I also wanted to add some info for the other posts here.
The advanced order management also needs to inclusde the following:
The ability to add, change, modify, delete ALL aspecst of the order AND shipping costs, as well as add any possible discounts etc via applicable charges (price factors or purchase price totals)
A true Return Goods Authorization, but not available prior to goods being shipped. that is capability in other applications I have seen and is pathetic.
A true QuickBooks application intigration! This is badly needed and required by the majority of store owners.
Inventory tracking option to display to customer “Available” or “In Stock” and if not, display “Out of Stock” Please Notify". If ticked, the end user has ability to enter email address to be notified once this product is back in stock. Once inventory is updated to reflect stock, an email is automatically sent to the end user and then their info dleeted automatically in the databae to keep it from getting too large with clutter.
Decent statistics tracking to reflect annual performances, profits, costs, sales trends, number of time placed in cart, purchased and not purchased etc. there are many needs for inventory info and tracking, and this could be set up in many applications, If you want to hear more, I can provide, lol.
I will stop with this last one as I could fill up this forum with required capabilities for a cart that everyone would agree that is not just for a single store, but they would also like the functions too.
Back order capabilities on products. In case inventory numbers are off and online inventory is not reflecting warehouse numbers, the picker once at shelf to pack goods must be able to backorder product, show it on invoice as to be deleivered in seporate shipment, so sale can continue to be fulfilled and store owner keep the cash!
I see this myself once in a while and it created a hassle to email customer, tell them what is up, get permission to ship later, etc. this way the order is fulfilled, notification will be via invoice and online invoice display and once item is in stock, it is picked up via admin that there is already one item paid for and requitred to complete a prior order. this will allow the past order to be fulfilled prior to any secondary order being placed and fulfiled propr to admin seeing anything.
order is back ordered.
system monitors enventory arrival and quantity updates
quanteties are changed when stock arrives.
order is flagged for backorder product to be shipped
admin or fulfilment notified of restocked product
new invoice created for backordered prduct with destination info customer info etc.
order picked, packed and shipped.
order updated to reflect order now completed in total.
Also seen where there was a question about phone ordering capability on the back end in admin area.
this is a mod that allows you as an admin to creat orders if as person faxes or calls you and places an order. If you do not have their info such as log in and password, you can act as they are and place an order under thier name with theor info, address, etc.
This is a capability in xcrap right now, but would also be nice to have this here. I have numerouse times a day when I am called by customer and if it is to order someting from a store I DO NOT have this mod installe don, I need to ask for their user name and paswwrod and that does agains the privacy policy of NEVER asking for private details and some people get suspicious.
SO, phone odering for back end is GREAT IDEA!!
Capabilities are to place order
modifiy orders already placed by customer (maybedoen via AOM)
Process Credit Card fpr order placed over phone
Forard order info to user while they are on phone.
You have my vote. It’s actually very upsetting to search for years to find the ultimate ecommerce system and then you find it only to realize there are one or two CORE functional components missing.
Examples:
Shipping… When adding a product, why can’t you specify the box dimensions and all info needed to calculate shipping??? I see this option under the manage shipping area, but this is just one entry… every product is different and will have different dimensions etc… please shed some light on this anyone…
Tracking… How could this been overlooked!!!
PayPal… I have looked. I do not see a paypal processing template for PayPal’s website payments pro! I have the scripts for this If you guys need them to integrate this… just let me know. I dont know how to do it.
How in the world do we specify a different SKU number for a red shirt and another SKU for a blue shirt? This may be implemented… but I cannot figure it out!
-MAK
[quote name=‘MarkWhoo’]Before everyone gets side tracked here, the original post was one of tracking and shipping issues.
Now I have a few questions about this.
Shipping needs to take multiple issues into consideration on admin side.
Is this a drop ship store? Do I see goods for others and those people drop ship for me? if so, I will need the ability to have an origination for ALL of my products.
Once an order is placed by customer, there is a need to calculate shipping. If the goods are coming from multiple locations, there is a need to be able to post and use multiple tracking numbers. these numers then should be able to be posted for end user on their order sheet (sent) and order page (displayed).
If this is a person selling their own goods that are stocked in their own location, there is also ability to tick a radio button that would bypass this option and all sjhipping woud come from a single location, yet possible to show tracking for more than a single box of goods.
Now this is not for a single shop, this is needed by MANY shops for MANY applications. Shipping is one of the largest thorns in people sides.
Now that a basis is set up for origination and tracking, what about the admin and setting up shipping costs and packaging. There are all sorts of issues that arrise and most of them are sizing issues and the ability to pass on those variables.
Most of the shipping companies out there have thew ability to receive dimensions and weight etc to help with costs calculations etc.
This brings me to two more issues and that is dimension / weight variables and cost calculations.
