Capacity is stock that expires
A seat is worth its price until the date, then nothing. That makes an accurate count and an early close more valuable here than in any catalogue of physical goods.
Seats and sessions
A room holds twelve. The page should know that.
Selling a class is selling a seat on a date, and a seat is stock with an expiry. Once the date passes it is worth nothing, which makes capacity the only number that really matters.
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How do I sell workshops and classes online?
Publish each date in Crate as its own bookable product with the room's real capacity as its stock count, so the seats sell down and close on their own when the class is full. Take payment when the seat is taken rather than holding places on a promise, because a held seat that never pays is a seat somebody else would have bought. Say what is included, what to bring and what happens if somebody cannot come, and price a block of sessions as one product when the course is the thing being sold. Every booking is an order against a customer record, so the attendee list for a date is a list you already have rather than one you assemble the night before.
How to start selling seats.
Getting started
Four steps, in order. Each one is a screen you can open on the first day, not a project.
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Publish each date as its own product
One date, one listing, capacity as the stock count. The class closes itself when it is full, without you watching a spreadsheet.
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Take payment at booking
A reserved seat that has not paid is not a sale. Payment at booking is what makes the count on the page mean something.
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Write what is included and what to bring
Materials, level, duration, what a beginner needs to arrive with. These are the questions that otherwise reach you one message at a time.
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Sell the course as a block where that is the offer
Six weeks is one product at one price, and the seat holds across all six dates rather than being rebooked weekly.
What is different about selling workshops.
What is different here
Every kind of product has a detail that decides whether the software fits. These are the ones that decide it here.
Overselling is a room problem, not a refund problem
Two people holding one seat is discovered in person, in front of everybody else. A single count behind every booking route is what stops it happening at all.
The waiting list is real revenue
A full class with people who wanted in is your next date already half sold. Knowing who they were is the difference between running it and guessing at it.
The attendee list should already exist
Every seat is an order against a customer, so who is coming on Saturday is a lookup. Reconstructing it from messages the night before is the failure this replaces.
Your buyers are already in a thread.
Where you sell
Classes fill from a feed and from word of mouth. A bookable date with a visible seat count behind the post lets somebody take the last place immediately, which is exactly when they are most likely to.
In your market that usually means Your store, Instagram and In person.
Every channel above runs off the one catalog you set up once.
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer.
Getting paid
Take card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer when the seat is booked, in US dollars, in full or as a deposit with the balance on the day. Automatic payouts to your bank.
Money from card sales lands in your bank account on a rolling two-day schedule. Nothing to claim, nothing to withdraw.
- Card
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Bank transfer
How the appointment is kept.
Delivery
The date is the delivery. Publish the sessions you are actually running, let confirmation and reminder go out on their own, and keep reschedules on the record, so a disputed booking is something you look up rather than something you remember.
- Publish the hours you actually work, and blackout the days you do not. The calendar stops offering what you cannot honour.
- Take payment or a deposit at the point of booking, so a no-show costs the buyer something rather than costing you the slot.
- The buyer gets the confirmation and the reminder without you sending either.
- Reschedules and cancellations leave a record, so a disputed appointment is a lookup rather than a memory.
What it costs.
One subscription covers the store, the catalog, the order queue, the customer records and the counter. There is no separate charge for selling in chat, and no charge per kind of product.
Priced and paid in US dollars. Every plan opens with a free trial and no card.
You have the price and the plan now. Standing the shop up is about fifteen minutes of work.
What you would actually use.
The product
Named plainly, and each one has a page of its own if you want the detail.
Selling workshops and classes, answered.
How do I stop a class being oversold?
Set the room's capacity as the stock count for that date. It draws down as seats sell and closes the listing at zero, across every route somebody can book through.
Can I sell a course of several sessions as one purchase?
Yes. Publish the block as one product at one price. The seat holds across every date in it rather than being booked again each week.
Can I run the same workshop on several dates?
Yes. Each date is its own product with its own capacity, so one date can sell out while the next stays open.
What about deposits and cancellations?
Take a deposit at booking with the balance on the day if you prefer, and publish your cancellation terms on the listing so they are agreed before the seat is held.
Can I sell materials with the seat?
Yes. A kit is a product with stock and shipping of its own, and it can sit on the same order as the seat.
Can I sell an online class?
Yes. Sell the seat the same way and deliver the joining details with the booking, or sell the recording afterwards as a download.
Still have a question?
Every answer above was written by the people who build crate. If yours is not among them, the Help Center goes deeper, and a person reads what you send.
Selling something else?
Nearby
The same platform underneath, told in the language of the thing you make.