Multi-Vendor Support

[blucollarguy]

I like the idea of multi-vendor support, and the ability to properly quote drop-ships etc at the time of the order, not to mention the multi-warehouse inventory tracking that could be an extension of such a feature.

I also think it would be great if it were a module that could be easily added to Zen Cart as a plugin, thus allowing you to continue to enhance it without having to worry about how people would upgrade the code if they were needing to update their live site with other mods in it, etc.

I suspect that not only the checkout functions need to be extended, but also the shipping-modules likely need some additional functions in them, etc.

Keep in mind that the checkout process infrastructure is being rewritten to allow tons more flexibility. However, even with that, the steps needed to implement what you're suggesting could be maintained, just reworked to run from the right places, etc.

Absolutely, the shipping modules do need to be altered for MVS(the version I wrote for osC) now. I like the idea of it being written as a module, making it very much on it's own. I believe that would be a critical decision in the process of implementing this idea. The ckeckout process now is very isolated, in order to change anything about it, one must do major code work to accomplish it, I know, the process of writing MVS was quite a chore. But, it could be written as several different modules that relate to each step in checkout process. This would give great flexibility in working with one's checkout. I also would think this would make a faster checkout process available upon the site operator's choice. If each step were a module on it's own, one could combine them in any order(within reason of course) they chose, keep them fully separated or anything in between.

Some more detail about MVS:

As far as the customer is concerned, MVS only effects their shipping costs, but my next step is something along the lines of "Vendor Locator", a mod that finds the closest location to the customer from which a product can ship. That is the next option I plan to build into MVS.

On the Admin side, MVS uses automatic email notification to tell the Vendor that the order was placed and where to ship it. For dropshippers, this is a big timesaver. Another request I have received for this part is automated faxing, but I have not gotten deeply into investigating the "hows" of that idea.

I very much appreciate your reply and hope the Zen team will seriously consider this type of support built into ZenCart. I know that Zen's popularity would grow significantly with this addition(I know it is growing without it as well, you know what I mean). There are so many carts that claim to support dropshipping and multi-vendor, but they ALL fall short, in fact most fall FAR short of just what MVS does now.

I would like to hear(or read) any and all input on this issue, so if anyone has any thoughts, please post them.

Craig :)

[SophWise.com]

Hi Craig,

I'm right there with you on the Multi-Vendor system for the drop shipping folk.

The best way we found to accomodate those that wish to fax the drop ship orders, we simply created a fax queue module to use the efax.com FaxAPI. Just run the fax queue using cron, and it picks up new orders needing a fax sent out every 30 minutes, and sends an order to each of the vendors for the products needed.

Yeah, its more of a higher volume solution, but it works great and is very reliable. I am completely happy with the results we've had using eFax. We've also developed solutions using Send2Fax, and they were pretty impressive too. Both worked equally well, I would say. The latter, Send2Fax webservice, was an easier setup for use in PHP. Both performed flawlessly though and continue to reap rewards for those using our automation solution for the drop shipping.

Wesley Snider
SophWise Solutions
http://www.sophwise.com

[blucollarguy]

Hi Craig,

I'm right there with you on the Multi-Vendor system for the drop shipping folk.

The best way we found to accomodate those that wish to fax the drop ship orders, we simply created a fax queue module to use the efax.com FaxAPI. Just run the fax queue using cron, and it picks up new orders needing a fax sent out every 30 minutes, and sends an order to each of the vendors for the products needed.

Yeah, its more of a higher volume solution, but it works great and is very reliable. I am completely happy with the results we've had using eFax. We've also developed solutions using Send2Fax, and they were pretty impressive too. Both worked equally well, I would say. The latter, Send2Fax webservice, was an easier setup for use in PHP. Both performed flawlessly though and continue to reap rewards for those using our automation solution for the drop shipping.

Wesley Snider
SophWise Solutions
http://www.sophwise.com

Excellent solution, I was expecting to go that route as well, but I had not gone deeply enough into it yet to know what direction to take for sure. Did you submit your module as a contribution by chance? I would love to have a look at the code to see just how you implemented it.

I appreciate the feedback, and hopefully the Zen Team will take a close look at the possibilities this could create for the management of an ecommerce website.

Craig :)

[Proud]

Has anything ever come of this? I am in the midst of trying to find a cart to replace my OSCommerce as it wasn't working for me but I need something like the MVS module seeing as I have flat rates for shipping but depending on the product it may come from either one of two warehouses and their shipping is different.

[blucollarguy]

Has anything ever come of this? I am in the midst of trying to find a cart to replace my OSCommerce as it wasn't working for me but I need something like the MVS module seeing as I have flat rates for shipping but depending on the product it may come from either one of two warehouses and their shipping is different.

As far as I know, no one has done anything with it, my time has not allowed me to work on it.

Some one did say a month or 2 ago that they might tackle it, but I haven
't heard anything from it.

Good luck, Craig

[djstern]

I would love MVS more than you can imagine. Not having this feature has been a at times very painful thorn in my backside.

One suggestion I could make. The ability to turn off inventory tracking on drop ship items. This way I could track inventory on items I actually stock and not track inventory on items I don't stock (drop ship items)

I can't wait till this contribution comes available. It'd be right up there with QBI as one of the most useful contributions out there for Zen.

[supersnow]

I actually use MVS on a OsC site that I have. I have more than one shop and my main site which deals mostly with clothes and other similar merchandise needs zencart for the easier attribute controller. But Osc has some other great points and MVS works fantastic on it. I would over the moon to be able to install onto a zencart site.

Well I hope this becomes available soon.