Buying Club goods online

[milliemarlin]

Re: Buying Club goods online

I have updated the Club Goods web page to match our current stock. I have changed the layout so that the pricing information is identical to that in the magazine, while retaining and renewing pictures of the goods. John has kindly photographed the items for inclusion on the page. I have been surprised how hard it was to get the page looking even half decent.

I know that some people will be disappointed that we are not going to implement ecommerce at this time. I have tried to get a good consensus from a selection of members on this but that was not easy. This thread didn’t generate that much interest. Essentially while the club goods are sold for “member benefit” and not profit it would be inappropriate to expand the business. John and I will monitor the interest in the new page and review this position in the future.

Paul - Web Administrator

[David]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Well done Paul, a good step forward.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Like so many things, and I know it requires effort, determination, time and commitment, you will never know just what the end result might be unless you try, or....
Minimum effort = Minimum gain. Maximum effort....... who knows?

Matching Pitstop and Web prices is a great start, photos too, but all the time letters, phone calls, cheque books etc are needed, sales, apart from face to face, will be minimal, the currently effort will get little recognition.

Don't get me wrong, it's progress, that is positive, but it does not encourage me to buy unless the system accepts €'s from my Spanish cheque account, which PayPal conveniently bypasses.

The thread quite possibly didn't geneate much interest, as the members, who had a progressive outlook, who were promised PayPal implementation some 5 years ago, with this new website (which is a universally accepted improvement on the old) were disappointed.

Now we are bored, and another five years will pass before we see a change.

Like everything in life, unless you constantly review and update, things become stale, for new members things might be novel and exciting at first, but unless effort is put in, the joy becomes acceptance, and finally resignation.

A negative thought maybe, but before you criticise, ask yourself where you would like to see this forum in five years time, and then think back to how it was five and more years ago. Chalk and cheese? So where next?

[HairyDave]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Cannot BACS be used? If your banking is done on line as ours is, BACS is quite simple and once a recipient is registered repeats are very simple. We use it a lot in place of cheques, it is much quicker than writing out a cheque posting it and waiting. All that is needed is the recipients Account name and number and bank sort code. As far as security is concerned, these are all on a cheque.

[David]

Re: Buying Club goods online

The next logical step would be to create a payPal button for each item;

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mp...ayment-buttons

Dead easy, I'm happy to put in the time if that helps but Paul is the Web Admin so that's his call.

Great progress so far Paul given the short amount of time you've had.

David.

[Mike]

Re: Buying Club goods online

The next logical step would be to create a payPal button for each item;

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/get-started-payment-buttons

Dead easy, I'm happy to put in the time if that helps but Paul is the Web Admin so that's his call.

Great progress so far Paul given the short amount of time you've had.

David.

Guys

The issue is not with the IT: it is the fulfilment of the order when received.

The MOC is not a profit orientated organisation with employees that it could re-direct to augmenting this task - we rely on a single volunteer (John Mulvaney) operating from home.

If you would like to volunteer your own services to helping with fulfilment then we can look at improving sales of club goods by improving/adding IT interfaces.

Mike

[stevejgreen]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Guys

The issue is not with the IT: it is the fulfilment of the order when received.

The MOC is not a profit orientated organisation with employees that it could re-direct to augmenting this task - we rely on a single volunteer (John Mulvaney) operating from home.

If you would like to volunteer your own services to helping with fulfilment then we can look at improving sales of club goods by improving/adding IT interfaces.

Mike

There is very little difference between the accounts that legally need to be kept for a business or a Not for Profit organisation.
Many banks offer the necessary services, and accounts can be swapped from bank to bank via an automated service, just like a personal account.

An eBay shop can be easily set up, that will deal with day to day accounts, paperwork etc. but it still needs manual intervention to post and pack, just as it does now, but all the back office, stock control etc. is essentially automated, just put the right paper in the printer etc. But it does mean learning a different system.

It looks to me that David has already volunteered to help.

I have volunteered, in the past, but apart from distant IT assistance, there is little I can contribute physically from Spain, if postage and packing demand increases.

The key for the MOC is to unlock the resources that already exist amongst the broader membership, and not to just rely on those who attend the AGM, you might be pleasantly surprised at the depth of skills available.

[Mike]

Re: Buying Club goods online

There is very little difference between the accounts that legally need to be kept for a business or a Not for Profit organisation.
Many banks offer the necessary services, and accounts can be swapped from bank to bank via an automated service, just like a personal account.

An eBay shop can be easily set up, that will deal with day to day accounts, paperwork etc. but it still needs manual intervention to post and pack, just as it does now, but all the back office, stock control etc. is essentially automated, just put the right paper in the printer etc. But it does mean learning a different system.

It looks to me that David has already volunteered to help.

I have volunteered, in the past, but apart from distant IT assistance, there is little I can contribute physically from Spain, if postage and packing demand increases.

The key for the MOC is to unlock the resources that already exist amongst the broader membership, and not to just rely on those who attend the AGM, you might be pleasantly surprised at the depth of skills available.

The issue is order fulfilment - until a volunteer steps forward offering to pick and dispatch more orders we are wasting time discussing improved IT: you are not addressing the right issue.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Buying Club goods online

The issue is order fulfilment - until a volunteer steps forward offering to pick and dispatch more orders we are wasting time discussing improved IT: you are not addressing the right issue.

Amongst several, my final point, that you skirted around, was:- The key for the MOC is to unlock the resources that already exist amongst the broader membership, and not to just rely on those who attend the AGM, you might be pleasantly surprised at the depth of skills available.

[Mike]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Amongst several...................

You diminish your point by burying it with other less important issues ...............

The heart of the problem is we need a new volunteer for physical fulfilment - if you think there is someone willing to step forward then please introduce them! Then we can start to talk about IT for taking orders, and payment.

Unless, and until, we find a new volunteer we have to accept the limitations of the existing set up: and there is no point banging on about different IT systems to make it happen.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Mike is right, the online shop is already programmed into the site but it comes down to the person doing the job being allowed to choose the tools they wish to do the job so they can do it with confidence and efficiency.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Buying Club goods online

Mike is right, the online shop is already programmed into the site but it comes down to the person doing the job being allowed to choose the tools they wish to do the job so they can do it with confidence and efficiency.

Amongst several, my final point, that you skirted around, was:- The key for the MOC is to unlock the resources that already exist amongst the broader membership, and not to just rely on those who attend the AGM, you might be pleasantly surprised at the depth of skills available.


So how will the MOC broaden its resource?

[milliemarlin]

Re: Buying Club goods online

A couple of clarifications; the recommendation to continue with an updated club goods page but not to implement ecommerce was essentially mine with the blessing most of the committee. I made the recommendation after consulting with as many members, committee members as practical and of course consultation with John.

The main reason not to implement ecommerce at this time is because we are principally an owners club not a marketing organisation.

There is little technical challenge to implementing ecommerce but it would require a reasonable amount of work setting up individual pages for each item, etc.

As far as I know there is no fundamental reason that a volunteer has to be a committee member or attend the AGM at Stoneleigh but we should honour the statement “Marlin goods will be available for purchase at Stoneleigh, or any time via mail order.” Any volunteer would need to be answerable to the club’s committee in some way.
Paul