selling tickets to fundraising event with multiple pricing options and shared inventory?

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

An organization is hosting a one-time fundraising movie night capped at 100 attendees with three donation tiers ($1, $5, $20). The challenge is managing shared inventory across different price points without using paid apps.

Initial Problem:

  • Product variants don’t share inventory across the three pricing tiers
  • Tip jar functionality isn’t visible for Apple Pay users
  • Considered using discount codes but seeking better alternatives

Suggested Solutions:

  1. Inventory sync apps - Use free plans or charity-specific pricing (Mechanic automation app mentioned with flexible pricing policies)
  2. Shopify Bundles (free app) - Repurpose bundle functionality where one product represents cost and another represents the ticket with inventory limits
  3. Shopify Flow - Automatically unpublish product after 100 orders or disable buy buttons
  4. Theme customization - Programmatically add items to cart with inventory tracking

Outcome:
The organizer tested the Bundles approach in their draft store and confirmed it works for their needs. An alternative suggestion was made to use dedicated ticketing software (Ticket Tailor) with favorable charity rates instead of a retail platform.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I am part of an organization that is hosting a movie night/fund raiser. We will sell tickets to cap attendees to 100 people - with all proceeds to donate to a charity. The ticket prices will be 3 levels of donation ($1, $5, $20) - a “pay what you can” type of situation.

Is there a way to set this up on Shopify - preferably without a paid app (this will be a 1 time event, not planning on needing this functionality in future).

I tried setting it up as a product, with 3 variants ($1, $5, $20), but it won’t share inventory across the 3 variants (100 tickets). If I add a Tip Jar at check-out and let people donate any amount, it doesn’t appear to those checking out with Apple Pay etc. The only way I could think of is to set it up as a product with price at $20, and publish discount codes for the $5 and $1 option.

Any ideas on how else to do this?

tx!

2

Hi @py2023 :waving_hand: you’d either find a dedicated inventory-sync app with a free plan or has a plan for charities if it’s eligible.

This can also be done with mechanic automation app and it has a pay what feels good price policy beyond the tiers show by default in the app store.

You’d just need to contact theme and they might set you up for free pricing.

https://learn.mechanic.dev/platform/policies/pricing

As for the automation there are several different ways you can set up products/variants and a relevant task

https://tasks.mechanic.dev/?q=sync

Bundles?

Another way, I haven’t tried so test carefully, is repurposing bundles to do this :thinking: ???

Where 1 product is the cost and the other is the “ticket”|sticker|certificate etc.

The ticket item in the bundle is ~free but it’s the one with an inventory limit.

Bundles basically do need an app to manage but shopify makes a free one.

Theme customization - programmatically adding items to the customers cart.

It’s also possible customize a theme to insert other items into the cart; that have inventory.

So once checkout is reached they can’t continue if the item is sold out item, this depends on inventory settings and shopify’s checkout behavior which may auto-remove sold out items from a checkout such as from abandoned carts, or permalinks; it’s been awhile since I checked this behavior.

If you need this type of automation setup or made bespoke or supporting theme customizations then contact me for services.
Contact info in forum signature.
ALWAYS please provide context, examples: store url, theme name, post url(s) , or any further detail in ALL correspondence.

Good Hunting

3

There’s also using shopify-flow to unpublish the product once 100 orders are reached, or switch the products template to an alternate template with buy buttons disabled.

4

Hi Paul - tx for the tips. I checked several out, and I think I can make Bundles work - it tested out well in my draft store.

tx again!

5

We use a ticketing software solution called Ticket Tailor (not linked to Shopify). If you’re a charity, the rates are very favourable. Might be better suited for your needs than using a retail platform.