Categories/Products for Apparel

[LloydDobbler]

Hey, folks. I've been working with ZC for about a week, and feel like I'm finally figuring out the site design side of the override system (thanks for all the help, y'all!)...but it would seem that just when you begin to feel competent with one thing, another one jumps out at you and smacks you.

Today, I'm trying to set up categories for my t-shirt store. On the plus side, we're going to be selling our own designs, so it's not like we're populating the database with stuff from tons of other manufacturers. Additionally, it's nice that we're starting out by only selling t-shirts...though we want to be able to expand to other venues in the future, if we choose.

So here's the dilemma:

I'm trying to figure out how to enter my shirts into the DB to achieve maximum efficiency, and keep me from having to go back and change it later if we expand. And what seemed like a simple matter at first has currently got me in a whirlwind of E-R diagrams & relational database concepts.

Here's the written-out product discussion. Each design...

- may be either a shirt, hat, a hoodie, etc. (Needed for the future, but not for now.)

- may come in men's, women's, or both. (Possibly adding dogs and baby tees later, so that needs to be accounted for.)

- may come in S, M, L, XL, or doggie sizes.

- may be printed on different types of shirts, such as Gildan, American Apparel, etc (i.e., one attribute needs to be 'type of shirt')

- may come in different colors (so a men's design (we'll call it TEST_01) may come in 2 separate colors...and the women's version of TEST_01 may come in 2 different colors from the men's).

So basically, the idea is to have a product page that shows the men's version of TEST_01. You can choose from sizes & colors, or if you're a girl, you can click a link that will take you to see the women's product page for TEST_01.


One last thing - our site is going to be similar in structure to Busted Tees (usability-wise, the best shirt site I've found on the web so far), which means two things:

1) On the homepage, we want to display only men's shirts to start. We'll put in a link at the top to go to the women's main page...which will look identical, only the centerbox will be populated with only women's shirts, as opposed to men's. (Which means I need to be able to craft a link to a page that only shows designs that are available in men's sizes... and vice-versa. So I'm thinking of the men's/women's thing as a checkbox-type attribute. Maybe.)

and

2) (Here's where it seems to get tricky) On each shirt's product page (men's or women's), if that design is available for the other ######, I need a link there that says 'Click to see this design in women's sizes'. (Or vice-versa - if you're looking at the women's product page for that design, the link would say '...men's sizes,' and take you to the men's product page of the same shirt design.) So the men's and women's shirts actually have to be separate, but linked conceptually, under the umbrella of the same shirt design.


It's a whole lot to get your head around. And I can't figure out what's going to be the least headache-inducing way to structure the categories.

In database-speak, technically, I know I should be thinking of the particular shirt design as the entity. That way, the rest are attributes (i.e., mens/women's/dogs, sizes, colors, hoodie/shirt/hat...you get the picture).

But how do I fit that into Zen Cart's method of categories & subcategories? It doesn't seem geared to allow me to do that. It's like, in hierarchical-speak, the shirt designs would have to come above the categories, as opposed to being contained within them.

I know I could just set it up as categories of men's tees, women's tees, men's hoodies, women's hoodies, etc, which should take care of the separate men's/women's homepages issue...but how will that allow me to link the men's and women's product pages for the same design together?

How do I link items from two separate categories together (not the same exact item, per se, but the same overall design)?

See my dilemma? Any thoughts from you wizened, 'been-there-done-that' -sorts on what would give me the most flexibility here?

Thanks,

Kipp

[LloydDobbler]

Argh. So I just realized I wasn't searching the archives when I searched for this before. Found some info regarding attribute groups with inventory not yet being available, which is helpful...but would still really appreciate hearing you all's thoughts on this issue, and how you'd design your category structure around it, if you were me.

Is it as simple as doing categories of men's and women's, then just manually inserting an html link on each product page that needs one? Seems like more work than it should be...I'd love it if there was a way to have Zen Cart do that intelligently, when certain conditions are met (i.e., that the same design even exists for the opposite ######...).

Thanks!

