Well, the past week has been an absolute nightmare. I have installed and configured a handful of different e-commerce solutions from Magento, OpenCart to Zen Cart … and now I'm here. Hopefully the community is as wonderful as CS Cart seems to be. I could really, really use some direction on this.
I have a Web-to-Print site that I need up and running “yesterday.” A site like this requires a lot more thought than a regular “come buy my t-shirt. Oh, and you can choose a color!” type store. There are several variables that come into play when a customer is choosing what to order. A lot of customization is required… and here's how it works:
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[]There are 4 separate categories of paper: Standard, Premium, Superior and Luxury. Each category represents certain paper stock. From within a category, the customer chooses the type of paper and then starts configuring their options.
[]The prices are based on quantities: 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 8000 and 10000. It's these quantities that dictate the base price.
[]From here, the customers chooses how many colors: 1/0, 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 2/0, 2/1, 2/3, 3/0, 3/1, 3/2 and 3/3. This choice affects the price.
[]Then, the customer can choose several add-on options … these add-ons also affect the price AND at times they also affect the weight.
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So, what's the problem? Well, in Magento for example, in order to create a “Configurable Product”, you have to create a “Simple Product” for literally EVERY variation. That's 4 Categories x 8 quantity groups x dozens of products x all possible variations of that order. INSANE! Yes, there are modules that make portions of that process a tiny bit less complex, but in the end, I couldn't see any way around creating 2 levels of categories: Standard > 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 8000, 10000, and then all of the products. I'd have to duplicate that process for each of the other 3 categories. ARG! Weeks and weeks of tedious data input.
I could really use some help figuring out if CS Cart will work for this kind of store… it will also lift my spirits if I can finally start working with a platform that has the power to accommodate these kind of variables.
As a recap:
4 categories, 8 quantity amounts, multiple file upload, several add-ons that can affect weight price.
Thank you very much in advance!
I use v2.2.3 Professional and can confirm from your functional requirements, providing my understanding is correct (except point 3), CS-Cart can and will do the job for you.
Here's my thoughts on the matter:
Categories (Requirement #1):
Paper
Paper > Standard
Paper > Premium
Paper > Superior
Paper > Luxury
Product (you could realistically create all your requirements with one single product - Requirement #2):
'Product A'
Price: £1.00
Weight: 0 grams
Quantities
500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500…
Set 'Quantity step' and 'List quantity step' to your requirements (start at 500, increase by 500, thus, quantities would display and be available as 500,1000,1500,2000 - not sure if you can have the quantity values you specified, may need to look further into this, but 500,1000,1500,2000, etc is definitely possible with the default cart functionality).
Product Options (Requirement #3):
I am not 100% sure what you mean here, but you could create required options which are dependent on each other, ie.
Colors: Red, Green, Blue
Quantity: 1 (Weight: 10g), 2 (Weight 20g), 3 (Weight 30g)
You can then create forbidden option types, such as Red x1 and x2 is available but Red x3 is not.
Please clarify further on this point.
Addon Options (Requirement #4):
Create a product option for each addon (or just one depending on what the addon is), you can specify the weight adjustment of each option, for example:
Addon option names
Pen (+50 grams)
Pencil (+45 grams)
Ruler (+100 grams)
Obviously if you wanted the customer to be able to have the option to buy one of these options, or two or all three, you would set up a product option for each 'addon'.
Hope that make sense…or at least some!
Thank you very much for responding… compared to the Magento community, you take the cake.
What I'll do is walk you through the (hopeful) purchase process from a customers perspective.
Customer chooses the quality of paper from the 4 categories: Standard, Premium, Superior, Luxury.
Within a category are the relevant paper stock; let's use your example and say that one would be Product 'A'
Product 'A' is of Category 'Standard'
Depending on how many cards the customer wants, the price will change:
500 of Product 'A' is $80
1000 of Product 'A' is $140
Now, the customer wants to change how many colors … the default is 1 Color. If the customer wants to change to 2 Colors, the price will be affected:
500 of Product 'A' with 2 Colors is $100
1000 of Product 'A' with 2 Colors is $165
In addition to that relationship, the customer is also able to choose some add-on features. This pricing is ALSO based on how many cards are being bought:
500 of Product 'A' with Embossing is +$64
1000 of Product 'A' with Embossing is +$84
So, you can probably see why I was forced to think about creating not only the initial categories (e.g. Standard), but also create a sub-category for the amount of cards (e.g. 500) … but that left me having to create a version of every single product for each amount (again, e.g. 500, 1000, etc)
I've attached a sample grid showing what the pricing would look like for the Standard category.
I can help you here. I build addons, and it looks very much like an addon is going to save you a lot of time. Get in touch if you want to discuss further (skype: sts-ltd, sinclairtechnologysolutions.com)
[quote name='sts-ltd' timestamp='1321382875' post='126034']
I can help you here. I build addons, and it looks very much like an addon is going to save you a lot of time. Get in touch if you want to discuss further (skype: sts-ltd, sinclairtechnologysolutions.com)
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There's got to be a way of configuring these products… is it seriously a custom job?
[quote name='dcolumbus' timestamp='1321384123' post='126035']
There's got to be a way of configuring these products… is it seriously a custom job?
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How many types of product do you have, you could use a combination of global options, cloning, import and categories. Once you have done 1 you can export that one to see how it is set up then manipulate the data in a spreadsheet and bring it back in.
By the sounds of it is it just cards or do you do posters/flyers/menus etc etc.
How many sizes of cards, and does this site give you any tips www.printcarrier.com
John