How to sell a hidden product

**HeleneWallis** · 3 Apr 2017, 06:46 PM

I thought I'd toss this out in case it might prove useful to someone else. I haven't seen it discussed before, apologies if it's already been covered.

I have some custom and/or wholesale products that I don't want the general public to see. And no, they're not illegal, just things like a downloadable wholesale price list, and some things that I customize on request. I want my customers to be able to purchase these things from the website, so all my sales stay in one place, but I don't want the whole world to see what was customized for any particular customer.

The way to do this is to set up a category, but immediately make it inactive (very immediately, because it will be visible for the few seconds that it takes to inactivate it). Jot down the master category ID, because you'll need that in a minute. Now go to that category and create whatever product you're wanting to sell. Make it active and give it the price and description that you want your customer to see. Save it. Jot down the product number. Now you can go directly to that product with the following link:

"http://www.mystore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=nn&products_id=nn"

In the link, where you see 'cPath=nn' substitute the category number for nn. And likewise, where you see products_id=nn, substitute the product number.

You can try this on my site to see how it works:

http://www.newnaturalsonline.com/ind...products_id=74

Because the category is inactive, the product will not show up anywhere. The only way to get to it is to use that link, which you can provide to your customer. This has worked very well for me.

EDIT--and now that I've posted this, I see that there is an addon to do the same thing. Oh well :)

**Design75** · 3 Apr 2017, 07:29 PM

I was thinking this add on might work for you: Twitch Restrict Categories by Customer or Group

**HeleneWallis** · 3 Apr 2017, 07:39 PM

Yes, but it has capabilities that I don't really need. Thanks for bringing to to my attention, though.

**Design75** · 3 Apr 2017, 07:50 PM

Which add-on have you found?

**mc12345678** · 3 Apr 2017, 08:15 PM

Also note a couple of things. 1) the cPath is not required, but will cause a lack of breadcrumbs from being displayed, 2) that link can be shared with anyone/posted anywhere which then makes it not so invisible... 3) someone could go through all of the product ids and make a list if they so chose and uncover all of the product.

It is for these reasons that some form of group access is suggested, whether it is a plugin with extra features, or one that needs a little more.

For what it's worth, there are ways to make such a product a little more hidden, but also visible through a "feature" of ZC where the product can be disabled as well, but through one of the product types, it is possible to see disabled product... at least up to and including ZC 1.5.5.

**HeleneWallis** · 8 Apr 2017, 02:53 AM

Originally Posted by mc12345678

Also note a couple of things. 1) the cPath is not required, but will cause a lack of breadcrumbs from being displayed, 2) that link can be shared with anyone/posted anywhere which then makes it not so invisible... 3) someone could go through all of the product ids and make a list if they so chose and uncover all of the product.

It is for these reasons that some form of group access is suggested, whether it is a plugin with extra features, or one that needs a little more.

For what it's worth, there are ways to make such a product a little more hidden, but also visible through a "feature" of ZC where the product can be disabled as well, but through one of the product types, it is possible to see disabled product... at least up to and including ZC 1.5.5.

Yes, I'm aware of those limitations. and in fact, someone just purchased a product I don't even sell right now by doing a search for it. I had to disable the product as well as the category to keep it from showing up on a search.

I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm selling the product. It just isn't feasible to have it as a product that anyone can order, because the price varies according to multiple factors. For example, the customer may choose to have additional ingredients, they can choose the container size and color, they can ask for a customized label, and other parameters that determine the final price. I tried setting it up with attributes and it just wasn't possible to include all the various possibilities. So I communicate with the customer by email, give them a quote, and if they're happy with that, I create a new product entry for them and give them the link to it.