ONLINE SALES

[The Sales Team]

As announced in the recent issues of the 009 News, Members' Sales will be going live with online shopping from 1st October.  This replaces the previous system of sales lists that used to be e-mailed to members who had requested them.  Instead, items will be posted in the 'shop' in the 'Members Only' area of the website. 
Please note, it is most definitely our intention that the Sales Stand will remain a feature at Open Days and specialist narrow gauge model railway exhibitions, as soon as we are able to return to them.

How do you access this new facility?

Step 1.  Make sure you have access to the Members Only area of the Society website:   www.009society.com
If you don't already have access to the Members Only area please contact the Membership Secretary (memsec@009society.com) who will supply you with your username and password.  (Note: these are not the same as your Society Forum credentials.)

Step 2. Log in to the members only area of the Society website
Hover over the words "Members' Area" and log in with your username and password, as supplied, by following step 1.

Step 3. Enter the online shop
Again, hover over the words 'Members' Area' and select "Members Sales".  The shop index page will then open.

The shop will display the categories of sales items, which will initially include:
                  -   Society clothing, badges etc.
                  -   009 Society exclusive kits
                  -   Society Second Hand Sales

Clicking on a category will then take you into the corresponding sales areas.  Similarly clicking on any subcategories will help you find the item you are looking for.

Clicking on an item will give you a description of the item.

Clicking on the "Add to Basket" button will add the item to your online shopping basket and, in the case of a second-hand item, will temporarily remove it from sale to others.  The page will change to show you the contents of your shopping cart.  You can remove an item from your cart by clicking the little x to the left of the item.
You can then continue shopping for more items as before.

WARNING - YOU WILL HAVE ONLY 30 MINUTES NOW TO COMPLETE THE SALE AND PAY FOR THE GOODS OR THEY WILL BE RETURNED TO THE SHOP FOR SALE TO OTHERS!  This is to prevent items being reserved to the detriment of other members wishing to buy them.  A countdown clock will appear at the top right of the page, once you have made your first addition to your basket.

Step 4. Payment
Click "Proceed to Checkout" to start the PayPal payment process.  You will be asked for your email address, name and address etc.

Click "Proceed to PayPal" to complete the purchase.  You can choose to pay using a PayPal account, or by using a credit or debit card (you do not need to have a PayPal account of your own to pay via PayPal).  Your purchase will be acknowledged by email.

As and when appropriate we may post notice of special items or batches of items which are added to the shop here in the 009 Society Forum (but we will not be sending out 'listings' as before).

Finally, we ask for your patience in two respects: -
1. There are bound to be teething troubles as we get this going, despite the best endeavours of the Webmaster and the team.
2. Please do not expect the kind of swift response you get from a big retailer.  The team, all volunteers, will still meet just once per week (on a Thursday) and will still only despatch items once per week.

These instructions will be repeated in the public areas of the website itself.

Happy modelling.

The Sales Team

P.S.  As in the past, we will always try to answer queries about Sales posted here on the forum or by email to Sales  (members-sales@009society.com)

[Hobby]

Well done and good luck, chaps!! :)

One minor point, can we say anything on NGRM as I'd have thought it a good reason to join the Society so could provide good publicity and get a few new members? If you want to do it yourselves just say so, I won't post anything until I have permission!

[Malcolm]

Great news.  Look forward to hammering my PayPal account
Malcolm

[MickT]

Excellent progress guy/guys and well done indeed!

One little statement of the obvious:

Don't forget that a majority of our membership are not members of this forum. There's nothing about this in the currently just arrived issue of the News, is it going to appear in the next issue, bearing in mind that this won't arrive with members until around the last 10 days or later of September and for overseas members it will be even later? I think it is important that this welcome initiative is seen to be fair to all the membership and not disadvantage those that are not members of this forum.

Mick

[The Sales Team]

Thanks for the positive responses. (Just hope the comments are all as positive when it actually goes live!)

Blair:  Most people are already aware of 009 Sales, we suspect, but Sales have only ever been available (in theory, at least) to Society members. This still applies - if you want to get a bargain, join the Society! As for Society members, they will continue to be absolutely at liberty not to partake in this forum in future, if that's what they choose.

Mick:  Indeed we had not forgotten. There should indeed have been something in the recent News but... well, there isn't. Apologies. Except if you look very closely at the bottom of  p22 you will find something, even if it does suggest the 'shop' is already active (which it's not yet). The best laid plans... etc. But hopefully it will make September's issue.
We are also aware that not all members are online. However - for reasons which are much too complicated to go into here - if you aren't online you won't be able to indulge in online sales anyway. But people can still write us a 'proper' letter us as in the past.

The Sales Team

[Hobby]

Yes I know that, but I think you've missed my point!

I was saying is that it could be a way of getting new members if they were made aware that they could buy online if they were members! I was looking at it from that angle. Publicity!! ;)



Mick, I suspect many overseas members also get theirs in digital form via email so will know before those of us who get paper copies!

