Your hoodies, helmets and gift boxes should not live on a different website from your heats. VenueChief’s online store for activity venues sells merchandise at the same checkout, with stock that is actually counted.
An online store for activity venues that shares the checkout
A guest books a Saturday heat and asks at the desk whether you sell a helmet liner. You do, but it is on a shelf in the back, in three sizes, and nobody knows whether the medium is in stock.
An online store for activity venues should fix that without becoming a second business. VenueChief’s Retail Storefront is part of the same system that takes the booking, so a guest can add a product to the same basket, and stock and tax come out right.
What is new: a store with real stock
- Product catalog. Products with variants (size, color or any option you define), SKU, barcode, cost, compare-at price, categories, images, search and social fields, a publish state and a tax category. Import and export by spreadsheet.
- Stock that is counted. Every change goes through an inventory ledger, with counts and adjustments recorded with a reason. A low-stock banner warns you. While a guest checks out, their stock is held. Product pages show Only 3 left or Out of stock, and a sold-out item offers a notify-me box for when it returns.
- Pickup and delivery. Guests pick up at the venue or choose delivery. Delivery uses a flat rate with a free-over amount you set. A pickup queue in the Storefront workspace tells staff what to pull.
- Returns. An operator can authorize a return against an order.
- Discoverable. Each product has its own page with structured data, and the shop publishes a sitemap and a shopping feed.
Book a demo and we will load three products and take an order.
How the guest sees it
On your site, the guest browses a venue online store that looks like the rest of your pages, picks a size, and sees the price with the jurisdiction’s tax before paying. They can add a heat, a gift card or a pass to the same basket. A promo code can apply to shop items, and the discount comes off before tax. One charge, one order.
Staff can also attach products to a booking, so a party host can add a trophy or a team shirt without a second transaction.
How it works behind the scenes
- Add products in the Storefront workspace, or import a spreadsheet.
- Set stock with a count, then let sales and adjustments move it.
- Turn on pickup, delivery or both and set the flat rate.
- Publish. Orders appear in the Fulfillment queue.
- At close, the day’s shop sales sit beside bookings, food and gift cards in the daily close.
A sale, start to finish
A shopper lands on a product page, picks size M and sees “Only 3 left”. They add it to a basket that already holds a heat, see the tax before they pay and pay once. Their stock is held while they check out. Staff see the order in the pickup queue, pull the item and hand it over on arrival. Two weeks later a return is authorized against the order. When the item comes back and is received, the refund goes out and, if you choose to restock it, the movement is recorded in the ledger. At the end of the day, the shop sale sits in the daily close beside the booking.
Who it suits
Karting tracks and sim racing centers with merchandise, driver gear and branded gift boxes, golf lounges with a pro shop, batting cages selling gloves and tees, and entertainment centers with party supplies. If you sell a product and a booking in the same week, this keeps them in the same books.
What it changes on a busy day
- A guest buys merchandise before they arrive, and it is waiting at pickup.
- The count on screen follows every sale, delivery and adjustment, so a recount only has to fix the differences.
- A sold-out size no longer becomes an apology at the desk.
Availability and fine print
Retail Storefront is an add-on to the Platform plan. A simpler shop for gift cards, passes and memberships comes with the Booking plan. See pricing.
Delivery is a flat rate today, and it needs a ship-from address and your own flat rate saved before you turn it on. Live carrier rates, labels and tracking are not available. At the counter, staff add products to a booking. Reviews, dropshipping and serial or lot tracking are not part of the store.