Along with merchandise, your store can sell membership packages, certification courses and exams, and event registration packages from the same cart and checkout. This article explains where to turn on those options and how to control which items each product family offers.
If you are deciding where to set up a service customers pay for, start with when they should be able to buy it. Use its own purchasable item in Orders & Inventory when the service should be available at any time. Use a membership application add-on when the service should only be purchased with membership.
Where to Find It
Open a store for editing. When this feature is available for your account, four switch cards appear below the merchandise settings: Sell Membership Packages, Sell Certification Courses, Sell Certification Exams, and Sell Event Registration Packages. Each card’s settings appear after you turn on its switch.
Prerequisites
- A store must already exist, or you must be creating one. See Set Up an Online Store.
- The membership packages, certification courses or exams, or events you want to sell must already exist in their own applications.
- To offer a downloadable file with a store item, the Documents application must be added to your account first.
Warning
If you do not see these four cards on your store form, this feature is not available for your account yet. This option is turned on outside the store form, so contact your administrator or Support.
Turning On Each Product Family
| Card | Adds to the storefront | Also lets you set |
|---|---|---|
| Sell Membership Packages | Membership packages that a buyer can add to the cart | A category name, a membership-type restriction, a package restriction, and a storefront image |
| Sell Certification Courses | Certification course seats | A course-type restriction, a course restriction, the course registration process for purchases made here, and an image |
| Sell Certification Exams | Certification exam seats | An exam restriction and an image |
| Sell Event Registration Packages | Event registration packages | An event-type restriction, an event restriction, and an image |
To offer a product family, turn on its switch and save the store. If you do not add restrictions, the store offers every item in that family that exists and, for courses and exams, has a fee.
Restricting Which Items a Store Sells
Each product family card uses the same restriction pattern once or twice. First choose how broad the selection should be, then pick specific types or items when needed.
- Choose All <types>, Only the following <types>:, or All <types> EXCEPT the following:.
- If you chose one of the last two options, pick the specific types or items in the picker that appears below.
- Repeat the process for the second restriction when a card offers one, such as membership types and then membership packages.
Warning
You can choose "Only the following" and save without picking anything. The store then offers nothing of that kind, and you will not see a warning that the list is empty.
Membership and course restrictions come in pairs: one restriction for the type, and a separate restriction for the package or course. These restrictions work independently, so you can still pick a membership package from an excluded type in the package list. When that happens, the store can offer that package even though its type is otherwise hidden.
When you add an event to the online store, every registration package for that event is included by default. To hide one registration package, edit that package directly and select Hide from online store. You do not need to change the store’s event restrictions to hide just one package.
Category Name and Image
For membership packages, Category Name: lets you rename the storefront category. When the category name is blank, the storefront uses the standard family name: Membership for packages, Exams for exams, and Conferences & Events for events.
Each membership package, certification course, certification exam, or event registration package you sell this way appears in the store as its own product. For each product family, you can choose a default image for that family’s products. If you leave the image blank, the store uses its own default merchandise image instead.
You can also set an image on an individual membership type, course, or exam to override that family’s default image for that item. You can set a separate universal shopping cart image on individual membership types, courses, or events to control how the item looks in the cart. For events, the cart normally shows the event’s own thumbnail image instead of the family’s default image. If the event has no thumbnail, the cart uses the store’s default merchandise image.
Course Registration Process
When you sell certification courses through a store, you choose one course registration process for every course purchased there. That process controls the confirmation email a registrant receives. If you leave it blank, no course confirmation email is sent for purchases made through this store, and you cannot choose a different process per course.
Change Impact
Warning
Event registration packages sold through a store do not enforce event capacity. The store can oversell an event’s registration packages beyond its set capacity, so avoid selling more registrations there than you have room for.
Warning
Rhythm does not check these restriction lists against the products, memberships, courses, exams, or events they name. If you delete or retire something that still appears in a store’s restriction list, Rhythm does not stop the deletion or warn you. Before you delete a membership type, package, course, exam, or event, check whether any store’s sale options still list it.
A restriction only controls what the storefront displays. It does not stop someone with a direct checkout link from buying an item the restriction excludes. The same is true for a store’s merchandise category settings. A product assigned to categories meant for a different store can still open from a direct link to that product, even though your store’s category list would not otherwise display it.
Related
- Set Up an Online Store: the store record these product families are added to.
- Add Orders & Inventory Pages to Your Portal: the Portal feature that makes any store, including one selling these product families, reachable by members.
- Orders & Inventory Setup Overview and Navigation: where store setup fits among your other Orders & Inventory setup tasks.