Selling a kit/stock control

[oldhasbeen]

Morning Community Folk!

After going round the houses on this, looking at components, attributes, permutations and searching the forum, I think I've just confused myself to the point where I can't see the wood for the trees any more - does anybody know if this is possible?

I've got 4 products, a finite number of each as a one off - each product is sold individually, but I'd also like to offer them in a money saving kit format, but I need stock control to work both ways to make this effective - I could just manage the stock level manually on the kit, but where would be the fun in that If I can get this to work, it would have longer term benefits as I could repeat it on other products.

The kit product would be presented to the customer just like any normal product, so it's what's going on behind the scenes that I need to get my head round.

So if a customer orders product A only, stock level on that product goes down 1 as normal, but stock level on the kit would also go down by 1.

If a customer orders the kit, the stock level on the kit would go down by 1, but also on the 4 individual products that make up the kit.

If the stock level of any of the individual products hits zero, the kit is no longer available.

I hope I've explained that OK - is this possible do you think?

TIA - Helen

[malbro]

Morning Community Folk!

After going round the houses on this, looking at components, attributes, permutations and searching the forum, I think I've just confused myself to the point where I can't see the wood for the trees any more - does anybody know if this is possible?

I've got 4 products, a finite number of each as a one off - each product is sold individually, but I'd also like to offer them in a money saving kit format, but I need stock control to work both ways to make this effective - I could just manage the stock level manually on the kit, but where would be the fun in that If I can get this to work, it would have longer term benefits as I could repeat it on other products.

The kit product would be presented to the customer just like any normal product, so it's what's going on behind the scenes that I need to get my head round.

So if a customer orders product A only, stock level on that product goes down 1 as normal, but stock level on the kit would also go down by 1.

If a customer orders the kit, the stock level on the kit would go down by 1, but also on the 4 individual products that make up the kit.

If the stock level of any of the individual products hits zero, the kit is no longer available.

I hope I've explained that OK - is this possible do you think?

TIA - Helen

You can set up a new product that is based on components that link to other products, i.e. your kit. The stock system works as you want with one exception, you do not get a stock level for the kit, only for the components. If you make all the components as required parts then when any one component is out of stock the kit can not be ordered. There is a demo of component based stock control here http://stockplugin.toddesigns.co.uk/...ent_Stock.html with other pages showing different ways of displaying the stock levels.

[oldhasbeen]

Hi Malcolm - thanks for replying and showing some examples which I've had a good look at and been round the help files again. I'm not sure whether what I'm trying to achieve is possible from those examples - from the customer's point of view, all I want them to see is a single kit product that they can click and buy - there are no choices.

I can see the logic of the product examples given where if a customer choses different options it affects the price and/or where you want to stock control different choices offered, but in this case the customer doesn't get a choice - they can buy products A, B, C or D individually or in any combination (all automatically stock controlled), but if they want the kit it's all 4 products or nothing.

At the moment, each time somebody buys any of the A, B, C or D products I manually adjust the stock on kit product E to the lowest stock level. By reverse, if somebody buys kit product E, I manually reduce the levels of products A, B, C and D by number of kits purchased. Bit of a faff, but it's not an insurmountable task since it's a one-off product offer - but it does have scope to be rolled out into other areas provided there was no manual intervention required.

Does that make sense? I hope so, but I think I might be asking too much

Regards - Helen

[TraceyHand]

Helen, it's doable

Product E (the kit
>Component linked to product A (link via "associated product" field)
>Component linked to product B
>Component linked to product C
>Component linked to product D

In each component, leave the "html for name" field blank. This will mean that nothing shows in your product layout to indicate options etc
You can either tick or untick "component as separate orderline" depending on whether you want the contents (A, B, C and D) to show listed in the cart/invoice and leave "is optional" unticked also.

Product E "pricing model" can be "Product Price" to reflect the kit price.

This will work (or should) how you want.

The only downside will be that, if products A, B, C or D go out of stock, the kit will still show but it won't be orderable. The customer will get a message, when they try to add to cart, that "one of the components is out of stock"

I don't *think* there's an option to only display a product if all its components are in stock(?? maybe someone (Lee?), who might know better, could confirm? I'm rusty!)

It's not perfect but it's certainly possible.

[leehack]

I agree with Tracey, non-optional components i call them, but it amounts to the same thing - items you mandatory make part of a product, offering no choice on their involvement. Free gifts or gift wrap are other ways to use this facility on other products.

As Tracey points out, stocking all 4 parts is the issue though as it's confusing to the customer if they try and buy only to be told they cannot. There are a couple of options as i see it:

a) ensure that you only do this with products that are never out of stock or have a very healthy stocking level

b) have a section with 4 products added on a single add to cart solution, where the quantity is set to 1 on all 4 products (grid layout type thingy), you can use standard actinic functions to show the stock levels of the 4 products, but can also provide a single press of an add to cart button to buy all 4. I presume as a kit they're cheaper collectively, so have the 4 products in a discount group with a relevant discount applied ie buy the kit and save 10% on the normal price of these products

c) get a custom solution built (Malcolm at Todd Designs is the daddy in this area), where an out of stock message shows if one of the products is out of stock, or better still if at all possible, a solution where the stock level of the main product is inherited from the lowest stock count of all the components included

There is nothing as standard that can do this AFAIK, so it's workaround or custom work. If kit is out of stock, always user friendly to have links to the individual products, maybe even use related products.

PS - decide which sells quickest, the individual parts or the kits, whichever it is, have some sort of stock warning in your warehouse when you go to pick these particular elements (whether you stock as kits or as individual components or both), a post it note, a star etc. something that says this is part of a kit and we could be in doo doo soon.

[oldhasbeen]

Thanks Tracey & Lee - didn't think there would be a 100% solution, but I think what you've suggested is near as dammit - I'll have a play around and let you know how I get on.

This will initially be implimented against limited "one time only" stocks, so I think a combo of setting the products up as you've suggested, plus copious post it notes is the way forward

Cheers

Helen

[malbro]

c) get a custom solution built (Malcolm at Todd Designs is the daddy in this area), where an out of stock message shows if one of the products is out of stock, or better still if at all possible, a solution where the stock level of the main product is inherited from the lowest stock count of all the components included

Interesting idea, I have just done some custom code that involved switching the stock level of the selected option to the product and thus control the 'Add to Cart' button. So if customer selects an option that is out of stock the 'Add to cart' button is hidden, but returns if an in stock option is selected, what you suggest is merely an extension to that idea, very do-able. Mail me if you want to discuss the possibilities.

[oldhasbeen]

OK, had a play around and I've got it working so that the kit shows as a stand alone product with hidden components - that looks how I wanted it to, so thanks for that.

I've set the stock levels on the kit to zero, and unchecked stock monitoring since it's only stock levels on the 4 individual components that now need to be accurate (I assume the kit product wouldn't need to be "shared" with EPOS any more either?). If that's all there is to it (apart from the post it note warning system!) then that will suffice for now as it's quick and simple and removes all manual intervention until the very end .

I'll see how we get on with this, and if we roll it out into other areas, then I'll be in touch Malcolm. Will need an automated solution to prevent the warehouse from becoming a forest of post it notes!

Cheers all

Helen