Postal mass mailing discount certificates.

HELP I'M DROWNING

What I need to do is have the ability for a printer company to produce a gaggle load of certificates for mass postal mailing. Each certificate will have a unique sequential identification number.

What I need Zen Cart to do is:

• Each number is used when a new customer signs up to identify which discount group the new member belongs in.
• Once the number is used it can not be used again.
• The discount is valid for a predetermined duration (i.e. one year after signup).
• The discounted amount is kept track of and displayed to the member with each log on (something like, you have saved $#,###.## with us to date).

Okay, it's been a week without a response. Comeon now all you Zenners out there, one of you must know the answer to my problem, or at a bear minimum a direction to find the solution.
:down:

This would require quite a bit of customization ...

1 track a database of numbers for the Discount Coupons

2 assign one of the unique numbers to the customer and auto-generate the Discount Coupon when this is done to configure it for the customer based on the number retrieved from the database

3 customize a discount tracking to manage the actual amount saved, if and when the customer uses the discount coupon

When I had this wonderous :-( brain storm I knew this task would be daunting. However, I also know that it can be done. I lack the experiance with PHP and need a direction to get started (how else would I gain in my knowledge and earn the token of wisdom that comes with it). Actually what I was thinking is when some one logs in and uses the number for the first time, encoded within the number would be which group the client belongs in and make that assignment. Maybe by adding a field in the customers table the total saving could be tracked. Maybe adding a new table to track used numbers would keep reuse out of the picture. I'm just so overwelmed with the maybes and need some direction to begin with. I'm a firm believer in open source and will post all that has been done in this forum because I know that somewhere and sometime, someone else wants to do the same.

Thank you Linda for your response.

/s/ Daniel

P.S. Oh, I did (and am) buying coffee for the team. It's those little things that help to keep projects like this alive.......

You have to consider:

You want the customer in a group of some sort ... what are the groups and what decides one from another?

Are you just wanting groups like Joined in January? Or some other kind of grouping?

You said you want to pre-print all of the coupons ... what is the benefit vs a decent printer that you print as needed?

Are you doing a large advertising campaign to get customers to your site?

Once in a group what are the benefits or is this just a tracking method?

I love questions that get to the point without beating around the bush.

Which group a person goes into would depend on the clients purchased quantity of certificates and the price they paid. For example, a dealer would offer their customers a token of appreciation by giving them a certificate that allows the person to come to http://www.ameriemall.com (note: this is a work in progress and has not gone live yet) where once they log in they will be placed in one of four (4) discount groups (10%/20%/30%/40%) that grants a percentage off of the total product prices. Of course the certificate must be used by a certain date and is valid for a term of one year (or six months or whatever). The purpose of tracking the amount of savings is to show the person each time they log in how much they saved by being a member (something like your local grocery store).

The benefit of pre-printed certificates is to allow them to be placed in a booklet, used as advertisment in magizines or whatever a client would wish to do. It would be their name on the certificate directing them to the site. But mainly it's customization.

/s/ Daniel

Well ... if all you want to do is track Discount Coupon ABC that was handed out or advertised on Monday Night during the football game ...

There is a mini tracker for this already built in ...

In the Customer Details is a setting for:

Customers Referral Status
Customers Referral Code is created from
0= Off
1= 1st Discount Coupon Code used
2= Customer can add during create account or edit if blank

NOTE: Once the Customers Referral Code has been set it can only be changed in the Admin Customer

What this does is set Discount Coupon used by the customer either by asking during Create Account or inferring by the 1st Discount Coupon used by the customer for the code ...

Then in the Admin there is a report built from this Discount Coupon code ...

Only one per customer and it generates the total sales for this customer, without regard to discounts ... in the Reports ... Customers Referral ...

You could adapt this beyond the simple method it uses now ...

Or, use this for one means of tracking and then build an auto grouping assignment ...

NOTE: the current redirect you are using would really tick off the spiders ... they do not like redirects ...

:blush: You got me Linda, what do you mean by your note? I'm at a loss with the the new school terms.:ohmy:

Test it out ...

Turn that setting to 1 ...

Create a new Discount Coupon ABC ...

Create a new customer account ... and use the coupon on the order ...

Now look at Reports ... Customers Referral ...

Pick the Discount Coupon ABC

Now make another purchase as same customer without a coupon ...

Next check the report ... it is reporting sales based on that coupon as the Referral ...

Try the next setting 2 ...

Create a new customer account ... notice it asks for the coupon/referral code ...

You can enter the code here or on checkout ...

NOTE: in either case the coupon needs to be entered during checkout for the actual discount ...

The difference is that the referral in the Create Account will catch the code even if never used on checkout ...

Actually, I was referring to this note:

"NOTE: the current redirect you are using would really tick off the spiders ... they do not like redirects ..."

As for the discount module I plan on spending the day tomarrow playing around with'em and see what they do and how they do what they do (that sounds corney). I hope that I will be able to do what I need to so that the mall will have accountability for the clients who in turn will have the same for their certificates passed out, sold, etc.... Have a good night Lindy, and thank you.

When I go to your site I click on an image and that takes me to an HTML page which then redirects me to a site ...

That HTML redirect is not acceptable to search engines ...

