Selling products in boxes with variable quantities?

[Tanith]

Using Zen Cart 1.3.8a.1
Not upgraded to my knowledge
No addons
Not particularly customized
Site url http://www.herfingusa/zencart/
Hosting on GoDaddy.com
I have searched the FAQ area, the forum and the Internet; this one is really stumping me.
The store is not live and has not been thoroughly tested yet, it's still being built.

The store I am setting up sells cigars as singles, as 4-packs or 5-packs and in boxes. Different brands of cigars come in boxes that may contain different quantities of cigars.

I need a way to configure products so that on the individual product listings, there are options (either drop-down, radio box, or separate buttons/boxes with text) to purchase the cigars in quantities of 1 ("Buy a single cigar"), "Buy a 5-pack", "Buy a 4-pack" or "Buy a box".

I need to know what data field name I will need to use to identify how many cigars are in a box unit. The boxes are priced at the number of cigars they contain with a 10% discount for buying the box. So I need a way to calculate that discount and show it next to the "buy a box" option, along with the number of cigars in that brand's box.

I need to know how to set up my products with those three options to purchase.

All of the products in the database (cigars) are currently entered and priced as singles.

Many thanks (and possibly a good cigar) if you can be of assistance.

[gjh42]

You won't need any particular "data field name". What you will use is attributes. In Catalog > Option Name Manager, create an option like Quantity, select dropdown or radiobutton, and insert.
In Option Value Manager, select Quantity and create values for it like Single, 4-Pack, 5-Pack and Box, giving each a sort order.
In Attributes Controller, select the category and product, then add attributes, selecting Quantity and Single (give the price for one), 4-Pack (price for 4), etc. I'm afraid there is not a way to automate this; you will need to enter the price for each quantity manually. If several products have the same set of attributes, you can make one and then copy its attributes to others as a group.

[gjh42]

You might be able to use the quantity discounts feature to handle your pricing, though I'm not sure it will be able to correctly limit the quantity to 1, 4/5 or box.

[Tanith]

Thanks, but I need to use EasyPopulate (the advanced version) to mass copy all of that information onto a full spreadsheet of 2,000 products. Doing each of them manually via the ZenCart interface is not going to work well for us.

[gjh42]

I have heard that EP Advanced has the ability to handle attributes. If so, you should be able to do what you want that way. It would probably require some initial setup in admin. I can't offer any further advice as I've never used EP.

[Kim]

BTW - you really need to upgrade the Zen Cart software. V1.3.8 has some serious flaws that could result in your shop getting hacked.

[Tanith]

Still utterly confused.

I can set up a product to have the option of a box of 20 by setting "Box" as an option name and 20 as a value. Then I can set the price factor as 19 and the one time offset as 2, to get a price for a box of 20 with the 10% box discount.

Except it doesn't seem to work. What am I doing wrong? Is there a more optimal way to set the different box sizes (they change depending on the product) up as attribute names and values?