G'day,


People have asked about the problems I'm trying to solve. So here goes...


Zen Cart out of the box doesn't handle stock keeping units (SKUs) unless we set up every SKU as a separate product. If standard Zen Cart attributes are used and a product has say four sizes and five colours, then there are 20 SKUs. But Zen Cart doesn't have the manufacturer and EAN/UPC codes for these SKU's. Thus Zen Cart has no idea if we have say a red coloured fin in size large in stock, just that we have 18 units of those fins.


Of course Zen Cart doesn't let you assign an image to a SKU. Yes we can have multiple images per product, but there is no way to assign labels for each image. Other ecommerce systems do this and for good reason. It helps the online shoppers see the attribute options more clearly and results in more sales.


We end up having to invent a product code to cover all of the SKUs of a product. Then we can't automatically update prices when we receive a new price list from a supplier, especially when prices vary by attribute. When you have so many products and suppliers, this becomes a real business pain point.


Step one for us to achieve a more streamlined business will be to add proper support for SKUs to Zen Cart (there are addons to do this), or switch to a different ecommerce platform. Then we can integrate our online store with the purchasing and inventory control system and/or POS systems we also need.


Note: My advise to those setting up a Zen Cart store selling products with lots of attributes like size and colour is that you should add support for SKUs from the beginning. Retrofitting it later, like we're going to have to do, is very problematic.


We need a purchasing system to improve our entirely manual process of ordering and receiving product. Such a system will also help us to properly label many products when we receive them, which will help with identifying the right product when picking to fulfil orders.


For us, some products must be shipped from instore stock. Some can be shipped to customers direct from suppliers because we don't keep them in stock and the supplier will drop ship for us. Some it's optional to ship from suppliers or stock. Some we don't keep in stock and have to order them in from suppliers in order to then ship them to customers. This is something staff have to know when picking and purchasing product. A purchasing and stock control system would handle this better.


A purchasing system will let us use the unique details for each SKU when ordering product from suppliers. We'll know how many of each SKU we have, and it's cost price.


A purchasing and inventory control system will let us make better decisions about the stock levels we keep, plus better use of incentives from suppliers when buying stock. With better control of stock levels we can provide a better service to our customers.


We have a physical shop which is 30% of the business. Having a POS would streamline instore sales. With a POS interfacing with Zen Cart and a purchasing/inventory system, it will help with inventory control and adding/updating product prices, etc. across all business systems.


Best regards, Lloyd Borrett.