# School Store — requirements (Part 1)

*Source: Erin Coulson's notes from the 2026-08-25 meeting with Julie Miller (Campus Store
Manager/Buyer) and Ian McPherson. Filed 2026-08-27. **Part 2 is the SKU list**, still to come.*

**Goal:** an online school store built on the existing WordPress site using **WooCommerce**.

**Timeline:** Erin's stated goal is **live within one month of 25 August** — i.e. late September —
so parents can buy before the competitive sports seasons and well before Christmas. Starting small
and iterating through the fall is acceptable; her stated risk is the first impression on families,
so the launch should feel finished rather than provisional.

---

## Decisions made

| Area | Decision |
|---|---|
| Platform | WooCommerce, on the main site |
| Payment methods | **Credit card only** to start. No PayPal, no debit. |
| Currency | **CAD only** |
| Merchant provider (existing) | **Lightspeed** — currently brick-and-mortar; they will need to apply to sell online |
| Shipping carrier | **Canada Post** |
| Pickup | Yes — "Collect in School Store", including a student collecting on behalf of a parent |
| Courier | Interest in Purolator/Loomis, but unclear how often it would be used. Not for launch. |

**Explicitly forward-looking:** whatever payment solution is chosen, they want to extend it to
**summer camp registration**. That should shape the gateway choice now rather than being retrofitted.

## Product direction

- Julie has a first dozen SKUs she wants to sell.
- Ian's view: **"lifestyle" pieces should lead**.
- Also wanted: a few **alumni** pieces, and **per-sport supporter items** — e.g. *"Here for Brentwood
  Rowing"*, *"Proud Brentwood Rugby Parent"*, *"Fired up for Brentwood Tennis / Basketball / Soccer /
  Field Hockey / Volleyball"*.
- Erin is running a query in the **September Torch** asking parents what they want; Ian to supply the
  options for that popular-vote list.

Each SKU needs: **item name, sizes, photo, price**.

## Prepaid shipping boxes — read this before building

They want **flat-rate prepaid boxes** (e.g. small and medium): stuff it full, pay one price
regardless of weight. Their note says *"the box itself becomes its own SKU"* and asks for **~3 SKUs
minimum** to cover postage/packaging.

⚠ **Treat this as a requirement, not an implementation.** Making the box a purchasable product is a
workaround with real consequences — customers can add a box without goods, or goods without a box,
tax on shipping behaves differently from tax on products, and the cart maths gets fragile. In
WooCommerce this is normally a **shipping method** (flat-rate boxed packing / shipping classes),
which achieves the same customer-facing outcome without the trap. Worth walking Julie and Erin
through both before anyone builds it.

## Fulfilment logistics (their constraint, not ours)

The staff member responsible for parcels either drives items to **Mill Bay Pharmasave** herself, or
a courier collects on campus if costs and logistics allow. This affects which shipping options are
realistic to offer at launch.

---

## Open — awaiting an answer from Rian

**Tax handling for customers outside Canada.** Their question, verbatim: *"how would Rian suggest we
manage the tax portion? We anticipate many clients from outside of Canada."*

Broadly: WooCommerce can apply tax by customer location, and goods exported from Canada are
generally treated differently from domestic sales for GST/PST. **This needs confirming with
Brentwood's accountant, not decided by us** — we implement the rules they're given. The useful thing
we can offer is a clear explanation of what WooCommerce *can* do, so they can ask their accountant a
precise question.

## Flags to raise early

1. **Lightspeed is the critical path.** A brick-and-mortar merchant account does not automatically
   permit online card-present-not-required transactions — that is a separate application with its own
   approval time. If this is going to slip the one-month target, it is the item that does it. Confirm
   what Lightspeed offers for WooCommerce, and what the alternative is, before committing to a date.
2. **Payments change the security posture of the site.** Use a gateway where card details never
   touch our server — hosted fields or a redirect flow, tokenised. Do not accept raw card data into
   WordPress under any arrangement.
3. **Summer camp registration** is a stated future use of the same payment path. A gateway that
   handles one-off product sales but not registrations/deposits would have to be replaced later.

## Owners

| Who | Item |
|---|---|
| Julie | Spreadsheet: SKU name, price, size(s) for top sellers — with room for additions |
| Ian | Review/amend the spreadsheet to a launch-ready level, then signal Erin |
| Erin | Torch September query to parents; booking Kurt (photography, 31 Aug) |
| Rian | Tax guidance; store build |