# Online Store — WooCommerce **Status: not started. Upcoming project.** This folder is the parking spot: the source emails, plus enough structure to pick it up cold without re-reading them. Nothing here is a commitment. Where a date or a decision is recorded, it is what someone said at the time, with the date attached, so it can be re-checked rather than assumed still true. --- ## The shape of it An online school store on the existing WordPress site, selling Brentwood merchandise to parents, students and alumni. Physical goods, shipped or collected from the campus store. **Platform is settled: WooCommerce.** Shopify was considered and set aside by Erin on 19 Aug 2026 ("I imagine we will put this aside") after Rian laid out the trade-off: Shopify is stronger for businesses whose primary activity is selling online, but it is not a general website platform, and the store here is a small part of a site that already exists. ## Decided | Area | Decision | Where from | |---|---|---| | Platform | WooCommerce on the main site | Erin, 19 Aug | | Payment | Card only, CAD only at launch. No PayPal, no debit | Requirements, 25 Aug | | Gateway | **Stripe recommended**, not yet agreed by the school | Rian, 27 Aug | | Shipping | Canada Post; start with **flat rate** | Requirements + Rian, 27 Aug | | Pickup | Yes, collect in the school store, including a student collecting for a parent | Requirements | | Courier | Purolator/Loomis of interest, **not for launch** | Requirements | | Accessibility | Normal best practice, not a full WCAG-AA audit | Scoping, 11 Jun | | Initial catalogue | Around ten products to start | Scoping, 11 Jun | ## The three things most likely to derail it **1. Lightspeed is the critical path, and probably a dead end.** The school's brick-and-mortar provider is Lightspeed. A physical-retail merchant account does not automatically permit online sales; that is a separate application with its own approval time. Rian's read on 27 Aug is that Lightspeed likely has no WooCommerce extension, so the fallback would be building one against their API, which changes the scope materially. **Stripe is the recommendation and what most sites do.** This needs an actual answer from the school before any date is credible. **2. Summer camp registration is a stated future use of the same payment path.** Registrations are non-physical products. A gateway that handles merchandise but not registrations or deposits would have to be replaced later. This strengthens the Stripe case and should be settled now, not retrofitted. **3. Payments change the site's security posture.** Use a gateway where card details never touch the server: hosted fields or a redirect flow, tokenised. Raw card data must never be accepted into WordPress under any arrangement. ## Prepaid shipping boxes — the one requirement to push back on The school wants flat-rate prepaid boxes in about three sizes, and their note describes making **the box itself a SKU**. **That is a workaround, not a design.** A purchasable box means customers can buy a box with no goods or goods with no box, tax behaves differently on shipping than on products, and the cart arithmetic gets fragile. In WooCommerce this is a **shipping method** (flat rates, optionally with shipping classes or box packing), which produces the same customer experience without the trap. Rian already put this to Erin on 27 Aug and asked that the SKU spreadsheet gain **size** and, if available, **weight** columns so WooCommerce can pick the right rate. Worth walking Julie and Erin through both approaches before anyone builds. ## Cost shape (no figures here — see the June thread) Rian's 11 June scoping assumed Stripe, no shipping integration beyond flat rate, and standard everything. Three cost drivers were flagged and still apply: - The **gift card** plugin carries an annual licence. - **Canada Post integration** carries an annual licence plus setup, and Rian's experience is that it does not go smoothly. Hence the flat-rate recommendation for launch. - **Scope creep is the norm** on WooCommerce builds: currency switching, volume discounts and similar all arrive later as paid plugins with setup time attached. Flagged deliberately early. ## Open — waiting on the school - **Which gateway.** Lightspeed online, or Stripe. Everything else waits on this. - **Tax for customers outside Canada.** Their question, verbatim: *"how would Rian suggest we manage the tax portion? We anticipate many clients from outside of Canada."* WooCommerce can apply tax by customer location, and exports are treated differently from domestic sales for GST/PST, but **this is a question for Brentwood's accountant, not a decision for us.** What we owe them is a clear explanation of what WooCommerce can do so they can ask a precise question. - **The SKU list (Part 2).** Julie's spreadsheet: name, price, sizes, plus the size/weight columns. - **Product photography sign-off.** Gallery delivered 3 Sep; Ian and Julie had not yet reviewed it. ## Open — waiting on us - **Erin's question of 3 Sep, unanswered:** *"PLEASE advise if you prefer ONE photo only, per product, or whether the multi-angle views are helpful."* She is holding the labelling work on this. - The tax explanation above. ## Product direction Julie has a first dozen SKUs in mind. Ian's steer is that **lifestyle pieces should lead**. Also wanted: alumni pieces, and per-sport supporter items ("Proud Brentwood Rugby Parent" and similar). Erin ran a query in the September *Torch* asking parents what they want. ## Fulfilment constraint (theirs, not ours) A staff member either drives parcels to Mill Bay Pharmasave, or a courier collects on campus if cost and logistics allow. This limits which shipping options are realistic at launch. ## Owners | Who | Item | |---|---| | Julie | SKU spreadsheet: name, price, sizes, plus size and weight | | Ian | Review the spreadsheet to launch-ready, then signal Erin | | Erin | Torch query; photography; labelling once Ian and Julie approve the gallery | | Rian | Tax explanation; photo-count answer; the build | ## Sources in this folder | File | What it is | |---|---| | `requirements-part1.md` | The 25 Aug requirements meeting, written up. Part 2 is the SKU list | | `question about Online Store.eml` | 19 Aug. Shopify vs WooCommerce; ends with Shopify set aside | | `Fw_ School Store Requirements and Starter Content mtg.eml` | 27 Aug. Rian on Lightspeed, Stripe, and why shipping is not a SKU | | `Brentwood Online Store Proposal.eml` | 11 Jun. The original scoping thread, with Tracy McAllister. **Contains commercial figures** | | `Online Store photos ready.eml` | 3 Sep. Photo gallery link, and the unanswered photo-count question | A duplicate of the 3 Sep photo email, and an unrelated prototype HTML, also sit in `/srv/apps/brentwood-legacy/projects/online-store/`.