Setting Up a Shop

Check out the Love That Stuff wholesale website designed by Mark James with a great new online shop using Woo-commerce.

Woo-commerce is an easy way to build an online shop, useful for organisations to sell items to raise money. It is a free and open source and can be integrated into WordPress.

The software allows customers to make payments via PayPal, which is probably the most cost effective way for charities to take money.

Top tips for charities using Woo-commerce.

SCIP designer Mark has some good advice for charities or not-for-profits thinking about creating a shop using Woo-commerce. He suggests:

• Remember you’ll need good quality images,
• All the images will be cropped to a certain size, so you need to think about this when taking the photos.
• Keep on top of stock control – you don’t want people ordering and paying for items which aren’t in stock
• Ensure you identify each product with an SKU number.
• If you are just selling a few items, you can use simple plug-in forms and link it with a PayPal account or create PayPal buttons.

Lovethatstuff imports Fair Trade jewellery from Kenya, crochet accessories from India, and clothing from India and Nepal.

The Brighton-based company buys from WFTO (World Fair Trade Organisation) producer groups, which ensures social projects are funded by a Fair Trade premium. Fair Trade always has a social premium so that workers can benefit on top of having a living wage. The type of project often depends on the type of producer group, but typically will include: skills training, health care, supporting the elderly and children.

The Fairtrade premium is a sum of money paid on top of the agreed Fairtrade price for investment in social, environmental or economic development projects, decided upon democratically by producers within the farmers’ organisation or by workers on a plantation.

Lovethatstuff recommends SCIP designer Mark James

Barb Wilson of Lovethatstuff says she is very impressed by Mark’s work.

Not only has Mark built a great website and taken a lot of care over it, but he has really given great guidance in how to help maintain the website and has made sure that we feel completely comfortable with all aspects of customer care associated with it. I can highly recommend his work.

You can visit the site at http://www.fairtradewholesale.com. Unfortunately this website is only for wholesalers, so you can’t see the prices without logging in, but if you are interested in an online shop contact Mark and he can show you how it works.

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