at a stall or print on a flyer, rather than one per product. Artists and Vendors share the exact same store page, so this is one QR either way, even if you've enabled both. (Each product also has its own QR code, on that product's own Dashboard → Merchandise page, for marketing a specific item.)

Point of Sale — In-Person Sales

From Dashboard → Merchandise → Point of Sale, record sales made in person — at a market stall, pop-up, or event — where the customer pays you directly (cash, your own card machine, etc.). These sales are never processed through the platform and earn no platform commission. The first time you use it, you'll pay a small once-off fee to unlock Point of Sale for your store permanently; if the fee ever changes afterward, your store keeps access at no extra cost. Pick products and quantities from the till, tap Complete Sale, and stock updates immediately — the sale also shows up in your regular Merchandise Orders list alongside your online orders. Only Simple and Configurable (physical) products are available at the till; Virtual and Downloadable products aren't sold this way. A delegated staff member needs the Use Point of Sale team permission to operate the till. Before the first sale each day, count in your float (the cash you start with) in the Start the day box at the top of the till, or tap Set float on the app's Point of Sale screen. The box then shows the float next to today's till sales. You can correct it the same day, and it never stops you selling. If the customer takes the goods now and pays later instead, use Put on Account — see Selling on Account (Credit Book).

Return & Refund Policies (Required)

Before you can publish any product, you need an active Return Policy and an active Refund Policy set up at Dashboard → Artist Policies (also where your Booking Terms live). Write your own or use the "Use Sample Policy" button to start from platform-provided wording you can edit. Once a policy is powering a published product, you can't deactivate it without unpublishing first — both policies show as expandable sections on your product pages so buyers can read them before they pay. You'll also need your banking account approved by a ROOT admin (Profile → Banking) — same requirement as every other publishable listing on the platform.

PAXI Delivery

PAXI can be added as a shipping option too — just a label, no address and no price to set: PAXI's 6 prices are fixed platform-wide by root, and you drop paid orders off yourself at your own nearest PEP store (PAXI doesn't collect). You'll need to set that product's weight on its edit page for PAXI to actually apply to it — without it, PAXI simply isn't offered for that product, your other shipping options still work as normal. At checkout, buyers see PAXI's price for their order's total weight and pick Store-to-Store (they collect from a PEP store) or Store-to-Door (delivered to their address), plus a delivery speed. For Store-to-Store, the buyer also gives you their nearest PEP store, the receiver's name, and a contact number — all shown on the order's Receiver Information. Once PAXI SMSs them a collection PIN and they've picked up the parcel, they confirm pickup from their own order page, and that confirmation shows on your order too.

Delivery Confirmation

Once a buyer has their order in hand — however it was shipped — they can confirm this with an "I've Received My Order" button on their own order page. You'll see it reflected on your order page too, and it may prompt them with a WhatsApp message to leave you a review.

Returns

Within 14 days of confirming they received an order, a buyer can ask to return its physical items from Dashboard → My Merchandise Orders. You'll be notified and see the request at the top of the order: approve it and say where to send the items, or decline it with a reason the buyer will see. Once the items are back, click Items Received - the buyer is refunded the items' price straight away and it comes off your balance. Shipping isn't refunded, Downloadable and Virtual products can't be returned, and stock isn't put back automatically. A completed return costs your seller standing 2 points (Vendor if you're a vendor, otherwise Artist); a declined return costs nothing.

Requesting Details From a Buyer

Need something specific from a buyer after they purchase — a name to engrave, a reference photo, anything else? From a product's own page, add one or more Requested Buyer Details: a label, optional instructions, a type (Short Text, Long Text, or File), whether it's required, and how long the buyer has to respond (in hours — leave blank for the default of 24 hours).

Once a buyer pays for that product, they'll see your request on their order page and have until the deadline to respond — after that, the request simply locks and can no longer be answered; the order itself isn't affected, you just fulfil it without that detail. You can see (and download, for a File request) whatever they submitted from your own order page. Changing a product's requested details only affects future orders — it never changes what's already been asked of a buyer mid-response.

News & Updates

Post short updates for your buyers — new stock, a restock, anything worth sharing — from Dashboard → News & Updates. Each post has a title, a WYSIWYG body, and an optional image, and can be saved as a draft (unpublished) until you're ready. Published updates show newest-first on your public page — your artist profile if you're an Artist, or your store page if you're a Vendor (Vendors don't have a separate profile page).

Customizing Your Page Design

From Dashboard → Page Design you can restyle your whole public page:

• Background — a solid color, a two-color gradient, or an uploaded image behind your whole page, plus an optional tint/overlay (handy for keeping text readable over a busy photo).
• Hero banner — the top section showing your logo/avatar and name gets its own optional background image (falls back to your page background if you don't set one), left/center/right alignment, and title/accent colors. Vendors get a real hero banner here for the first time.
• Product cards — an accent color, corner rounding, shadow, and border on/off for your product cards. This only ever shows on your own store and product pages — shared listings like Browse Merchandise always show the platform's standard look, so buyers browsing across sellers see a consistent grid.

The editor shows a live preview of your hero as you pick colors — everything else is easiest to check with the "View My Live Page" link after saving (it opens your public profile page, /u/your_username, which uses the same design and links to your store and artist page). If you never open this page, your public page looks exactly as it always has.