I am opening a retail (Brick and Morter) Store - Database Question

I am opening a retail (Brick and Morter) Store

Now the only real experiance I have is online sales.

Would there be a way to handle inventory so that, If I sell item A
in my B&M store that I can have it also be updated in my online store.

I dont really know how to set this up. Perhaps a seprate program that can
upload the information to my zen on the fly with some kind of interface?

Any suggestions?

Are you talking about: Let's say that you have an inventory count 50 of Item A, and sell only 1, is there a way to have the store to lower your inventory to 49?
If so, then ZenCart already does that for you. It's built in. It updates the count on your store AND in your database.
If that wasn't your question, then please, just ignore this post.

What I am thinking about is more like this

Total Inventory 50
Zencart Inventory.,,, Same 50

One sells from my Brick and Morter Store....
How does the zencart inventory go to 49.

Is there any interface that works with say a software product for
brick and morter purchases.

Oh, I see, Milo. By B&M, you're talking about a "Real" land based store, and not an online virtual store, right? To some people, B&M means ANY business that they build themselves, hence the confusion.
Let me see if I've got this right; you sell Item A (50) in a "real' store, at the cash register (down to 49), and ZenCart still shows your online customers (or, at least you) that you have 50. Now you're 1 short if an online customer buys all 50, because you don't have that 1. So, you want a cash register to deduct inventory from your ZenCart, when a purchase is made in the "real" store.

Right?

If you had a computerized cash register, I think you could do this by linking Databases, or something, but I just don't know. Sorry.

Maybe one of the DEV team will pick up on this thread, and be able to answer this VERY good question.

Yea thats what I meant...

Ok well hope to hear something.

I dont know if I can use Quickbooks to manage inventory and then use that interface to upload and download back and forth. Where as I am sure that there would be a real cash register to interfasce with quickbooks.

The thing is. I dont know anything about either yet.

we're fixing to do this too...
The way I figure it is to just use a pc as the register,
and set up a customer as IN STORE
then ring them up logged in as INSTORE

so my inventory stays correct and so do my reports...
the only thing Im iffy on is how to set it so that the customer INSTORE (and ONLY that customer) can pay cash...

Did you get yours going or did you end up using QuickBooks?

I've had this problem for 2 years. The closest I got was for a friend to write me a program that would sync Microsoft POS to the Zen Cart Database. It wasn't real time, but all I had to do was open the Program and hit 'Sync.'

Then of course my computer crapped out and I have no idea how to get that program to work as my friend is the one that set it up in the first place:shocking:

I just manually edit things on Zen Cart. Which sucks. I'll get orders for items that I don't even have anymore because I haven't been able to keep up with the editing.

I had a B&M store that I closed and had a POS software that will allow you to sync your database. I never used it since I had no online store. But I believed you would be able to sync your inventory. All you had to do is update your database everytime you sell something online or in the store or you could set it for a certain time.

But It can be done you should research some POS to find one that will work with Zen Cart Database.

I'm not sure if anyone has found a solution to this, but it would be extremely helpful if such a thing were possible.

Take a look at www.atrex.com POS/Inventory Management Software, they have a script that will sync your local and Zen Cart db on a regular basis.

JOhn ><>

We have the same issue and think we have the solution but there's one small problem.

We were thinking of handling this by creating a copy of our site as POS. It'd be an exact copy of our store which is password protected, but still pointing to the same database as our live site. In-store staff would put items into the cart and checkout with an "instore" user that would have all shipping/billing info set to keep the flow quick.

We want to keep in-store cc swiping (faster with no need for extensive customer data entry and a better customer experience), so the "instore" user would have access to the "Credit Card - Offline Processing" payment option for this "POS" version of the site.

The problem is that if we enable "Credit Card - Offline Processing" for the POS version of the site it will be available on the live site as well. Is there a way to have the necessary payment modules point to alternate database tables for the POS version?

