A group buy is an event built around selling items rather than seats — merch drops, snack runs, bulk orders, anything attendees pick and pay for instead of RSVP-ing to. At the top of event creation there's a "What are you creating?" selector — pick Group buy instead of Standard event. Like a fundraiser, a group buy ignores the base Price field entirely; the total comes from the items an attendee picks, plus shipping and tax if you turn those on.
"Show attendees" defaults off
Picking Group buy automatically turns off the "Show attendees" visibility toggle — a shop, not a gathering, so your buyer list isn't public by default. You can still switch it back on in the Visibility section if you want a public order wall. Standard events default this toggle on; group buys are the one event type that starts it off.
Items
Add items in the Items section, the same place ticket tiers/add-ons live on a standard event — it's the same underlying list, relabeled and given a photo uploader for group buys. Each item has:
- Name and Price — the basics.
- Photo (optional) — shown next to the item in the attendee's picker.
- Stock (optional) — total units of that specific item available across every order combined. Blank means unlimited.
- Max per RSVP (optional) — the most of that item a single order can contain. Blank means unlimited.
- Hidden (optional) — gates the item behind a promo code, same as a hidden ticket tier or add-on: it's invisible in the picker until an attendee redeems a code that reveals it.
At least one item is required — Offkai blocks saving a group buy with an empty item list.
Max orders (event capacity)
The event's Capacity field is relabeled Max orders for group buys. It caps the total number of orders (one per checkout) the whole group buy will accept — the same shared-pool mechanic a standard event uses for seats, just counting orders instead of seats. Check the unlimited-capacity box to accept any number of orders, or leave it unchecked and set a number.
This is a different cap from an item's own Stock field: Max orders limits how many people can check out at all; Stock limits how many units of one specific item get sold, independent of how many total orders come in.
Fulfillment: shipping and/or pickup
Turn on at least one fulfillment mode in the Fulfillment section — Shipping, Pickup, or both. You must offer at least one; Offkai blocks saving otherwise.
- Shipping — attendees enter a mailing address at checkout. You can set a flat shipping fee, added to the order total only when an attendee actually chooses shipping (pickup orders never pay it).
- Pickup — no address collected. The attendee's existing check-in QR code doubles as their pickup claim — scan it at pickup the same way you'd scan a ticket.
If you offer both, each attendee picks one per order at checkout.
Tax
An optional sales tax rate (0–100%) applies to every order. Tax is computed on the discounted goods subtotal only — item prices minus any promo discount — and shipping is never taxed. The exact amount is frozen onto the order at checkout, so changing the rate later never touches past orders.
Promo codes on group buys
Promo codes gate and discount items the same way they do ticket tiers and add-ons (see Ticket tiers & promo codes), with one nuance specific to group buys: the discount only applies to the items subtotal. Shipping and tax are calculated after the discount and are never themselves discounted. The order of operations for a shipped, taxed, discounted order:
- Items subtotal (price × qty, summed across everything in the order)
- minus the promo discount → discounted goods subtotal
- plus the flat shipping fee (if the attendee chose shipping) — added undiscounted
- plus tax (tax rate × the discounted goods subtotal from step 2 — shipping excluded) → order total
A code that reveals a hidden item behaves exactly like on a standard event: the item stays invisible in the picker until the attendee enters a code that unlocks it.
Fulfilling orders
On the event's Guests page, open any confirmed order to see its fulfillment type and, for shipping orders, the mailing address. Mark it shipped and attach a tracking number — this emails the attendee their tracking info and shows a Shipped badge on the order in your list. If the tracking email fails to send, the order stays flagged so you can retry.
For privacy, the saved mailing address is automatically deleted about 48 hours after you mark an order shipped — the order and its item details stay on your records, only the address is purged. Pickup orders don't need a shipped step; checking the attendee in at pickup (scanning their QR) is the fulfillment record.
Guests → Export includes group-buy-only CSV columns — fulfillment type, full shipping address, shipping fee, tax, shipped status, and tracking number — useful for batch label printing or handing orders off to a fulfillment partner.
Related
- Order from a group buy — what the buyer sees on the other side of this flow.
- Ticket tiers & promo codes — the same item/add-on building blocks, and how promo codes work more generally.