Group orders: one link for a whole team

A group order is the job every embroiderer knows: a team, a class, a church group, or an office wants the same piece in twenty different sizes. Done by hand it is a spreadsheet, a group chat, and someone chasing people for money.

Broidry turns it into one link. You pick a product you already sell, set a price per person and a closing date, and share the link. Each member opens it, picks their own size and color, types their own name if the piece is personalized, and pays for their own spot. You are not collecting money from anyone. If one person is paying for the whole team instead, one switch sets the group up that way, and the section called When one person pays for the whole group covers it.

Setting one up

1. 1Open Group orders and start a new one from a product you already have on your shop page.
2. 2Set the price each person pays and the date the group closes. The closing date is what protects you: after it passes, no one else can join, so you are not still taking orders while you are trying to stitch.
3. 3Share the link. There is also a separate organizer link you can hand to the coach, the room parent, or whoever is actually herding the group, so they can watch it fill up without needing an account.
4. 4Watch it fill. The group order page shows who has joined and who has paid, so you always know where it stands.

Going live, closing, and refunding every member

A new group order can be saved with "Save as draft", which keeps it off its link until you press "Go live". "Close this group order" stops new members from joining, and "Reopen this group order" opens it again. On a group that will not be made, "Refund all paid members…" asks you to confirm, then sends each card payment taken through Broidry back to that member's card and marks payments that came in another way as refunded, for you to send back yourself.

When a member wants more than one piece

A member can order as many pieces as they want in one go, each with its own garment, color and size. A bowler who wants two long sleeve shirts and one short sleeve, each in a different color, builds the first one, presses "Add to cart", then presses "Add another piece" for the next. Their name and email carry over, so they type them once.

Their cart lists every piece with its garment, color and size, and asks once how they are getting them: picked up from you, or shipped to the organizer, whichever the group offers. Then they pay or save once. On a group where members pay by card, the button reads "Pay for everything" with the total, and one card payment covers every piece. Where you take payment your own way, or the organizer pays, it reads "Save my spot" for one piece or "Save all 3 pieces" for three, and nothing is charged on the page.

Each piece is charged the group's price, and each one is its own order on your board and its own line on the production sheet, so the batch still sorts by garment, color and size. On the group order page, a member's pieces are listed together under their name, with each piece linking to its order. The count at the top counts people, so a member with three shirts is one member.

A garment you checked on the product that has no colors saved offers the standard color list for its kind of garment, as long as another garment checked on the same product has colors. If none of the checked garments has colors, the product is sold as pictured and members are not asked for a color.

When a member pays their own share, a spot counts once it is paid

On a group where each member pays for their own spot, a member who starts the form but never pays does not count as part of the group, and never appears on anything you stitch from. Only paid spots are real. It means the number you see is the number of pieces you are actually making, not the number of people who said they were in.

That holds all the way down to your board. Someone who fills in the form and then closes the card page leaves nothing behind at all — no order for you to look at, no name on your list, and nobody for you to go chase. The spot appears the moment their card clears and not a second earlier. The same is true of a drop cart: the whole cart shows up together once it is paid for.

If your shop does not take cards but lists other ways to pay under "Ways buyers pay you" on your Pricing & settings page, like Venmo, PayPal, or written instructions, each member saves their spot and is shown those same ways to pay you, with the amount. Their spot counts once you mark it paid, the same as any other order at your shop.

When one person pays for the whole group

Some teams sign up one at a time but have one person pay for everybody, like a team mom or a coach. For those, turn on "One person pays for the whole group". It is on the new group order form, and on a group order you already made under "Edit details".

With it on, nobody is charged when they sign up. Each member picks their own size, adds the piece to their cart, presses "Save my spot" (or "Save all 3 pieces" when they ordered three), and is told the organizer is paying for the whole group, so there is nothing for them to pay. Their own order page and quote page say the same thing, with a box reading "Nothing to pay here" in place of any pay buttons. A group order like this needs no card payments set up, so its card on your Group orders page never asks you to set them up. Every saved spot counts right away: it is on your group order page, on the production sheet, and toward any minimum, at the per-person price. You collect the total from the organizer the way you normally take payment.

If a group like this closes under its minimum, nobody has been charged, so there is nothing to refund. Your choice is to extend the date or make it anyway and bill the organizer.

