Adding Attributes to Subcategories ?

[gjh42]

I highly doubt that any general-purpose e-commerce platform, free or paid, will fit your special desires out of the box.

You can use as many subcategories with linked products as you want, to organize your products by all desired criteria.

[schoolboy]

There are scores (if not hundreds) of stationery retailers using zencart, and other OpenSource platforms - (just do a quick search on google).

Of course, the "big boys" develop their own platforms (deep pockets), so they will have whatever functionality they want.

If you are UK-based, then you could talk to an organisation like GROUPTREE who develop bespoke CMS platforms for high-end retail environments.

The functionality you are looking for is not CORE to the behaviour of any Opensource eComm system I know (not even Magento).

It is no doubt possible to construct what you want in any platform. You just need to find someone who is competent enough to do it, and who is prepared to work within whatever budget you can throw at it.

[dlwwalton]

I am finding out it cant do it out of the box. I just need to find someone who is capable of doing what I need or maybe using some other type of e-commerce such as a MS based application. I am in the US.

[schoolboy]

I am finding out it cant do it out of the box. I just need to find someone who is capable of doing what I need or maybe using some other type of e-commerce such as a MS based application. I am in the US.

No "generic" system will have such a bespoke function. I had a chat with the fellows at Grouptree and they indicate a cost of between 15,000 and 20,000 (UK pounds) if they were to do it. (and that is just for the FUNCTION... not the full CMS)

They build high-level stuff for medium to large retailers, so they are not shy about charging these sorts of prices.

But it may give you an indication of what sort of numbers are involved.

[schoolboy]

How "rigid" - (determined) are you to have this functionality?

Sometimes (for business reasons) you are better off just adapting to what is available - and there are quite a few options in zencart.

What you are after will definitely be costly to develop - and could take months to get right - and that's "downtime" as far as selling online is concerned.

OpenSource platforms are free, and they can get you trading online in a couple of days. Sure... you have limitations, but at least you have a store that's selling online.

[dlwwalton]

I would adapt to what is available if it would work. If a customer is at my site and looking for binders and they have 20 pages to look through whats going to keep them from getting frustrated before they get to the right page. That's my concern. If there is a way to narrow done there possibilities then they wouldn't have 20 pages to look through. Here is my site in progress. http://www.usaofficesupplies.com/shopping. From what I understand about attributes and Zen Cart is that the attributes are only useful at the product level. So if I was selling a binder I could then give the customer a choice between. Black Red Yellow - 3" 4" or 5" - plastic vinyl or leather etc But that's no the case for me and my product line..

If you look at my site and search CRD11652. You will see it does me no good to have attributes there. The product already meets the specs of the attributes.

So is there not a way to put the product attributes at the sub sub category levels. This way I think it would work.. I can't believe that there is not a way to do this or is there something else I should be doing to adapt to this situation.

[schoolboy]

Interestingly, we had a situation not too dissimilar to yours this week...

A printer of CR80 Laminated Plastic offers:

Blank Cards (in white, gold and silver), with or without Mag Stripe, and the Mag stripe can be HiCo or LoCo...

Cards that can be printed in 4-colour, with or without Mag Stripe, and the Mag stripe can be HiCo or LoCo...

Customer needs to be able to select valid variables FIRST, which then takes them to the product in question.

Selection of non-valid criteria, will throw out an error message.

We built a SELECTOR FORM in raw html, that was placed in the category's description field. Accompanying Javascript controls the selectors, and when the customer has made (valid) selections, the SUBMIT button (onclick) takes them to the product page matching their selection variables.

We then used a category-specific stylesheet to HIDE the Product Listings, so that all the see is the selector form.

SEE IT IN ACTION

[gjh42]

Schoolboy's concept sounds very promising.
I do have to say that your description of why your products can't use Zen Cart attributes is self-defeating: If you have the "products" each being one specific variant of the line, of course you can't add attributes.

If you look at my site and search CRD11652. You will see it does me no good to have attributes there. The product already meets the specs of the attributes.

Making attribute selections would involve having the "product" be something like a brand and style of binder, with attribute combinations giving the specific version such as a blue 3" binder. This would probably require support for SKU by attribute combination, which has been the subject of much discussion and work, but I don't know that it is fully available yet in mod form. It is supposedly going to be built into v2.0.