How Can I Accommodate Continuously Unique Customer-Specific Product Downloads?

I'll welcome any suggestions on how I can configure Zen Cart 1.3.9H to permit customers to download their own highly personalized videos and E-books. I provide approximately 300 different titles from which the customer can choose. There is a 5 day lag between purchase and delivery as it takes time to process the order. Downloading is the delivery method of choice because the file sizes can be quite large. In a given scenario, two customers choosing the same title will each receive unique variants of that same title because of the personalized nature of the title so I cannot give their downloaded files the same name for fear of overwriting one another's files. I'd have to allow that a customer may purchase more than one title at a time, complicating matters even more. Further, each chosen title will require a facial portrait photo to be uploaded and correctly identified/linked with the proper title (I think I've got this one covered). I want to use Zen Cart's great features and benefit from the many automated tasks it can handle and stay as far away from having to manually handle sales, processing, notification, and delivery as possible to keep labor costs down.

I figure somebody is going to have to be pretty smart to successfully tackle this one. My experience with Zen Cart has just begun in the last week. There are clunky solutions and there are elegant solutions. I'd like to shoot for the latter. I couldn't find any threads to help me solve this one.

There is unquestionably a strong trend toward consumers wanting more personalized and/or customized products and services. These marketing thrusts can be seen everywhere. Zen Cart, as built, doesn't seem capable of handling this trend. Threads similar to this going back in the Forum to 2006 have not yielded any answers or solutions to how we can sell, and process these sales beyond handling different sizes and colors. Opportunity knocks!

Yourvirtualworld:

There is unquestionably a strong trend toward consumers wanting more personalized and/or customized products and services. These marketing thrusts can be seen everywhere.

Actually, I think I'll question this unquestionable trend.

Do you have any facts or figures to verify this, or is it just a personal observation (possibly biased because it is something that you are personally interested in)?

Yourvirtualworld:

Zen Cart, as built, doesn't seem capable of handling this trend. Threads similar to this going back in the Forum to 2006 have not yielded any answers or solutions to how we can sell, and process these sales beyond handling different sizes and colors. Opportunity knocks!

Software is generally created/updated as a result of user demand. Clearly, if things haven't progressed since 2006 the demand simply isn't there otherwise someone would have done it already. Coders/developers rarely ever let an opportunity pass by.

I'm not suggesting there is NO demand, so let's assume there is. The question then becomes, since zencart doesn't have the functionality you desire, what software are the people needing it currently using? Now, if you can answer this, I just have to ask, why don't you consider using the same software?

I have no wish or desire to guide people away from zencart, but seriously, eCommerce is a matter of 'horses for courses', and it seem counter productive for you to hope/expect zencart to eventually have this functionality if you can find a ready made solution elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

Actually, I think I'll question this unquestionable trend.

Do you have any facts or figures to verify this, or is it just a personal observation (possibly biased because it is something that you are personally interested in)?

Software is generally created/updated as a result of user demand. Clearly, if things haven't progressed since 2006 the demand simply isn't there otherwise someone would have done it already. Coders/developers rarely ever let an opportunity pass by.

I'm not suggesting there is NO demand, so let's assume there is. The question then becomes, since zencart doesn't have the functionality you desire, what software are the people needing it currently using? Now, if you can answer this, I just have to ask, why don't you consider using the same software?

I have no wish or desire to guide people away from zencart, but seriously, eCommerce is a matter of 'horses for courses', and it seem counter productive for you to hope/expect zencart to eventually have this functionality if you can find a ready made solution elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Cheers
Rod

Not sure what horses for courses means. I believe eCommerce was the precursor/foundation for Zen Cart, correct? I've invested a lot into Zen Cart and don't want to jump ship because it's missing one feature. Truly don't know what solution there is to this request and I've looked. If you know, I'm all ears!

On another note, just google "product personalization" then stand back.
Here's one from https://www.cirrelt.ca/DocumentsTravail/2004/DT-2004-BM-1.pdf

"Abstract
Competitive, open and global markets render the consumer more demanding towards
manufacturers’ offers. In the past, firms could be competitive by providing value in quality, price and
quick delivery. In the new economy, with the coming of e-business, the personalization of products
becomes a key competitive factor. Manufacturers need to develop capabilities to fulfill these
personalization needs while still respecting price, quality and service. This is an enormous challenge
since there are many possible personalization offers that a firm could propose, up to the extreme of
delivering a distinct product to each client."

From Infosys:
http://www.infosys.com/building-tomorrows-enterprise/Documents/digital-consumers.pdf

Yourvirtualworld:

Not sure what horses for courses means.

Google it.

Yourvirtualworld:

I believe eCommerce was the precursor/foundation for Zen Cart, correct?

eCommerce is a generic term roughly meaning 'an online store'

OsCommerce was the software that zencart was founded on.

Yourvirtualworld:

I've invested a lot into Zen Cart and don't want to jump ship because it's missing one feature. Truly don't know what solution there is to this request and I've looked. If you know, I'm all ears!

I don't know either. I was assuming that you would since it is something that you are obviously interested in, and possibly even something you've seen supported by other shopping carts (and would like zencart to have similar functionality).

Yourvirtualworld:

On another note, just google "product personalization" then stand back.

Talk is cheap.

Abstract:
It is of growing concern that this planet is becoming overpopulated, therefore it is essential that world governments collaborate in populating other planets in the universe.

This seems perfectly reasonable to me. Similar things have been written/stated many times over the years, but that doesn't make it a high demand solution. It is merely a thought, an idea. An impractical one at that, but nonetheless it is still a solution that has been proposed by many people.

The references you gave aren't really much different. IMO

If the demand exists there would be a solution. It is up to you to either find the solution that already exists, or, invest the time to create your own solution.

It is illogical to think that software developers have been ignoring something that has been in high demand for the last half dozen years or more, but this seems to be precisely what you are saying.

Just my opinion.

Cheers
Rod

For a reasonably well organized discussion on current state of "product customization" as a consumer direction, see http://www.mass-customization.de/download/joft06.pdf as a step toward greater business viability and success in the 21st century, being further enhanced by the existence of the Internet.

"Mass customization is designed to deliver highly customized products with mass production efficiency. While discussed in
the literature for more than a decade, mass customization has only recently been introduced to a large extent. Using a
number of case examples from the automotive, sports equipment, and credit card industry, we will discuss in this paper
how mass customization supports and enhances operational and market effectiveness and review the success factors of
making mass customization work.... "