[clayliner]

Not sure why people who didn't want to take advantage of Sales in the past by becoming members would want to do so now, just because it's online? But maybe there are those who only inhabit the online world...!

David.

[Robin Webster]

 Perhaps David, Some of us who  have joined the society came on board during the height of the covid 19 pandemic like myself, also some of us are not resident of the Uk like myself. For me, only on line is possible. But i do like the whole concept of on line as it opens up to a larger market.
Now i wonder if the sales dept would ship to Europe/ N America, Australia, etc. Of course the purchaser would pay the appropriate shipping and customs/ duty/ tax or what ever its called.

Robin.

[Hobby]

Not sure why people who didn't want to take advantage of Sales in the past by becoming members would want to do so now, just because it's online? But maybe there are those who only inhabit the online world...!

Because at present there's no other way of getting access to the sales stands as there are no shows, where non members could access it before... And you have to be a member to access it now... And if they are on NGRM they are also online so that's not an issue... And with a bit of luck it will increase membership...

Forget my request, David has just told everyone about it on NGRM.

[The Sales Team]

Technically, Blair, Society Sales were only ever available to members, even at shows and exhibitions - but the rule was probably not often enforced!

Fear not, Robin - we have always shipped to the far corners of the Empire and even beyond, and we will be happy to do so in future. But our market has not really enlarged as it was always available to every Society member in the past, as it is now. If you're after something in particular you can always drop us an email, and if we have it we'll happily sell it to you (but we won't if we haven't...)

The Sales Team.

[MickT]

Technically, Blair, Society Sales were only ever available to members, even at shows and exhibitions - but the rule was probably not often enforced!

The Sales Team.

Sorry, that's not true. MAIL ORDER sales and by inference with the announcement about the online sales shop, then yes, this facility is only available to members and as you know, the mail order side of things has always been thus.

But when the sales table attends a show, then anyone who has attended that show is entitled to purchase goods from the sales table, don't have to be a society member to do this. There was a period as you also know when society members could get a discount purchasing at the table by production of their proof of membership, but this was stopped several years ago for a number of very good reasons which aren't relevant here.

It is very much for this reason that many many years ago Brian stopped taking the society sales table to "mainstream shows" such as the annual one that SHARM (South Hants Association of Railway Modellers) runs or used to run in the Southampton and Portsmouth areas following representations that this was not in the spirit of the society and gave non-members an unfair advantage over members, so the sales table for at least the last 20 years has only attended the bigger specialist NG shows such as Expong, NG North, NG South etc etc and Area Group members/open day events where attendees don't actually have to be in the Society but do share the common interest, in all cases, attendance is purely by invitation and the sales does not attend any event in the capacity of a commercial trader.

Extended waffle about this to try to avoid a storm of irrelevant debate about where people think the sales should be attending - which Lee has already explained at length several times in the News.

Sorry, this has drifted from the topic of the start of the online sales facility, but I think it important that your statement that sales in first person ie at the sales table at an event were only ever available to members is corrected, particularly as you have posted it anonymously under the heading of "the sales team" and therefore have made an official announcement on behalf of the team/society

Mick

[danny]

This sounds good and will no doubt make buying items from the Sales Team easier for most people than the previous email lists. Will this method of online sales be continuing even after in-person model railway exhibitions return? If so, I was wondering if the online sales will still need to close temporarily just before shows, to prevent items already bought online being sold at shows or vice versa (if that makes sense). I seem to remember something similar being done previously with the email lists.

[The Sales Team]

Assuming everything works to everyone's satisfaction (of course it will!) then the new system will continue indefinitely. The previous 'listings' were only ever selected items which were sent out on an as-and-when basis but in future we hope to have a wider selection on sale all the time. Exactly how wide will depend on stock levels and how quickly the team can replace stock as it is sold, but we'll do our best to maintain a decent selection at all times.

Shows and exhibitions will remain the priority so we will always try to ensure we have lots of goodies to take out to them. If this means removing some items from the online 'shop' in advance then we may need to do that, and as you say there is always the option to temporarily suspend online sales prior to an exhibition or show.

One practical challenge for the system is to keep some kind of record of items sold at shows to ensure that they do not go back on sale online! Simple in theory, not so easy in practice - people will know how hectic things can be on the Sales stand at a show without having to add in an extra recording operation.

Finally, it's been very helpful that we have had a few months with minimal sales activity in which to get the online system planned and operational, and then a few months more to make sure this is working smoothly before we add in the challenges of going out on the road. We really couldn't have timed the pandemic better (but no - we didn't start it just to benefit 009 Sales!)

The Sales Team.

[Graeme Dunbar]

That sounds good. One could have fun with bar-codes. Or maybe that's passe - QR codes? ;D  ;D

[The Sales Team]

One could, indeed! You could use an old smartphone as a reader, and even get it to talk directly with the (new) Sales laptop.

"Oi - who's nicked our new laptop when we weren't looking?!"

The Sales Team