Price "as low as $X.XX"

I have a situation where I have included shipping costs in my prices to avoid having to use shipping modules that give vast and differing shipping costs. The great part about this is that I call everything "FREE SHIPPING" and wow do my customers like it. Now the problem is I am using Numinix's Catagory discount plugin to give quantity breaks for the products. HOWEVER, the downside is all my single prices are HUGE. Is there any plugin that would show prices "As low as $X.XX when purchased in Quantity"????

Thanks
Chris

g2ktcf:

I have a situation where I have included shipping costs in my prices to avoid having to use shipping modules that give vast and differing shipping costs. The great part about this is that I call everything "FREE SHIPPING" and wow do my customers like it. Now the problem is I am using Numinix's Catagory discount plugin to give quantity breaks for the products. HOWEVER, the downside is all my single prices are HUGE. Is there any plugin that would show prices "As low as $X.XX when purchased in Quantity"????

Thanks
Chris

I landed on this thread out of curiosity of the subject, unfortunately I won't likely see it again until another response is provided, but I had considered the following related to the issue.

I would have thought that if the plugin resulted in multiplying the individual price to give the "bulk" price, then iwould have hoped that the plugin also provided some direction as to how to display the result you are looking for. In absence of that, like you are asking, maybe another plugin or some code to accomplish the task is available (suggest reviewing the thread applicable to the plugin to see if that issue has been addressed), the next thing I can see is performing a query to identify the smallest (MIN) of the price associated with the bulk quantities to either the maximum quantity available in such a bulk purchase at the price bracket (assuming some maximum quantity at the high end of pricing), or perhaps the first quantity of a range of prices for bulk (corrected for the low end), or some variation there of.

mc12345678:

I landed on this thread out of curiosity of the subject, unfortunately I won't likely see it again until another response is provided, but I had considered the following related to the issue.

I would have thought that if the plugin resulted in multiplying the individual price to give the "bulk" price, then iwould have hoped that the plugin also provided some direction as to how to display the result you are looking for. In absence of that, like you are asking, maybe another plugin or some code to accomplish the task is available (suggest reviewing the thread applicable to the plugin to see if that issue has been addressed), the next thing I can see is performing a query to identify the smallest (MIN) of the price associated with the bulk quantities to either the maximum quantity available in such a bulk purchase at the price bracket (assuming some maximum quantity at the high end of pricing), or perhaps the first quantity of a range of prices for bulk (corrected for the low end), or some variation there of.

Well the good news is I know how to access this price and run the calculations. Numinix's plugin creates a discount table for each product showing the discounts that shows in the product detail. I can use this bit of code with a small amount of manipulation to get the "lowest price."

The question becomes "how many places would I have to edit to make this be the governing price across the site?" By this, I mean there are all sorts of places that the "price" appears and I would want them all to say "as low as $x.xx". I am more that willing to modify my core code if required.

was going to try and edit the above post but looks like I can't.

The modifications to add the discount table are in tpl_product_info_display.php. There are two quantity discount "chunks" of code...the one I added for Numinix's mod and the standard ZC quantity discounts. So, I guess the clarification to the last questions is "what files contain 'pricing display' information?"

g2ktcf:

was going to try and edit the above post but looks like I can't.

The modifications to add the discount table are in tpl_product_info_display.php. There are two quantity discount "chunks" of code...the one I added for Numinix's mod and the standard ZC quantity discounts. So, I guess the clarification to the last questions is "what files contain 'pricing display' information?"

So there is text that is captured in the languages path, and I thought that the same template file you identified above includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php contained the section that displays/calls out the price portion. I again am not in a position to dig deeper, but would suggest using the developer's toolkit to chase down the pieces and parts that make up the final display. Further I would suggest that in the final solution some sort of "check" be performed to see if the "starting at" or "as low as" text is really applicable (ie, if numinix' table has contents or more than one item, etc...).

I do hope that someone else can chime in with more specific detail as I don't think that I have specifically answered your question, although suggested a way to possibly identify the modification point(s). I do not see that any core mods would be necessary and that I think all changes could be addressed in templated files.

Yes, I agree with the "check" and that should be relatively simple given than Numinix's discounts are actually in the configurations table. I just need to see if they exist or not for that given product category. The same goes for the native ZC discounts on a per product basis. I cannot see this working with verifying both and seeing if these two discounts are mutually exclusive or not (at this time I do not know)

and...

Yes, finding the bits that need modifying are always my real issue.

