Automatic Email Generation to Customer for Certain Products...

Ok, this may sound kind of complicated, but perhaps some more senior members can help me.

I'm working on a new site for a client. She has a product line that has some asinine (in my humble opinion) product pricing restrictions whereby they cannot list pricing online. Yes, there's the great "call for price" option, and I can also do a "email for pricing" link, where the shop owner can then reply to people when she gets the chance with the product pricing. Then she is forced to take phone orders, and who wants to do that??

Does this really work for everyone? I doubt very few online shoppers, without some kind of dedication to the specific website, will take the time to wait for a response. People want to make their orders NOW. Of course, said asinine company allows their larger retailers the bonus of being able to publish prices, thus assuring they get all the business.

So I'm thinking of a workaround for her. Here's what I'd like to do.

Each "call for price" item, also has a "Email for Immediate Pricing Information" whereby the customer will get sent an automated email with a link to a "hidden" category I created where they can purchase the product.

So, the pricing isn't technically advertised online, and they shouldn't get in trouble for allowing their clients to simply have a way to process their payments online. The hidden products wouldn't show up on any search, so in my mind they are not violating their agreement.

Can someone help me figure out the best way to go about this? Perhaps modifying the "Tell a friend" function?

OOH, or perhaps I can use the "Ask a question" mod, and set up some sort of automated response option for that specific email address... OOH, I like that!

JAde -

seems like we are like-minded - check my today's thread here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129269

BAsically laying out the same idea as yours.

Did you get a chance to find a solution to it? VERY CURIOUS!

I also thought of adding the Dual Pricing mod to my store, this way assigning a retail/wholesale pricing per customer and tweak this to suit our needs -

Cheers!
Gabstero

Have you looked at the autoresponder addon in the addons area? and its support thread?

DrByte:

Have you looked at the autoresponder addon in the addons area? and its support thread?

Thanks Dr Byte! I did:

• Autoresponder+ "send a preset email to your customers after their order has finished"

• Autoresponder Side Box and More - "allows to display a form to let users sign up to the Aweber, E-mail Aces, or other autoresponder services."

Not neccessarily useful to my needs since all I need is a simple field where they will enter their email and a submit button. The form will automatically release a customized email.

This form would best sit in place of the "Call For Price" button -

Hope I am making sense...

cheers!

GAbstero

Perhaps you can find some inspiration in one of the addons to help you in building the features you need unique to your site.

Good point! Thanks Mr. Byte!

GAbster

gabstero:

JAde -

seems like we are like-minded - check my today's thread here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129269

BAsically laying out the same idea as yours.

Did you get a chance to find a solution to it? VERY CURIOUS!

I also thought of adding the Dual Pricing mod to my store, this way assigning a retail/wholesale pricing per customer and tweak this to suit our needs -

Cheers!
Gabstero

We ended up just using the "Ask a Question" mod, then i set up an automatic response in her email account with the pricing info. I ended up removing the "hidden" product, because the company had an issue with it, even though it wasn't available in searches. Oh well.

Jade!

That's a great solution using the Ask A Question form!

Curious to know how were you able to filter out the emails arriving from this form since all emails from the zenCart have the same subject -

thanks!
Gabstero

OKay -

I explored both Autoresponders - not an easy way to implement what I need: a simple email field to where an automated email is sent.

Also I am focusing on a AJAX solution - any ideas gladly welcome!

Gabstero

I built what you are looking for:

Aftersales Automatic Trigger Email Campaigns on:
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&cPath=40_60&products_id=1661

per type of email you set up a module - prepared ones ore build your own!

enjoy and let me you what your are doing with it