Sell Merchandise, Publications, Advertising & Sponsorships From Your Site

Posted on March 23, 2021 in Events, Membership

Looking for a system to offer and track non-dues-related items for purchase such as publications, advertising, and more? With Membee, you can set up a basic online store on your website and track purchases all in one system.

Your membership dues are a major source of revenue, but what if you could generate an extra revenue stream? You may already offer or plan to offer non-dues items for purchase. These items could include the following:

Merchandise
Publications
Online or Physical Advertising (such as website or magazine ads)
Sponsorship levels

In Membee, it’s easier than you think! Using Membee’s event widget, you can create a permanent home for an online store or other varying stores that can be sold right from your website.

What Does It Look Like?

Much like Membee’s events, your store will offer various items that can be purchased by non-members or members. Let’s say that you’re looking to:

Sell your association or chamber’s merchandise (eg. a mug or hat with your logo)
Sell member-only publications (non-members cannot access)

Below is an example of what this would look like publicly.

Why Should I Create a Store in Membee?

Even if the items in your store are not related to your membership dues, it can help you determine how engaged a member or non-member may be. The benefits to setting up a store in Membee include:

It’s open for business 24/7 – you’ll be notified of new purchases
It’s mobile-friendly so your visitors can make purchases on-the-go
Membee tracks all the purchase information such as the person or organization who made the purchase, what they purchased, and how much they spent
Seamless integration to your website
Gather payments right from your website
Straight-forward and robust reporting
Set up promo codes for the store to provide a member engagement incentive and to pump up sales

Once you receive a sale, you can proceed to fulfill the order to the purchaser!

How Do I Set Up a Store?

There are two steps to setting up a store:

1. Create a new “Store” event widget

This allows you to create multiple stores and display the storefront on the store webpage, instead of displaying the store on your events page. It also allows you to keep your live events and your stores separated

Click here for more detailed instructions to set up a store event widget

2. Create the store

Once you have the widget set up, you can proceed to create your store in Membee’s events feature. This is where you’ll be setting up all your purchasable items for the store. If you need a store for advertising, one for publications, one for sponsorships, etc, then will need to create multiple stores to separate each type.

Click here for more detailed instructions to create your store

Marketing Your Store

In some cases, you may want to keep your store secured behind member login. Other times, you may want to provide a public store to increase your non-dues revenue.

One of the most common and best practices across all of our users is to promote the store on their website’s menu. Membee provides a direct URL to your storefront, this URL is added to your menu options, providing a quick and easy way to access the store.