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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.

Store Visibility

Your store is only visible to the public when your artist profile itself is set to Public (Profile → Feature Access). If your profile is Private, 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 until you switch your profile to Public. Vendors don't have this profile-privacy step — a Vendor's store is visible as soon as it has products.

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.

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 at least one Banking Details record 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.

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. If you never open this page, your public page looks exactly as it always has.