That was the only way I could get an animated gif to display so the user knew something was going on while a extremely large database table loads over 200,000 products in the 7 shops. I tried to put all under one roof and found the wait time (even on cable) just unbearable as well as the organization to choppy. Now I have a problem with the gif running (another thread) while index.php loads. Somehow, I will get index.php to show it's loading status. But that's for another place (thread). I am sure there are a bunch of folk looking to do the same thing. I think it must be accomplished with js. I have about a month to get this whole shabang ironed out and in production. Not a problem.

Back to this thread......

For some reason, no matter what I do I am unable to get referral at sign up.

I figured that by adding a few lines of code I will be able to set customers.customers_group_pricing based on the certificate number input. (Although I am still farming around the directories looking for that particular routine to add the lines into) [Of course this is a simplified explaination] The coupons and coupons_description tables can be populated via xls, dbf, csv, mdb, or what ever. My tool of choice for MySQL databases is Navicat and my IDE of choice for PHP is PHP Designer 2007 - Professional.

I figured out that I had to have referrals turned on :no: shame on me....

Well, this is what I got so far. I think I have a little problem with the date check (atleast it runs without error just not right YET)

CODE SNIPIT *****************************************

includes/modules/create_account.php
(my line numbers may be different than yours, I have incorporated the
at line 27
$group_pricing_catagory = 0; //sets a default to catagory 0

Starting at line 295
if ($customers_referral != '') {
$certificate_query = "SELECT distinct coupon_code, coupon_expire_date, coupon_amount
FROM " . TABLE_COUPONS . "
WHERE upper(coupon_code) = upper(:check_code)";
$certificate_query = $db->bindVars($certificate_query, ':check_code', $customers_referral, 'string');
$check_cert = $db->Execute($certificate_query);
//an exact match must be found or the certificate is not valid
if ($check_cert->RecordCount() == 1) {
//lets determine if the coupon code is within date frame
if (strtotime($check_cert->fields['coupon_expire_date']) > time()) ) {
//based upon the value of the coupon the group is assigned
switch ((int)$check_cert->fields['coupon_amount']) {
case 10:
$group_pricing_catagory = 1;
break;
case 15:
$group_pricing_catagory = 2;
break;
case 20:
$group_pricing_catagory = 3;
break;
case 25:
$group_pricing_catagory = 4;
break;
case 30:
$group_pricing_catagory = 5;
break;
}
} else {
$error = true;
$messageStack->add('create_account', ENTRY_COUPON_INVALID);
}
} else {
$error = true;
$messageStack->add('create_account', ENTRY_COUPON_INVALID);
}
}

at line 352
'customers_group_pricing' => $group_pricing_catagory

includes/languages/english.php
define('ENTRY_COUPON_INVALID', 'The redemption code you entered is not valid, try again (if it continues to fail leave it blank)')

I've attached my code adjustments. Solving this situation would not have been possible had Linda not got me started in the right direction. What has been done is to prepopulate the coupons table with the numbers that will be printed. For tracking purposes I decided on a 12 character alphanumeric sequence. The first 5 will identify the client and the actual discount (for varification.) When a customer enters the referral number the group discount will be applied to that customer. (Being that each will be valid for a minimum of 6 months, I have a little grace period before I need to check the term end date for the customer, this will give me some time to complete other aspects of this project.) Keep in mind that my line numbers may different that the released product, I've added the CAPTCHA Anti-Robot Registration module. Once again, thank you Linda.

Hello, I also had something similar in mind, hopefuly someone can help me. This is my first post on ZenCart forums.

I have a client list of about 1500 wholesale customers and I want to email them to register on my new ZenCart website, I want to email them a code so they can enter the code into the registration form and with this code they will automaticaly go into a group called "wholesalers" so they will get a percentage dicount on all items (I will of course set up the group before sending the email).

I have another client list as well so I will be doing this with 2 different codes and 2 different groups.

Believe me, it's an eye opener to get what you need done. There is really no easy way to go about it short of making some code changes. Unless of course you want to set each one up individually (you got planty of skin on your finger tips?) What I ended up doing was making the code changes (as mentioned above) in a core file (not recommended if you want to be able to do core updates later). [[ It seams that others may be wanting to do the same type group discounts, so I'll begin working on an mod for this task without changing the core. ]] Anyways, the easiest way is to make the core adjustment and then

Admin -> Configuration -> Customer Details -> Customers Referal Status = 2
Admin -> Gift Certificate/Coupons -> Coupon Admin -> Insert
Coupon Name = Wholesale Group
Coupon Amount = 30%
Uses per Coupon = 0
Uses per Customer = 1

Bear in mind, if your percentages are different, then you must also make the change in the case statement. Until a mod is done there really is no easy way to do what you and I need.

I forgot to mention (forgive me,) the discount code that was generated (or the one you made up) is placed into the document you plan on sending for the invites to your customers. Of couse, there would be no way of determining if that particular customer used the code short of doing a nightly sit down and "approve" each new customer. (Admin -> Configuration -> Customer Approval Status = 1 or 2 (my recommendation is 2)). I populated the coupons table with a sequental number for the number of certifs that will be mailed. I set each one to be used only 1 time and by only 1 person. Testing demonstrated that it works, however, it won't be until the middle of March before I know if it works in mass. (I pray so).

If no one else has said so, let me be the first to welcome you to Zen Cart. I am a user just like you and am not on the support team. But then that's what open source is all about, everyone pitches in to make it better (or worse if you listen to me :cry: ) Good luck and welcome aboard.