Cheers
Chris

g2ktcf:

Yes, I agree with the "check" and that should be relatively simple given than Numinix's discounts are actually in the configurations table. I just need to see if they exist or not for that given product category. The same goes for the native ZC discounts on a per product basis. I cannot see this working with verifying both and seeing if these two discounts are mutually exclusive or not (at this time I do not know)

and...

Yes, finding the bits that need modifying are always my real issue.

Cheers
Chris

So, looking at the generated html code (source code) and then searching on that should get you close to the code area. Recognizing that words displayed on screen re language related (typically) and therefore in a constant that is used in the code (sometimes more than one constant is needed in series). And html tags are typically in the tpl_ files, though not always, some are in modules. But if you find code that specifically displays something of interest, and code that generically gets that displayed, somewhere in between is what feeds your final.

Again not a solution, but a philosophy.

mc12345678:

So, looking at the generated html code (source code) and then searching on that should get you close to the code area. Recognizing that words displayed on screen re language related (typically) and therefore in a constant that is used in the code (sometimes more than one constant is needed in series). And html tags are typically in the tpl_ files, though not always, some are in modules. But if you find code that specifically displays something of interest, and code that generically gets that displayed, somewhere in between is what feeds your final.

Again not a solution, but a philosophy.

that helps! I actually just used a developer tool in FF to do just that trying to find how to change a set of colors. I did not know which css file it would be in. I found the html class via the developer tool and walked it back through to the css code.

I have taken some time to track all the bits of the "displayed" prices and it goes through several ZC functions that examine quantity discounts, specials and all things related to pricing. I am positive that I can create a template that can do what I want.

However, I am not that good at layouts and deciding what is visually pleasing. So I would be interested in input on how to display this.

1. Use the "As Low As" price in place of the current displayed price - Users could be deceived by this only to find out that they are being charged something different when they order just one.
2. Add the "As Low As" price just below the displayed price similar to the MSRP Addin - I personally think this is the best option.
3. How should this be displayed? My thoughts are "As Low As $X.XX when purchased in Quantity". I could even make the "Purchased in Quantity" a link to an FAQ or EZ Page explaining the pricing scheme.
4. Its even possible to show this like a "sale" item price with the % savings shown.

My concept here to to make the text before and after the lowest price be separate defines in the template's english.php file so you could customize the exact wording and make it compatible with other languages.

Any thoughts? Is anyone interested?

g2ktcf:

I have taken some time to track all the bits of the "displayed" prices and it goes through several ZC functions that examine quantity discounts, specials and all things related to pricing. I am positive that I can create a template that can do what I want.

However, I am not that good at layouts and deciding what is visually pleasing. So I would be interested in input on how to display this.

1. Use the "As Low As" price in place of the current displayed price - Users could be deceived by this only to find out that they are being charged something different when they order just one.
2. Add the "As Low As" price just below the displayed price similar to the MSRP Addin - I personally think this is the best option.
3. How should this be displayed? My thoughts are "As Low As $X.XX when purchased in Quantity". I could even make the "Purchased in Quantity" a link to an FAQ or EZ Page explaining the pricing scheme.
4. Its even possible to show this like a "sale" item price with the % savings shown.

My concept here to to make the text before and after the lowest price be separate defines in the template's english.php file so you could customize the exact wording and make it compatible with other languages.

Any thoughts? Is anyone interested?

Responding only to the last paragraph (not bulleted) at this time: I would suggest that the sprintf function be used to provide the price within a "string" of text insted of two seperate constants that in my opinion may later add confusion.

I am stilling going ahead with this as I REALLY NEED IT. I have a way to make this work but I am trying to understand the ZC Discount system fully. What I have discovered is quite surprising.

Take for instance the Standard ZC Method of computing Quantity Discounts. If you look at the Admin, it appears that you have the option of applying either a Percentage Discount or a fixed Discount. And it also appears that that both of these can be applied to either the Normal Price or the Special Price (if specified). However, it seems that both of these are simply calculators to help you get the correct amount. Neither of these "settings" are stored in the database. The db contains only the Minimum Quantity and the Discounted Price.

This can cause a problem. Say you entered that you want to give a 20% discount on a product of qty 10 priced on special at $20.00 (normally $25). The database will store this as Qty = 10 and Discounted Price = $16.00. A week later the special ends. Then you have a normal price of $25 but a quantity discount of $16. The 20% you entered is not "kept on file" and the discounted price does not change. This is the way its designed but I just wanted folks to be aware that some apparent "settings" are not really settings and are not stored.