For example:
An attempt to take dimensional weight into consideration using a product’s shipping dimensions. At the very least, an option on admin side a set up to specify on each product to “Ship alone” for large / heavy items so that you do not exceed weight maximums for real-time calculations. The focus should really be on making the real-time calculations work. Carts seem to blame the shipping companies when the issue is really one of data presentation (box 1 99 lbs X"xY"xZ", box 2 66 lbs X"xY"xZ" rather than a single box of 165 lbs). This is a bit tricky since dimensional weights change by shipping method rather than carrier (UPS Ground is different than UPS Next DAY AM). And add the shipper’s options: Saturday delivery, insurance calculations, etc.
For some simpler stuff to implement, at least “Contact for shipping cost” on each product (heck, add “Contact for price”, too). This is a real problem for anyone who ships items on pallets. If any item in a cart had either of these set, the customer would need to contact the store in order to have the order total calculated and “released” for payment.
Most carts offer a check box for “Free shipping”. This really needs to be extended to “yes”, “no” and “never”. The “Yes” option forces no Shipping charge for this item, “No” means it is based on a minimum and the “Never” option would prevent the product’s price from being included in calculating a “Free Shipping Minimum”. This relates directly to drop shipping as well as shipping oversize items.
For instance, we have some items that cost over $100/unit to ship UPS Ground because they are OS3 and over 60" in length which costs an additional $6. If my minimum order total for free shipping is $300 and this item costs $301, I do not want it used to determine giving away shipping and potentially losing money on the order. If they order other items which qualify for free shipping and meet the minimum, they should get free shipping on those items but not on this particular item. In the case of an item I drop ship from my supplier, I may need to pass on the shipping cost (the fact that I do not stock it usually means that it is either too big and expensive to ship, so why ship it twice). We used to be able to bury a portion of the shipping cost in our prices but Froogle and other shopping engines make that impossible nowadays.
Now if these issues are taken into real consideration, you will have a viable shipping application withinn this cart. Of course there are times when yuo will want to over ride this and it is when you sell electronic goods or downloadables such as music etc.
Overall though, this would beat everyone’s shipping capabilities out there, lol. AND have this set up for the admin to use for “RealTime” Shipping AND fixed shipping applications.
There is a real need for all of these capbailities and I think if everyone reads this, they too would agree. these days Free Shipping makes us real sales. To do this, we need to take all of the above issues into consideration AND have the abilitiy to operate within these boundries.
[quote name=‘advp’]How in the world do we specify a different SKU number for a red shirt and another SKU for a blue shirt? This may be implemented… but I cannot figure it out!
[/quote]
What I did was put the SKU in the product options, so when you hit the options drop-down box, you could choose:
“Red - SKU: 1111111” or
“Blue - SKU: 2222222”
It’s not the most glamorous solution, but it’s a workaround nonetheless.
Yeah, but that is only a visual… what happens when the invoice is used to process the order… the SKU would be blank or the default. that’s no good. I am actually going to have CS-Cart guys custom dev this for us. Hopefully they will include our DEV as a module or standard release feature for future releases.
-MAK
[quote name=‘rmt’]What I did was put the SKU in the product options, so when you hit the options drop-down box, you could choose:
“Red - SKU: 1111111” or
“Blue - SKU: 2222222”
It’s not the most glamorous solution, but it’s a workaround nonetheless.[/QUOTE]
[quote name=‘tomnibus’]Incidentally, I see the tracking # box in the admin for version 1.3.3, however, nothing is sent to the customer in the notification e-mail.[/QUOTE]My FedEx tracking numbers are sent. For USPS, you manually insert them. When you click “Update” it will email the customer.
Hmmm, I put in a UPS tracking number and it didn’t show up. However, it was a test order and a test tracking number (1z1234567891234) soemthing like that (I did have the 1z in there) perhaps it validates the tracking numbers? Doesn’t show them if they don’t validate?
[quote name=‘tomnibus’]Hmmm, I put in a UPS tracking number and it didn’t show up. However, it was a test order and a test tracking number (1z1234567891234) soemthing like that (I did have the 1z in there) perhaps it validates the tracking numbers? Doesn’t show them if they don’t validate?[/QUOTE]It doesn’t do anything with the number other than placing it on the invoice. If you want it to actually send you to UPS, you can install this mod:
[quote name=‘zeke’]Do you know what shopping cart they use?[/quote]
Newegg, overstock.com and target use the same system… Dont bother writing to them… you cannot afford it… See reply below I got when asking about their system… after reading that… let me hear you say CScart or any other cart is too expensive…
Vcommerce traditionally works with larger online retailers processing about 10,000 transactions a month OR doing a minimum of about $20-30Million a year online. There are always exceptions to this situation, but we are an Enterprise level eCommerce platform, and our prices and service offerings reflect that.
We charge an upfront implementation fee that is typically somewhere in the low-to-mid six figures. That fee covers all the design, implementation, integrations, customizations, etc. Once the site is up and running, we change to a fee structure that includes a hosting fee (typically around $12-$15,000 a month), a small percentage of revenue for the storefront (usually 4-10%) and then, depending on how your back-end systems need to be set up, there will sometimes be a transaction fee for the Order/Vendor management system. All in, I’d venture to say that on the low end of the spectrum, minimum monthly fees are going to rest somewhere around $25,000-$30,000.
[/quote]