Selling courses, workshops and tickets from your store: dates, capacity and access

Many stores end up selling more than products: the pottery workshop at the craft shop, the tasting at the wine shop, the machinery manufacturer's online course, the masterclass at the academy that also sells supplies. And they almost always start the same way: a product with a stock of 20, a note in the description with the date and a spreadsheet to record who is coming.

It works until it does not. This article looks at what changes when you sell places instead of units and how to organise it.

How a place differs from a product

• It has a date. After that date it is worth nothing. It cannot be kept in the warehouse.
• It has a capacity that cannot be restocked. If it is full, what you need is a waiting list or a new session, not a purchase order to a supplier.
• Someone has to get in. You need to identify the attendee on the day of the event, or give them access to online content.
• It may depend on a person: the instructor, the professional who handles the appointment.
• It generates communications: reminders, room changes, joining links, materials.

A product with stock covers the capacity. Everything else ends up being done by hand.

Types of sale and how to approach them

Event with a date and capacity

A Saturday morning workshop, a tasting, a conference. The essentials: available places on display, a ticket for the attendee and access control. If you run several sessions of the same workshop, it is better to have one product page per session or one page with the date as an option, so that each has its own capacity.

Appointment or booking with a professional

An advice session, a private lesson, a product trial. Here the capacity is the diary: free slots per professional, with their exceptions. An important detail: while the customer is paying, the slot should be held for a few minutes and released if they do not finish. Otherwise, two people can pay for the same time.

Online course

There is no capacity, but there is access. The customer buys and must be able to view the content, only them, and for as long as you have sold. If the videos are public or a link can be shared, you are selling something that can be copied for free.

Training subscription

Access to the whole course catalogue for months or years, or a one-off lifetime payment. It requires tracking expiry dates and notifying the customer before they lose access.

Tickets and access control

On the day of the event, someone has to check who has paid. The most practical way is a ticket with a QR code that the attendee carries on their phone or printed out, and that is marked as used on entry. That way:

• You know who came and who did not.
• A ticket cannot be used twice.
• You do not depend on a printed list that goes out of date with the latest purchases.

Cancellations, changes and withdrawal

This is what raises the most questions. As a general rule, in distance selling the consumer has the right of withdrawal, but Spanish consumer protection law excludes, among others, services related to leisure activities when the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance. That is the typical case of a ticket for an event with a date. Online courses and other services have their own treatment, and it is worth reviewing it with your adviser.

Legal matters aside, what does depend on you is your commercial policy:

• Can people switch to another session? It is usually the option that satisfies most customers and costs you least.
• Can the place be transferred to someone else?
• What happens if you cancel due to too few sign-ups? A full refund, and say so before you sell.

Put it on the event page, not just in the general terms and conditions.

Communications that save phone calls

1. Confirmation with date, time, venue or link, and the ticket.
2. Reminder one or two days before, with what to bring.
3. Notice of changes if anything moves.
4. After the event: materials, a short survey and, if it fits, the next workshop.

For courses and subscriptions: activation notice, notice before expiry and expiry notice.

Before opening sales

A quick review that prevents most of the problems with a first event:

• Price including taxes, clear on the product page, like any other product for consumers.
• Real capacity, taking into account guests, staff and places you hold back for commitments.
• Sales deadline: decide whether people can buy up to the day itself or whether you close earlier to prepare materials.
• Minimum number of sign-ups, if there is one, and what happens if it is not reached.
• Attendee details, when the attendee is not the buyer: a ticket given as a gift or a company signing up its team.
• A test purchase from start to finish: payment, email, ticket and access to the content.

The five separate tools

A store that sells training usually ends up with one platform for the classroom, another for bookings, another for video calls, another for tickets and the store for supplies. Each with its own invoice, login and separate customer data. Bringing everything into the store has clear advantages: a single customer with their history, a single till, the same payment methods and taxes, and the chance to sell related supplies to the attendee.

The trade-off is that the store becomes a critical component of your training too. If it goes down or a module fails, you do not just stop selling: a student cannot get into their course. All the more reason to keep PrestaShop, PHP and modules up to date and tested.

How to do it in PrestaShop

RKR Events Suite lets you sell courses, workshops, conferences and appointments from PrestaShop. Courses are organised into sections with protected videos (uploaded videos are served with a signed, personal, expiring URL), student progress, tests with a pass mark and surveys. Bookings use slots per instructor with their availability and exceptions, and the slot is held while the customer pays. Each registration generates a PDF ticket with a QR code that you check in on arrival from the back office. There are subscription plans by time, topic, customer group or lifetime, with expiry notices, and Zoom, Teams or Meet meetings with your own credentials. Customers see their subscriptions and bookings from their account.