The Lamar University Marketplace is a series of websites, or “stores,” that allow College departments to sell products or accept registration for events.

The LU Marketplace is hosted by TouchNet and is managed by an intake team comprised of staff from:

• Finance
• Enterprise Services
• Web Communications
• Other relevant areas

Store requests should be submitted via the LU Marketplace Site Request. An intake team will review the request and will coordinate resources among necessary offices (Finance, Enterprise Services, Web Communications, requestor, and relevant stakeholders).

You should expect confirmation within 2-4 business days.

For the initial roll-out of LU Marketplace stores, the intake team will create stores and products. At a later date, we will be exploring the opportunity to train end users to create their own products within their stores.

Different requests may remain with the intake team depending on the complexity and frequency of requests.

Changes to stores should be submitted through the Manage/Create My Store link located on the LU Marketplace homepage.

An intake team member will review the request and will coordinate resources among necessary offices (Finance, Enterprise Services, Web Communications, requestor, and relevant stakeholders).

The cost to departments is credit card service fees, which is 2-4% of your transactions and a maintenance fee of $0.50 per transaction.

As part of the intake process, the Finance office will set up your store accounting and will also determine if products are taxable items.

Once a store is approved, it can take several weeks up to a couple of months to create your store, depending on the complexity of the request and the number of products involved.

The intake team will communicate reasonable “go-live” dates based on the request.

Your department will be responsible for processing payments, packaging and shipping and updating department records in other systems. Only Lamar University employees—not students—are allowed administrative access to TouchNet. Part of the intake process is to assign roles for Store Manager, Fulfiller, and Store Accountant. One person may fill all the roles or you may designate a separate person for each role. Best practices will be discussed during implementation. Role definitions are:

• Store Manager: manages store settings including designating fulfiller, managing products, creating categories, adding images, and managing payment methods, and can review store revenue reports by product, stock number, product type, and totals. This may or may not be a person from your department.
• Fulfiller: fulfills, refunds, or cancels orders but cannot make any changes to store settings. It’s important to note that if you mail out a product that’s been ordered but don’t fulfill the order through the LU Marketplace website, you won’t be paid for that order.
• Store Accountant: views store reports but cannot make any changes to store settings.

Yes.

LU Marketplace is the suggested method for any departmental events or products requiring payment. Accepting cash payments or asking for credit card information through the mail is strongly discouraged.

LU Marketplace is a secure site accepting the four major credit cards, as well as payments by electronic check, and therefore protects the user's financial information. 

Departments holding an event that requires an invitation/RSVP should visit the Event Management page for more information.

Read more about LU Marketplace (PDF)