You can switch it later under "Edit details". If people have already signed up, Broidry stops before saving and tells you how many people the switch changes. Turning it off means anyone who signed up without paying stops counting until they pay their own share by card, and after the group closes Broidry emails them a reminder to pay. Turning it on means anyone who started signing up but never paid counts right away, at the per-person price. Press "Switch and save" to go ahead, or "Keep who pays as it was and save" to save your other changes and leave everyone where they are.

Stitching the batch

When the group closes, open its production sheet. It lists only the members whose spots count, batched by garment, then color, then size — so you hoop once and sew a whole size run at a time instead of jumping around.

Every line still carries the member's name along with their wording, placement, and thread color, so you can run the batch efficiently and still bag each finished piece by the right person's name. Broidry also emails the paid members when the group closes, so nobody is left wondering whether their order went through.

Running it as a fundraiser

Most studios, schools, and teams say yes to a group order faster when the group earns something from it. It is off unless you ask for it. On the new group order form the box is called "Run it as a fundraiser (optional)", with "per item back to the group" beside it. Leave it blank and you have an ordinary group order.

To turn it on later, open the group order and edit it. The same box there reads "Fundraiser: per item back to the group (optional)". Type the dollar amount from every item you want to go back to the group running the sale.

The member's price does not change. If a hoodie is $38 and the cut is $3, every member still pays $38, and $3 of each one is yours to pass along to the organizer. The sign-up page tells members that $3 of every item goes back to their group, which is a reason to buy, not a fee. Your group order page shows what the group has earned so far, and the organizer's own progress link shows them the same number.

When the order closes, the total shows up in two places: as a payout line at the top of the production sheet, with the organizer's name and contact, and in an email to the organizer saying what the group earned. Getting the money to them is between you and them — a check, Venmo, a credit on their next order. Broidry keeps the number straight so nobody has to work it out from a spreadsheet.

Show the group what their piece will look like

A group order can carry one picture of its own, usually a mockup of the team's design on the shirt. Members see it first, at the top of the group order page, before your product's photos. Your Group orders list shows it on the group order's card too, and so does your shop page if the group order is listed there. With no picture, members see your product's photos, the same as always.

1. 1On the new group order form, find the box called "Picture members see first (optional)". To add one to a group order you already made, press "Edit details" on it and the same box is there.
2. 2Click one of the pictures under "Your mockups". These are the mockups you saved or sent from the Mockup Studio, newest first. Or click "Upload a picture" to use any JPEG, PNG, or WebP picture from your computer or phone.
3. 3Press "Create group order" (or "Save changes" when editing). The picture saves with it. To take it off, press "Edit details", click "Remove picture", and save.

Settings worth knowing about

Show on my shop page puts the group order on your public shop page, so it is not only reachable by the link you send. Good for a community run anyone may join — a school-spirit piece, a town fundraiser. Leave it off for a private team.

Fulfillment options is how members actually get their piece, and it holds two switches: Pickup and Ship to organizer. At least one of them has to be on before anybody can lock a spot. With both off, your group order shows an amber line reading "Nobody can lock a spot yet", telling you to press "Edit details" and turn one on.

These two switches are for a group order you run on its own. A product you added to a drop ignores them: the drop's How buyers get it setting decides pickup or shipping for every product in it. To change shipping on a drop, open it on your Drops page and click Edit details there.

Ship to organizer sends the whole batch to one address — the coach, the room parent — instead of asking every member for their own. One box, one shipping cost, and the organizer hands the pieces out.

When Ship to organizer is on, boxes for the organizer's shipping address open right under the switch: "Street address", "Apartment, suite, or room (optional)", "City", "State", and "ZIP code". Fill them in on the new group order form, or press "Edit details" on a group order you already made. The name on the package is the "Organizer name", or the group order's title when that is blank. You can leave the address empty until you have it, and the group order's card shows an amber line reading "Ship to organizer is on, but there is no address to ship to yet" until you add it.

Members never type an address on a group order. Their pickup-or-shipping choice reads "Ship to my organizer", and the page tells them where it goes, with the organizer's name and address. The same address shows on their thank-you message and their order page. On your side it is on each member's order, which reads "Ship to the organizer" with the full address, so a shipping label fills in from it. It also shows on the group order's own page, under "Pieces that ship go to", and on the organizer's progress link. Change the address with "Edit details" and every member order that has not shipped yet changes with it.