Central Product Database - No Duplicates From Uservoice

Hi,

As you know this feature is very popular at Multi-Vendor uservoice. So I would like to find what exactly do Multi-Vendor owners need.

From my point of view this feature is not about problems with duplicates in admin area, or extra records in DB. I suppose it more about how such products are displayed in storefront.

At the moment when you search for a product in Multi-Vendor storefront you will see list of all products meeting the search criteria by all vendors. (let's call it Ebay style). However there is another possible solution for this - it's when you see only one product and at product details page there is a list of vendors who sell this product with their prices and rating. (I would call it Amazon style)

So, here are the questions.
1. Confirm that there are no major issues with product duplicates in admins area. If there are please describe them.

2. Please let me know how would you like merged products to be displayed in the storefront, is it should be the same way as at Amazon or you have some other examples. I would like to see some use cases.

3. What fields should be able Vendor to update on the products that already exists in the store. I mean if one vendor created an "Iphone 5" product, what fields should be available for another vendor that also would like to sell this product?
these could be:
- price (each vendor should have his own price)
- description
- images
- in stock (also should be separate value for each vendor)
- seo name?

P.S.
Ebay style (Aliexpress uses the same approach):
[attachment=10776:ebay_products.png]

Amazon style:

[attachment=10775:amazon_products.png]

ebay_products.png

amazon_products.png

Amazon style (similar as Yandex.market as well) is quite complicated to be implemented. A new object of the shopping cart must be created. In Yandex terminology it is so called "Model card". It is a collection of a given product attributes that shouldn't vary depending on vendor: Description, Features and Pictures. The problem is who will fill in or provide such collections? It's okay if you have a few hundreds of products only but if there are some tens of thousands products you must sell like Amazon so you can afford to hire people to do that, otherwise keep dreaming. By the way, Yandex provides API access to their database of "model cards" under some circumstances, but as well as I know internet shops do not apply.

I think the most viable solution is to advance the existing search somehow. It is good idea to implement some kind of smart search with sorting by: relevance of the result, vendor's rating, price, etc; separate products from different unrelated categories. There are a lot of different smart search technics around there

Just curious if this change will extend to the suppliers model as well as MVE? I.e.the Amazon style would allow someone to pick the warehouse (or supplier) that might enable them to pickup versus deliver or to have closer (quicker/cheaper) delivery options.

From what I see from my customers, the Amazon model would be best. But the issue related to the common description push that quality issue onto the merchant (store operator) which would be overloaded. And if you choose from among vendors which to use, then that vendor will think they are providing an advantage to others by doing their work for them.

Hi,

I suggested this feature :) .... We tried to launch various cs-cart multi-vendor sites. We wanted to create a market place , when one vendor had the same product as another vendor they would not use the same naming conventions and even if they did, the result was TERRIBLE usability as there were 100's of the identical product sold from various merchants/vendors.

Amazon example is correct. We should have a single instance of the product with prices from different merchants/vendors. This way, if I want to buy the Iphone, I can sort by :

- Price

- Review of merchant (credibility)

Let's talk more about usability:

1. When a user uses the Search (which at least 50% of users do use) , the options are easy to navigate (see attachment).

2. We have a shared product review database , instead of a fragmented one per product. This is a big decider in allowing a customer to rate a product and assist with the decision making of a prospective customer (see attachment).

3. Q&A - we currently use a module on Cs-cart for this, but this can also be a shared option for the product (see attachment).

4. The product filters allow a user to sort by Memory, Colour , Screen ect...

How could it work ?

When products are uploaded, they would need to matched , or assigned to master product that's in the database or request the Admin approves / suggest ect.

Other points as per your post:

- price (each vendor should have his own price) - Yes
- description - Yes
- images - No (unless site does not have images). This should be an option.
- in stock (also should be separate value for each vendor) - Yes
- seo name? - Could be suggested / Yes

amazon-search.png

qa-reviews.png

filters-amazon.png

Just curious, why separate description? Everything else makes sense but why allow variability in description. Maybe provide an "intro" that is unique (not required) per vendor, but seems like description (and possible specifications) should be consistent across vendors.

Hi,

I suggested this feature :) .... We tried to launch various cs-cart multi-vendor sites. We wanted to create a market place , when one vendor had the same product as another vendor they would not use the same naming conventions and even if they did, the result was TERRIBLE usability as there were 100's of the identical product sold from various merchants/vendors.

