Dynamic Pricing

[DJBobble]

I am setting up a cart for my boss and have stumbled into some difficulty. The site will be selling window blinds so I need to be able to produce a price based on the customers choice of style (venetian, roller etc), colour (from a list of hundreds!) and size (width and drop).

We have it set up as follows:

Vertical Blinds
|_Blues
|_Reds
etc
Cafe Blinds
|_Reds
etc

which is time consuming but not difficult but it is the price quoting that causing problems. I've searched quite heavily but found nothing to help. Is there a module to do this or some code to help?

I've spotted this post http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53772 where the site seems to be doing much of what I want (but for stairways) but does not actually produce the quote.

As always, thanks in advance!

[kobra]

You need to read up on "attributes" as this will allow you to set pricing based upon your criteria.

[DJBobble]

I've used attributes in the past to great effect (different prices for different sized shirts) but I have not seen where it will allow me to accept a user's input and base a price on this. Any chance of a link to a good attributes guide? Thanks!

[swguy]

As kobra says, there's a great deal you can do with attributes with zencart alone (no extra code). If you want to (and need to) add code, here's an example of how I did it in one case:

http://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zenca...ttributes.html

Good luck,
Scott

[kobra]

Somehow, what I thought I had reposted for this is not here(I might have posted it to the wrong thread???)

I do not see a condition from what you have listed that can not be handled as such:

 Vertical Blinds
Color
      |_Reds
      |_Blues
Width
      |_in inches or a range of inches radio or dropbox
 Length
      |_in inches or a range of inches radio or dropbox
 Style
      |_list of styles radio or drop box
 Other particulars
      |_Each listed by radio or drop box

Using attributes craftily will allow most all conditions to be dealt with

[Ryk]

Specifically you need to look at pricing by attributes, and, as kobra says, what you want to do is quite feasible.

Setting up attributes takes time (and it would certainly pay you to install the Advanced Attributes Controller) but for example, you only need to set up your lists of colours, widths, lengths etc once and then apply them where you need them.

You may find it easier to set up one "test" product with the full range of variations then use this as a master to copy the attributes to other products as needed. As copying is an "all or nothing" approach, sometimes it's quicker to copy the lot and delete the ones you don't need.

On the other hand, when you are pricing by attributes it may be quicker to set up a product and then duplicate the product.

This is very much one of those areas of ZC where once you get stuck in and start playing around, you'll realise just how powerful it can be.

[DJBobble]

Thanks for the tips and advice guys! I'm going to look into this in some detail and see if I can get things running the way the boss wants. If not, then I think I'll get him to implement a simpler pricing structure which would be beneficial to both me and the customers!

[Ryk]

I'm working on a store at the moment that involves something similar - shelving units for shop displays. Take a look at this , specifically the 3 standard wall units ('cos I haven't finished the others! LOL) for an idea.

The only problem with doing things this way is that the final price is only displayed when the item is added to cart.

[DJBobble]

Thanks for the link. I've had to implement something else because the way you have will not work for me (though I wish it could!!). The additions to the prices need to be percentages.

The way was planning was that the item was priced by an attribute and then a percentage added depending on the width. The percentage was been calculated from the base price rather than the price of the option chosen.

In the end I set up 3 products (one for each width), kept the attributes for length the same on each of them and manually updated there price. A bit of a long-winded process but workable from a user's perspective and they don't get a shock when the price is shown in the cart as they see it on the product page now.

[kobra]

DJ,

Attributes can perform percentage increments...and text can forewarn of this fact or indicate incremental prices. This is in the attributes controller and has to do with the price factor and offset (this is an inverse function) and any percentage can be applied. Just for your information