Attribute Pricing Problem

[GoldBuckle]

I have a print shop, and with most every printing item I sell they all have multiple options each which affect pricing.

For example:

Business Cards

Paper: #80 white cover, #80 gloss cover (paper choice changes price but is based on the quantity also)

Quantity: 500, 1000, 2500

Printed 1 side or 2 sided (price for 1 side is base price of quantity selected, but 2 sided adds a DIFFERENT amount to the price based on the base quantity selected)

Printing inks: black ink only, standard color ink, 2 standard color inks, full color inks (black ink is base price, standard color ink is more, 2 standard inks even more and full color the same thing for 500, but then choose 1000 or 2500 and all prices should increase but each on differently based on quantity, ie. 500 black ink is $10.00, 500 2 colors is $20.00 but 1000 black ink is 15.00 and 1000 2 colors is $25.00)

How can I configure the attributes to account for every possible above combination which each possible selection affecting the price, and still keeping it to 1 product with many attribute options and then maybe attributes based on another attribute(s). This is very confusing to me and I am about ready to pull my hair out.

[schoolboy]

You need to bear in mind that the one main limitation with the current ZC version, is that you cannot (easily) have dependent attributes.

ie: the options offered in attribute B are dependent on what the user selected in attribute A.

Knowing this helps you to determine whether you need to set up additional products, or whether you can govern all the option choices through attributes.

Basically, whenever one attribute needs to be dependent on what was chosen in a previous attribute (not possible in current zc), you probably need to create a "new" product so that "dependency" is negated.

As you have this "dependency" in some of your options, you need to look at alternatives.

I have heard that "stock by attributes" module can, in some cases, help address the dependency issue.

[mamasylvia]

I think you could do it with regular attributes, but you might have to modify your pricing a little.

First, set a base price, for regular white stock, one-sided, black ink, qty 500. Make sure the product description states the quantity of cards is 500. Set up your attribute names (paper, one-sided, ink would be my guesses - NOT quantity, you'll see why later). Set up your attribute options: white, glossy, one-sided, two-sided, block, the various standard color inks, 2 standard colors (you'll also need to add a text field for people to enter the two standard colors unless you want to let the dropdown get REAL unwieldy), full color. Then go to attribute controller and add ONLY the base attributes: white paper, black ink, one-sided, qty 500. Be sure to check "make this attribute default" as well.

Now start figuring pricing for attributes, and plan on making use of ZC's one-time-charge option. For instance, let's say glossy paper costs $2 more for 500, $3 more for for 1000, and $6 more for 2500. This converts to a one-time charge of $1 plus $1 per 500 cards. So you would use Attribute Controller to add glossy to the "paper" option, with price as +1 and one time as 1 also.

Repeat this for the ink options and one- or two-sided. Anything that you can't make come out workable, set aside for the time being.

To set quantity, go to Products Price Manager, select the product, and click on "edit" then "add blank discounts" if there aren't already 3 empty lines. For Discount 1, minimum quantity is 2 (1000 divided by the 500 base quantity), and you'll need to compare standard and glossy discounts to figure a discount you can apply to both - this is one of the places you might need to adjust your prices a little to use ZC. Or you could make the glossy paper charge more or less to get the quantity discounts to be the same; you might need to do this for other attributes as well if you set them aside because they wouldn't come out even. Discount 2 quantity will be 5 (2500 divided by the 500 base quantity). These instructions assume that the customer can order, say, 1500 cards for the same per-500 amount as 1000; if not, ZC may not work for your purposes. If you'd like help, Email mama dot sylvia at gmail dot com your complete pricing structure, I enjoy that kind of detail work but it would probably take me a few days. (I can read Word2000 or Excel2000 files or a .jpg or .gif of your chart.)