Hi

I have a zen cart store. I wonder if I can just copy its database and use it as a second zencart database on the same webserver (webhost) then I will be able to have a second store, selling the same items, same prices, etc.?? Does it work this way? What is the way to have multi sites with custom zen cart templates selling the same items, same prices etc..? I know there is a multi site script but that is Not for custom templates though..

Thanks.

matchmanhattan

I have written software and use it to sync my zencart to Actinic EPOS software. It also produces import files for SageLine 50 i.e sales, cutomer accounts e.t.c, extracts other data too, i.e updates products from EPOS to zen, downloads prodcut data from zen into epos (for updating your epos database initially)
We started with zen, and now have a retail shop, and lack of available software forced me to write my own. Runs on windows and works very well. Please pm if interested.

ZenCart uses the MySQL Database so it should be easy to do. RealBasic uses many formats of DB to create code in, and I write all my code using the MySQL DB. The thing would be is to link up to the ZenCart and not the POS as ZenCart rules over all.

What I am saying is that ZenCart has to be the one that needs to be updated as it has all your inventory on it, so naturally it must be the one that is updated first. Infact ones inventory can be on the ZenCart MySQL DB and the POS should just work with it like a normal online user.

If we can create a program that is just a ZenCart Terminal, that will connect to the ZenCart DB for retail business, then we have the best of both worlds.

Jonathon

hi,

I have an idea.

instead of doing a 'database update' periodically you can use the same DB (zencart on your host)

but first you will need to make your POS use the zenDB.

is your POS web based?
if so, then hopefully you can connect to the DB with your POS.
with the help of adding the required tables that your POS needs (bar code etc).

I have found something like this for OsCommerce:
http://www.phppointofsale.com/

this will hopefully give both your online store and retail outlet the result that you need?

its the easy way to go.........i think

Mrchristoh:

its the easy way to go.........i think

Until your website falls over or your internet goes down.
Accounts wise, i.e tracking sales between shop /web, printing receipts through a receipt printer, and opening a cash draw etc also all have to be considered...plus the time it takes - nothing is more frustrating than a que of customers whilst your waiting for the machine to sort itself out!

However could program a POS software linking direct to ZEN if there is enough interest i would be able to knock out a desktop windows compatible beta to people pretty quickly, including the OPOS stuff built in (cash draw and thermal receipt printer)

yeah i guess thats a valid point.

then why would you consider a webshop if you spend all your time being worried about internet connection?

you can run the POS server 'inhouse - localhost' then i guess you can add the functionality if that interent failure happens to just export a flat file to be extracted and uploaded later.......easy.

We have a BM store and a Zencart Store. Our BM store runs on a FileMaker Pro based POS system. I export on-hand data from the POS, and update our ZC inventory levels on a daily basis with a fairly simple Easy Populate routine (not automated). I also update our new inventory to ZC using EP weekly or so. Excel plays a strong role in these data updates for organizing and formatting the data.

In our situation, the POS system is the king, and the ZC is the secondary system, but it works pretty well. Even if you have fewer sales at your BM store than your ZC store, it should still work pretty well, although you might need to update more frequently than 1/day.

Jess
https://www.bestfriendsquilts.com

Mrchristoh:

yeah i guess thats a valid point.

then why would you consider a webshop if you spend all your time being worried about internet connection?

Because my server is sat at the leading data centre win the uk with direct backbone connection and full UPS/generator system and has not lost connectivity in 3 years.

My shop, however, is on a standard broadband connection over 4 miles from the nearest exchange and, like most of the uK, suffers from outage

Mrchristoh:

yeah i guess thats a valid point.

you can run the POS server 'inhouse - localhost' then i guess you can add the functionality if that interent failure happens to just export a flat file to be extracted and uploaded later.......easy.

Yes, but then thats not the point the guy above was trying to make! His idea was to hold everything on the server, then just have a "screen" on his local pc for use as a pos. not to have two seperate systems.

I have a dedicated POS system which is king, and the zen gets updated from that everyday. I have chosen to never show out of stock or adjust quantities in stock on zen and all my stock handling/supplier orders is done on the pos

What is the name of the POS so I can take a look at it...