Thread

Hi,

I have a couple of questions in regards to the Simple Commerce Module and want to confirm that my understanding is correct in what it can and can’t do.

This is what I would like to do:

1. I am starting a new site with a shop where I will be selling a number of handmade items. Each item will have a price that will be the full price for general public. I want to have a discounted price specifically for family and friends only.

2. I would also like to be able to offer different payment methods like direct deposit, cash or credit card/paypal but I’ve deduced that with SCM and with a majority of other 3rd party shopping cart options, is that PayPal is the only option. So if anyone wants to pay by direct deposit or cash they will need to email me directly.

3. I would also like to offer free shipping for family and friends who want to pick up the product from me directly.

4. I want to run a marketing promotion, where family & friends can give out a promo code that gives a 10% discount. I need a way to apply a discount to the order if they have a valid code.

5. The items I sell will have a limited number available. I want to be able to display a purchase button only if it is still available and a ‘Sold Out’ message if it’s sold out.

This is what I’ve deduced that I can, can’t or could possibly do to achieve the above:

1. I can set the regular price and use the sale price field to set the family & friends price for each item. Set up a login for them to use (or ask them to register)and include a conditional that if logged in, use the sale price. Would that work?

2. Like I said above, I think I will have to ask them to email me directly if they want to pay by any other method other than paypal. Is there any other suggestions/solutions aside from investing in some third party software?

3. I think the shipping costs are set through my Paypal account and not the SCM???? Is it possible to add a shipping price to each item?

4. I think this needs some hard coding but not sure what to do or if it’s achievable! Alternatively is there a way to add a second sale price which would apply if they are logged in under a specific login?

5. I think I can achieve this by adding a quantity field in the entry with the product details etc and then do a check where it checks the number of purchases against the product quantity and if > 0 it will show the purchase buttons.

Thanks so much for getting this far into my post! Any help would be appreciated in making sure I understand things correctly!

1. I am starting a new site with a shop where I will be selling a number of handmade items. Each item will have a price that will be the full price for general public. I want to have a discounted price specifically for family and friends only.

There is no official way to do this but you could use the sale price together with a conditional for certain member groups.

2. I would also like to be able to offer different payment methods like direct deposit, cash or credit card/paypal but I’ve deduced that with SCM and with a majority of other 3rd party shopping cart options, is that PayPal is the only option. So if anyone wants to pay by direct deposit or cash they will need to email me directly.

That is correct. The Simple Commerce Module only supports PayPal at this point.

3. I would also like to offer free shipping for family and friends who want to pick up the product from me directly.

Again, you’ll have to use some conditionals to either add costs for S&H, or not. Take a look at this Wiki page to get started.

4. I want to run a marketing promotion, where family & friends can give out a promo code that gives a 10% discount. I need a way to apply a discount to the order if they have a valid code.

There is no way to do just that. Perhaps you could redirect them to a purpose-made, “secret” template that would use the SCM with the lower prices?

5. The items I sell will have a limited number available. I want to be able to display a purchase button only if it is still available and a ‘Sold Out’ message if it’s sold out.

You’ll need a bit of custom code here as well, using PHP together with {item_purchases} - the number of times the item has been purchased - and a custom field that holds the initial amount available. Makes sense?