[LloydDobbler]

Okay, bumping this thread up to the top again. (Just ignore the rest of the post - it's long, and not too well-explained.)

(Or perhaps too-well-explained.)

Regardless, since the last post above, I've figured I need to just make men's and women's categories - that's it. Fairly simple.

Here's the new big question - some shirts I'm selling will be available in women's sizes, as well as men's sizes.

SO. Since the women's shirts will be in a different category than the men's, I'd like to put a link to the women's design of the same shirt on each men's shirt design that has a "female counterpart"...and vice-versa.

I can say that better. Let me rephrase.

In other words, the end result would be this: on the product page for a men's shirt (one that has a design available in women's sizes), the product page will at one point contain an anchor link that says, "This shirt also available in women's sizes," allowing the user to click over and see it in women's. The women's shirt product page will have a link back to the men's design.

Am I seeking the impossible? If not, anyone have any ideas how I might accomplish this?

Thanks.

[Ajeh]

You could customize for this ... or you might look into Cross Sell ... this helps relate products together ...

I believe it's in the Downloads ...

[LloydDobbler]

That is a great idea!!!

I had been planning to use Cross Sell to suggest other shirt designs, etc, on each product page...but I had never thought to use it to solve this simple problem. Dunno how I didn't think of that one.

Thanks, Ajeh! As always, you're going out of your way to make life easier for us newbies...

[Ajeh]

Glad to be of help ... thanks for the update!

[Twbeebe]

I too, own a T-Shirt & Custom Apparel Shop. I have been thinking about the matrix for awhile, then let go when I heard the Microsoft has a POS Package called RMS, that handles the matrix issues. Since, I do not want to support MS much longer, I have looked elsewhere. When NetworkSolutions recommended ZC as their 'pre-installable' shopping carts, I was pretty excited.. Then when I found out my Business PayPal Account accepted ZC's APIs, my pants got moist.

It took me 3 days to get Apache & MySQL tweaked to get ZC to fire off. I too, am feeling more confortable with the Admin picture and have installed and tested alot of the Free Modules from all of your gracious donors. LloydDobbler and myself should connect for the purpose of not reinventing a relational database matrix ?

My EA/CPA told me to 'write-off' the transfers as a 'cost-of-doing-business' expense ? Though I would love to offer each transfer on each T-Shirt color I stock, the matrix would boggle the best. What I have concluded to, is offering a transfer print series, in a single color, all sizes ( and I stock up to 6x for my Native American customers ) and leave it at that.

What I do want to do, is set up my local commercial accounts, so that they may log in and 're-order' their previous designs, or other stock that I have, at their discounted rates ? So far, from the modules that I've seen, the attempts to tax exempt has been approached at the wrong angle ? If, in the customer questionaire, a few additional questions were asked, 1) Are you a Reseller or Not-For-Profit agency ? ( I have those accounts too ) if yes, # 2 turns on.. 2) If so, please provide your local State Resale License # ... ( some form of cross verification would have to occur, maybe a faxed copy for hard backup ) but, until granted, they could review their pricing structure at the first group level anyway ? But, triggering field 2 only gives them pending Tax Free , until field 3is set by the Admin that verify's the license. Only then, would they get their second tier Group Discount Rate ? But in this same matrix, the minimums go up, to get the 'preferred' pricing structures we all strive for ? And this is all, before it gets sucked it into QuickBooks Pro for the final # crunching.

My EA/CPA was sold on the MS RMS package w/ QBP, she said it would have saved us 1000's more, if we had it up and running ?

So Mr. Dobbler, do you think that is about where you should be going too ? I'm sorry for the long post, maybe misaligned for this area, but the search brought me here based on the keyword 'Apparel' ?

Toby White-Beebe
BetterThanNaked.net(c)(tm) <-- To be replaced with ZC once I work out the remaining issues.

I am also finding that my bookkeeping efforts in Excel, will be paying off. I have already Imported one sheet of Jewelry and it reviews fine, other than I cannot make the money columns show anything ? Must have them configured wrong ?

Thanks to all that have had the patience to get this far, especially our watchful Elf (?) Ajeh.