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FAQ

First, Let's Talk About Our Fees

Here at Manage My Co-op our mission is to build communities by putting you in charge of what you pay. It is at the core of what aggregating demand does by allowing you to drive prices down. To enable you to do that we charge a 2% fee that is added to each order. We believe our software will save you time, money, and effort and your members will see that.

Basics

What is this? Manage My Co-op is a platform to help you manage group buys. Use your community to buy goods at a discount. We make the process easy and streamlined.

I have a buying club. What can you do for me? Awesome! Congrats! We have a great system that will save you hours of work and reduce errors. Contact us and we can walk you through your first order set up. Heck we can even do it for you!

I am a member of a buying club. What can you do for me? Only make your life so much easier. Rather than keeping track of all of your co-ops and buys all over the place you can now find them in one convenience place. That is once they start using us. Put your host or manager in touch with us!

Ok back up. What’s a co-op or a buying club? Co-ops are also known as cooperatives. Essentially it is people coming together to make a bulk purchase to get goods at lower costs. Many co-ops started in the 70s and are now store front grocery stores. Most started as simple buying clubs— as in “hey we should all go in together and get this box of apples for super cheap! How many do you want?”. Buying clubs and co-ops are on the rise again. Instead of using pen and paper, google docs, or email you can use Manage My Co-op to make the process super easy. I promise. More questions? Contact us.

I still dont get it. Get your community together. Find a great deal. Set up your order on our sytem. Get everyone to buy in. Collect money. Buy deal. Distribute your deal. Bask in your awesomeness.

How do I start my own club? I am working on writing up a how to but in the mean time email me and I can walk you through it.

Communication

Can I/we message in Manage My Co-op? Yes! Each order has a message board and an option to send email notifications to the members participating in the buy. This enables you to send notifications when orders are closing soon, have closed or when payments are called for.

What other ways should we communicate with each other? In addition to our order message boards, we encourage groups to communicate through either a facebook group, email list, or yahoo group (or whatever workds for you). We are working on building in user messaging, but in the meantime, the system is designed to work side by side with one of these other platforms. We can talk you through this process if you need help.

Payments

How do I pay as a member? Your host or manager will let you know. We don’t handle payments through Manage My Co-op yet. It will most likely be something like PayPal or Dwolla. Some co-ops or buying clubs can even do check or cash in person but that is up to your group.

How do I as a host/manager collect payments? Manage My Co-op does not handle user payments yet. Eventually we will. Right now keep using whatever it is that you are using (PayPal, Dwolla, WePay, cash, or check for example). It does however give you a place to keep track of who has paid what. We will be integrating paypal and dwolla and are in the process of developing user account balances so that co-ops can track overages and underages order to order for each member.

Starting a new a group and need to figure out to how to handle payments? Contact us and we can walk you through it! We have lots of great suggestions.

How Margins Work

What’s this margins business? When ordering in bulk you often buy in cases. Lets use a box of 70 apples for example. No one needs all 70 apples (ok maybe they do but for this example lets imagine they don’t). Five people are ordering and all pick how many they want. To make the host's or manager's life easier someone can order, for example, 10 apples but then put a margin of 5 meaning they will take up to 15. If they are ordering 10 but are happy with 5 they can set their margin to -5. When the order is set to add/drop it will automatically consider everyone’s margins and fill the case.

How does it really work? Manage My Co-op has developed a proprietary algorithm that auto-balances each item in an order to handle situations where items must be ordered in set cases. Yep. We are that cool. To support this technology, members have the ability to enter a desired range by setting an ideal quantity and a positive or negative margin. Encouraging your members to enter margins will make auto balancing a snap.

The Order Timeline

Lets walk you through what a typical order timeline looks like. Most groups go through the same steps so we have designed our software to work that way. Typically orders go as follow:

  1. Setup

    The Co-op host configures the order
  2. Open

    Members get to order! For orders where ordering in full cases is necessary, members can input a margin (in the ideal range) which is used to auto balance the order during later stages.
  3. Closing Soon

    Time to make sure all the minimums requirements for the order are met. Items can be set to auto-close one by one as all of the member orders for that item can be fulfilled or the co-op host can opt to let members negotiate with each other to fill cases or meet requirements.
  4. Payment Due

    When the order closes, items not meeting the ordering requirement (for example a full box of apples) will be automatically dropped. Orders are placed on a first come first served basis, so the last person to order will be the first to get dropped. This is also when the call for payment goes out.
  5. Closed

    The host or manager now places the order and waits for it to arrive. We offer awesome “pick tickets” that can be printed so you know what each member ordered and can sort easily when the order arrives. The order then gets distributed to the members as arranged by the host or manager (mail or in person generally).

Walk me through it as a member

  1. Join a Co-op

    First create your account then join a co-op!
  2. Order

    Once your admin or host approves you, you will be able to order from any open order. Put in a margin to help fill cases! Say for example you want at least 3 widgets but are happy with up to 5. Simply put +2 in your margin. Want a max of 3 but happy with only 1? Put -2 in your margin.
  3. Pay

    Your group or co-op will have payment instructions. Watch for them and then make sure to pay promptly!
  4. Pick-up

    Go to your pickup location to get your items or watch your mailbox. Be sure to thank your hosts and admins for all their hard work.

Walk me through it as a host or manager

  1. Create or Join a Co-op

    First create your account then get started by joining an existing co-op or apply to have us set up your own!
  2. Add Items to Your Co-op

    Get your co-op ready by adding the vendors and products you will offer in your orders. If you have an order with lots of items we can import it for you. Just email us (LINK) and we will get you set up.
  3. Set Up an Order

    Finally time to start an order! Add your items (or have us do it for you LINK), then open it so your members can order. Your co-op's members will be able to browse the items you are offering, add them to their cart, and, if you want, even select a margin. When you close the order, their selected ranges will help to automatically balance boxes or cases so that you can meet your producers' order minimums and requirements.
  4. Payment

    Your members can then proceed to pay you either in person or through a service such as Paypal or Dwolla. You will need to communicate this with them. When you place your order, you have the option to update prices for the items. The new balance will automatically carry over and will reflect in your members' next order, or you can send out an updated invoice for your members to pay.
  5. Pickup and Distribution/Mailing

    Communicate with your members about when and where distribution or mailing will happen. Get those items in their hands then take a well deserved nap before opening your next order.