Wholes vs. Retail

Wow...looks like there are a lot of people with the same problem as me!!! I too am interested in wholesale and retail but haven't figured out a way to do it nicely and efficiently, as it is i'm already converting my store over from channel advisor to zen cart. Could some of you please pm me your stores so that i can take a peak at how you solved the problems of doing wholesale and retail. I've dealt with reps in the past and have a bad taste for them, i believe in this age we can rely on the internet and affiliate programs to be our sales force. The only concern i have is how to you let people know you do wholesale and get them to the site. Maybe after looking at all your models from an outsiders perspective i may be able to come up with a solution to benefit us both.

Thanks in advance.

Oh just another thought, for those of you who have created two stores (one for retail and one for wholesale) how do you keep your inventory straight. Does one of these modules tie the inventory together. For someone who has a big line i can see having two stores as an inventory nightmare.

Mista:

Oh just another thought, for those of you who have created two stores (one for retail and one for wholesale) how do you keep your inventory straight. Does one of these modules tie the inventory together. For someone who has a big line i can see having two stores as an inventory nightmare.
I would like to know about this too. I was attempting to apply the multisite module to a website I am setting up but I could not figure out how the module ACUTALLY creates (or does it just connect?) two zen cart installations. Could someone explain to me what you would need to do just to set this up? If I do need to set up a second cart, how will inventory be managed and secondly, how could I set it to work at https://www.example.com/new_site instead of www.example_site2.com?

Thanks

PAE2008:

I would like to know about this too. I was attempting to apply the multisite module to a website I am setting up but I could not figure out how the module ACUTALLY creates (or does it just connect?) two zen cart installations. Could someone explain to me what you would need to do just to set this up? If I do need to set up a second cart, how will inventory be managed and secondly, how could I set it to work at https://www.example.com/new_site instead of www.example_site2.com?

Thanks

I just completed installing and setting up a second cart for a client to support her wholesale customers. While the hassle of maintaining two separate databases is great my client believes the benefits are greater. She's going maintain the two manually from two different admin pages. However, she only has about 4 dozen products. Someone with hundreds of products would need a better solution.

My understanding is that the multisite module only connects two (or more?) zen carts, it doesn't create them.

I am still setting up my store and I have found that I can address the retail / trade (wholesale) customer issue by setting a customers status as either retail or trade and thus allow different discount structures to come into effect. The prices in the store stay the same, however at check out the discount kicks in and the prices are calculated with the dicounts.

Simple solution to my problem anyway as different discount tables can be set up depending on customer status.

bannerman:

I am still setting up my store and I have found that I can address the retail / trade (wholesale) customer issue by setting a customers status as either retail or trade and thus allow different discount structures to come into effect. The prices in the store stay the same, however at check out the discount kicks in and the prices are calculated with the dicounts.

Simple solution to my problem anyway as different discount tables can be set up depending on customer status.

This is basically what I have done. Until a customer has been approved for wholesale status, they can only buy retail. A wholesale approved customer gets put into a discount group and the discount shows up at checkout (like a coupon). The only problem I have found with this is that I offer a coupon to everyone on the retail site that gives them 10% off. This coupon is NOT good for wholesale customers but if they put it in, it works. So, I am trying to find a way to prevent people in the wholesale discount group to not be able to use coupons.

Switch to Magento, it has features out of the box that support any number of customer groups and include a tier pricing scheme that blows Zen Cart out of the water (see my eCommerce Evaluation