QR codes for selling on consignment /pop up/hosted in another buisiness
July 13, 2023 11:49 AM Subscribe
I'm going to be selling art for a fund raiser in a coffee shop and am trying to figure out a way to manage payments that is as easy as possible for the customer, the shop hosting my art, and me.
Basics: The shop is not taking a cut or a percentage, they are hosting my fund raiser for free. They prefer to NOT run transactions through their register since it costs them money, ads bookkeeping work etc.
The items I'm selling will have prices unique to the item (not everything will cost $20, for example).
With artists in the past, they list their email address in the coffee shop, let the artist and the customer sort it out, and then the customer comes back, shows the barista an email from the artist that says they've paid, and they take the art. That works, but it seems kind of clunky.
I've been trying to research a somewhat more streamlined method, like if I can do a QR code for each piece that takes them to a check out with the price inclduded, then they can zelle or otherwise pay me, and get the confirmation back immediately to show the barista, I don't have to be involved, and the customer doesn't have to wait for the two of us to complete an email exchange, and then come back to the shop to pick it up.
Granted, I am not a business, and I am doing this as a fund raiser for a food bank, so I'd like as much money as possible to go to the charity, and not have to spend much on payment processing / web systems if possible. Maybe thats a tall order, (so far my research suggests there isn't a way to do this for free, or even really on the cheap- Paypal is the easiest I can find, but that's still a QR code to my seller profile only, where the buyer has to put in the amount, and from what I can tell, I can't do it Frends and Family and cut out the fee). But I thought I'd see if the smarties on askMeFi might have some creative approaches that I'm not finding, or haven't thought of.
Many thanks in advance if anyone has tips or tricks!
Basics: The shop is not taking a cut or a percentage, they are hosting my fund raiser for free. They prefer to NOT run transactions through their register since it costs them money, ads bookkeeping work etc.
The items I'm selling will have prices unique to the item (not everything will cost $20, for example).
With artists in the past, they list their email address in the coffee shop, let the artist and the customer sort it out, and then the customer comes back, shows the barista an email from the artist that says they've paid, and they take the art. That works, but it seems kind of clunky.
I've been trying to research a somewhat more streamlined method, like if I can do a QR code for each piece that takes them to a check out with the price inclduded, then they can zelle or otherwise pay me, and get the confirmation back immediately to show the barista, I don't have to be involved, and the customer doesn't have to wait for the two of us to complete an email exchange, and then come back to the shop to pick it up.
Granted, I am not a business, and I am doing this as a fund raiser for a food bank, so I'd like as much money as possible to go to the charity, and not have to spend much on payment processing / web systems if possible. Maybe thats a tall order, (so far my research suggests there isn't a way to do this for free, or even really on the cheap- Paypal is the easiest I can find, but that's still a QR code to my seller profile only, where the buyer has to put in the amount, and from what I can tell, I can't do it Frends and Family and cut out the fee). But I thought I'd see if the smarties on askMeFi might have some creative approaches that I'm not finding, or haven't thought of.
Many thanks in advance if anyone has tips or tricks!
Keep in mind that PayPal heavily frowns upon (read: completely disallows) using Friends & Family when that's not the case. You can get your account banned if they get a whiff that the transactions are for purchases.
Ko-fi is kind of like Patreon but apparently they offer product sales, too, for a 5% cut, plus PayPal or Stripe fees. They also let you do one-time donations for a 0% fee, though again you'll pay PayPal or Stripe fees. If you go the donation route, it's probably more manual, although they should still get an instant email showing how much they donated to you that could serve as proof.
posted by tubedogg at 1:12 PM on July 13, 2023
Ko-fi is kind of like Patreon but apparently they offer product sales, too, for a 5% cut, plus PayPal or Stripe fees. They also let you do one-time donations for a 0% fee, though again you'll pay PayPal or Stripe fees. If you go the donation route, it's probably more manual, although they should still get an instant email showing how much they donated to you that could serve as proof.
posted by tubedogg at 1:12 PM on July 13, 2023
If you insist on Paypal, you could do it as a "tip jar". You can have Paypal generate a QR code for that and they can enter whatever amount they wish. I worked as a tour guide and I sometimes get tips that way for folks who don't carry cash.
posted by kschang at 5:02 PM on July 13, 2023
posted by kschang at 5:02 PM on July 13, 2023
You can sign up for a basic Shopify account and use ShopCodes to do this. Or you can install Shopify POS and accept payments through that. Either way you will have to pay credit card processing fees.
(Note: I work for Shopify)
posted by krunk at 6:47 PM on July 14, 2023
(Note: I work for Shopify)
posted by krunk at 6:47 PM on July 14, 2023
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posted by brainmouse at 12:15 PM on July 13, 2023