Amazon example is correct. We should have a single instance of the product with prices from different merchants/vendors. This way, if I want to buy the Iphone, I can sort by :

- Price

- Review of merchant (credibility)

Let's talk more about usability:

1. When a user uses the Search (which at least 50% of users do use) , the options are easy to navigate (see attachment).

2. We have a shared product review database , instead of a fragmented one per product. This is a big decider in allowing a customer to rate a product and assist with the decision making of a prospective customer (see attachment).

3. Q&A - we currently use a module on Cs-cart for this, but this can also be a shared option for the product (see attachment).

4. The product filters allow a user to sort by Memory, Colour , Screen ect...

How could it work ?

When products are uploaded, they would need to matched , or assigned to master product that's in the database or request the Admin approves / suggest ect.

Other points as per your post:

- price (each vendor should have his own price) - Yes
- description - Yes
- images - No (unless site does not have images). This should be an option.
- in stock (also should be separate value for each vendor) - Yes
- seo name? - Could be suggested / Yes

Thank you Bobo for the clarification.

1. I suppose first of all we should make Product Code required field and unique, in order to match such products.

2,3. This make sense.

4. I'm interested the same question as tbirnseth, why would you need a separate description of a product? and how should it look like in the storefront?

Also what doe you mean under "images - No (unless site does not have images)"?

I just thought I would share a little of what I have done with my single store with suppliers addon. My "Suppliers" are actually warehouses where the products are shared so another table was created with data for each warehouse, product and inventory. When a customer orders products, the system will calculate shipping from the nearest warehouse that can fill the order to the customer. If the products cannot ship from one warehouse, then it will calculate separate shipping from the nearest warehouses that can fill the order.

This was no easy task and there are still some issues but it functions well enough for my situation.

wh_admin.jpg

wh_customer.jpg

To clarify , I don't think we need a separate description for each product.

In terms of product images, if the site does not have the master product listed , the vendor could add a product image ?

OR would it be the responsibility of the site to source product images?

Hi,

As you know this feature is very popular at Multi-Vendor uservoice. So I would like to find what exactly do Multi-Vendor owners need.

From my point of view this feature is not about problems with duplicates in admin area, or extra records in DB. I suppose it more about how such products are displayed in storefront.

At the moment when you search for a product in Multi-Vendor storefront you will see list of all products meeting the search criteria by all vendors. (let's call it Ebay style). However there is another possible solution for this - it's when you see only one product and at product details page there is a list of vendors who sell this product with their prices and rating. (I would call it Amazon style)

So, here are the questions.
1. Confirm that there are no major issues with product duplicates in admins area. If there are please describe them.

2. Please let me know how would you like merged products to be displayed in the storefront, is it should be the same way as at Amazon or you have some other examples. I would like to see some use cases.

3. What fields should be able Vendor to update on the products that already exists in the store. I mean if one vendor created an "Iphone 5" product, what fields should be available for another vendor that also would like to sell this product?
these could be:
- price (each vendor should have his own price)
- description
- images
- in stock (also should be separate value for each vendor)
- seo name?

P.S.
Ebay style (Aliexpress uses the same approach):
attachicon.gifebay_products.png

Amazon style:

attachicon.gifamazon_products.png

@imac - I have made the addon for such a problem and got the Good Results after failure of 3 Times.

The Major Problem is every product is unique in nature but when the Product is sold by so many Vendors the Problem arises by the CS-cart itself as well as for the root Admin to handle the same.

I have Created Major Functionality

1) Same Products Multiple Vendors

2) Copy the existing Product

3) If same Product and Multiple Vendors then show the 1 Product with multiple Vendor in Tabs.

4) If Root Admin edits any product then it would be reflected to all the vendors account. (here i mean the Description & Features part only)

5) When product is added by the Vendors it also searches the name with the already existing products, if found then it Redirects to the another page and copy the product without taking more time.

The Major Requirement when the same products is copied.

1) Product Code / SKU - Every Vendor handle with different code but Product remains the same

2) Selling Price - MRP remains the same but the Selling Price is always different due to discounts offered by them

3) Shipping Charges - Some Situation comes when the Product + Shipping Charges to be Charged.

