Getting Started with eCommerce

The configuration settings on a Catalogue Item allow for a diverse range of products and services.

With this flexible, you can:

• Set up dynamic pricing based on currency, security groups, and early bird discounts;
• Offer multiple payment methods;
• Align items to specific Product Lines and Categories;
• Customise availability for different countries and regions;
• Apply varying tax rules based on location;
• Configure multiple shipping options;
• Enable gifting for friends and family;
• Set up subscription-based products;
• Collect attendee information for ticket sales;
• Offer downloadable media products.

These options provide a highly customisable eCommerce experience, ensuring your store meets the needs of your customers and business model.

When editing a Catalogue Item, the key fields required to get started include:

• Catalogue ID
• Price | Currency (Price Matrix)
• Coupons & Discounts (if offering promotions)
• Tax Rule Override (Tax Rule is taken from the Store Profile if not set here)
• Payment Method (Payment Methods taken from the Store Profile if not set here)
• External ID (If using Stripe)
• Acknowledgement Message (if you wish to add additional instructions or information on the Acknowledgement screen once the customer has made a purchase)
• Sale Start (date)
• Sale End (date)
• Live

The following guides will help you to configure the Catalogue Item:

• Catalogue Items Guide
• Catalogue Group Guide
• Catalogue Items Price Increase Guide
• Importing and Exporting Catalogue Items
• Capture Attendee Details
• Attendee Import Guide

On the View screen of each Catalogue Item, you'll find a Health Check panel that provides a set of important checks to help ensure your setup is correct and optimised. These checks include:

• No Product Line selected

• No Product Category selected

• No Payment Method selected

• Price is zero

• Payment Method not live

• Tax Rule Override External ID not present

• Renewal Catalogue Item price is zero

• Renewal Catalogue Item not live
• Start Renewal Automation not enabled

• Use Renewal Catalogue Item Price And Tax not enabled

• External ID not present (required for Stripe)

• Subscription Plan not active

• Sale End within 1 month

• Live not selected

Reviewing this panel each time you set up a Catalogue Item will greatly enhance your efficiency in ensuring your products are properly configured.

There are a number of ways to incentivise potential customers to proceed on your site and make a purchase

Promotions (ref: Promotions Guide)

• Create a Promotion Channel
• Create and configure a Promotion

Coupons (ref: Coupons and Discounts Guide)

Affino supports the following 9 different payment providers.

• Affino (Purchase Order)
• GoCardless
• Pay360 - Hosted
• Pay360 - Standard
• Realex Payments
• Sage Pay
• Stripe
• Worldpay

Note: The Affino (Purchase Order) option is not a payment provider per se but serves as a tool for placing test orders without the need to configure a payment provider. This is especially useful during the initial setup, allowing you to test your catalogue items and refine the checkout user journey.

For subscription-based offerings, we recommend using Stripe, as it provides a robust suite of tools for managing recurring payments. With support for 40+ payment methods—including wallet payments, Buy Now Pay Later, and BACS—Stripe simplifies the payment process while ensuring a seamless experience for your customers.

By integrating Stripe, you can streamline subscription management with a single, efficient setup.

Here are supporting help guides for Payment Gateway setup

• Payment Gateways Overview
• How to Setup Stripe
• How to Setup ApplePay and GooglePay
• How to Setup GoCardless
• How to Setup Paypal
• How to Setup Pay360

Affino offers a powerful solution for capturing attendee information when selling event tickets. You can configure your Catalogue Item to collect key details such as Job Title, Company Name, Business Phone, Mobile Phone, Special Dietary Needs, and Disability Requirements.

Additionally, three customisable fields allow you to gather extra information, such as dinner preferences or marketing-related questions.

All collected data seamlessly integrates into the Attendees control screen, where you can efficiently manage and export attendee information.

For guidance on setup, management, and attendee data capture, refer to the following help guides.

Setup and management:

• Capture Attendee Details
• Attendee Import Guide

Affino provides a powerful suite of features for building and managing a subscription-based business, streamlining everything from seamless signups to fully automated renewals.

Additionally, Affino offers in-depth subscription reports and analytical tools, giving you valuable insights into your financial position and churn rates to help optimise your subscription strategy.

The following help guides will support your setup, management and analysis of your subscription offering.

Setup and management:

• Subscription Setup
• Subscription Payments - Self Management
• Corporate Subscriptions
• Subscription Renewal Profile
• Subscriptions Import
• Subscription Overflow
• Subscriber Export

Reporting and analysis:

• Subscription Volume Report
• Subscription Member Report
• Subscription Expiry Report
• Stop Code Report
• Deferred Income Report

Pro Forma Orders allow you to create customised orders for clients, making it easier to sell to a broader audience. This is especially beneficial for individuals or corporate clients who require an invoice with specific payment terms.

Below, you'll find help guides to walk you through setting up a Pro Forma Order and exploring additional features for selling and assigning corporate subscriptions:

• Pro Forma Order Guide
• Corporate Subscriptions Guide

The Orders control screen is your central hub for managing orders on a daily basis. It offers a comprehensive set of filters to help you efficiently manage, analyse, and dissect both one-off transactions and recurring subscriptions.

Here you can view the customer's details, status of each order, payment details and any associated subscriptions

The Subscriptions control screen allows you to filter and manage all subscriptions created within Affino. Here, you can easily add or update subscription details and oversee the subscription periods for each individual subscription.

The following guide provides further details of the sales administration workflow:

• Sales Administration Guide

With each release, we introduce new tools and features that enhance your ability to analyse, track, and report on customer transactions across your site.

These reports provide valuable insights to help refine and optimise your sales and marketing strategies.

• Orders Listing Guide
• Order Line Item Report Guide
• Converting Articles Report Guide
• Previous Order Report Guide
• Sales Overview Guide
• Sales Report Guide
• Sales Targets Guide
• Sales Leaderboard Guide
• Sales Invoice Export Guide
• Coupons Report Guide
• Finance Reporting Guide

In addition to the above, there is specialised help information available for subscription reporting and analysis. Click on the next panel to explore these detailed guides.

In addition to the sales and financial reports, the following help guides will assist you in analysing and tracking all your subscription-based products across various timelines and subscription periods.

• Subscription Volume Report Guide
• Subscription Member Report Guide
• Subscription Expiry Report Guide
• Stop Code Report Guide
• Deferred Income Report Guide

You can manage and analyse your sales and orders using various import and export files available in Affino. Below is a list of import and export options:

Imports:

• Attendee Import
• Catalogue Items Import
• Catalogue Attributes Import
• Catalogue Attributes Groups Import
• Coupon Import
• Editions Import
• Order Import
• Order Line Item Import
• Subscriptions Import
• Promotions Import

Exports:

• Attendees (Export)
• Catalogue Items Export
• Converting Articles Report (Export)
• Coupon Export
• Coupons Report (Export)
• Deferred Income Report (Export)
• Editions Export
• Order Export
• Order Line Item Report (Export)
• Sales Invoice Report (Export)
• Sales Report (Export)
• Shopping Baskets (Export)
• Subscriber Export
• Subscriptions (Export)
• Stop Code Report (Export)