4) Stock Qty

Thanks,

Aditya

1) Product Code / SKU - Every Vendor handle with different code but Product remains the same
2) Selling Price - MRP remains the same but the Selling Price is always different due to discounts offered by them
3) Shipping Charges - Some Situation comes when the Product + Shipping Charges to be Charged.
4) Stock Qty


Aditya thank you for details.

Why do you expect different SKU if there products are actually the same?

Aditya thank you for details.

Why do you expect different SKU if there products are actually the same?

Imac, Let me give you the example of Store A

Store A

a) Sells the Nokia Lumia 825 and maintain there SKU Code as "ANOK825BLK" at abc.com

Store B

a) Sells the same phone at abc.com with SKU Code as "GNOK825BLK"

When Product is same then why the SKU is Different

1) Vendors have made there own prefixes in SKU to Detect there own products.

(Frauds are the biggest risk in marketplaces. Customers sometimes do same product transactions with the other vendors and replace the product by opening return request)

Imac, Let me give you the example of Store A

Store A
a) Sells the Nokia Lumia 825 and maintain there SKU Code as "ANOK825BLK" at abc.com

Store B
a) Sells the same phone at abc.com with SKU Code as "GNOK825BLK"

When Product is same then why the SKU is Different
1) Vendors have made there own prefixes in SKU to Detect there own products.

(Frauds are the biggest risk in marketplaces. Customers sometimes do same product transactions with the other vendors and replace the product by opening return request)


Ok I see. Thank you.

Hello imac,

I'm interested in this features also, do you have an estimated launch date?

Thank you.

Hi,

When is this feature ( addons ) available.. I need it, too..

Thank you

Why do you expect different SKU if there products are actually the same?

Also, in our case, more generic items such as an RF adapter could have exactly the same specification, but a different manufacturer , hence different supplier SKU.

I think there should be a separate field for Storefront SKU and a Supplier Specific SKU. This would perhaps help with SEO.

My thoughts...

It seems to me that different cart owners are needing quite similar functions, but with slightly different variations.

Our need is slightly different but i feel could be incorporated.

Ultimately, I feel that we are all really talking about the need for a flexible Multiple Warehouse functionality, which btw has been ignored and declined uservoice!

But how to implement this so that it will provide most functions whether this is for multiple-suppliers/warehouses or multiple-vendor/warehouse or Same-supplier-multiple-warehouse POPs.

We had an addon created for our v2 webstore that does similar, but not multi-vendor, more so multi-supplier-per-product.

It was all about being able to reduce our customers shipping costs by having the shipping mechanism decide whether to send products out from our supplier warehouse or our own warehouse. This addon added up to two suppliers/SKU per product, in order of preference, as set in the General tab, and overridden by Option Combinations. It works well most of the time. The ultimate goal being to present where possible, the lowest shipping cost/time to the customer by shipping form the least number of warehouses where the product is held in stock at more than one vendor/supplier.

So now we are looking to update the store to use v4, I am trying to decide whether the multi-vendor version may be a better choice.

In contrast to other here, we would need to have the same product price for all suppliers.

Given that the Option Combinations functionality is going to be updated soon, and then again perhaps in v5.x, Perhaps a SUPPLIERS tab in amin Product details page to define the Qty SKU etc for each Option Variant or Option Combination as applicable to each supplier.

The product would have the ability to add multiple suppliers. The shipping Mechanism would need to be updated to decide which supplier will be shipping the product for each order..

Were any progress made to design an Amazon style product database?

Shopclues.com has a build in features that is what I would be looking for. Having multiple listing of the same product code triggers the "available with [X] other sellers" link on the right, which works quite well.

Is that something cs.cart could implement?

Were any progress made to design an Amazon style product database?

Shopclues.com has a build in features that is what I would be looking for. Having multiple listing of the same product code triggers the "available with [X] other sellers" link on the right, which works quite well.

Is that something cs.cart could implement?

If the link by product code is suitable for you, please pay attention to our free Product From Other Sellers module

Hello!

Do you know about our Master Products add-on? It allows to share the product catalog among the vendors. Please have a look on the product detail page:

Hi,

All product is same: yes, if someone sell iphone 5, there is 10 ( new) 120 ( used ). Here is 10 iphones new and 120 used ( different conditions), here can the seller use the images, but the seller they sell used phones, must upload the images !!