Minimum Orders

[OllyBug]

I seem to remember putting this question forward to support a year ago and we couldn’t come up with anything. I just thought I would ask if any one here had an idea.

We split products into 2 sections: Herb Plants and Herb Plug Plants. To avoid confusion I will call them A and B respectively. A are sent by courier and I have a minimum order of quantity (not enforced on the website so just written as text on each page). The shipping is governed by weight and each A has a arbitrary weight of 1kg. Therefore it would be simple to add a minimum order weight of 8kg (minimum order of 8 As). This would work on the site and customers would no doubt come across an error if they try and complete an order below this weight. However, I have not mentioned the B yet!

B is sent out by royal mail and there is no weight defined on this, it is not included in the shipping calculation and has the shipping cost included in the product price. If I had weight determining the minimum order and if someone wanted to order 15 Bs, the shop would tell the customer they couldn’t as each B has no weight.

OK, lets add weight to B. Why don’t I add a weight of 8 kg to each B – problem here is that, 1. a customer could still order just one A. and 2. my shipping calculations would not work and someone in Scotland would be charged an extra £10 for something that costs £2 to send!

To summarise, how can I include a minimum order which only effects product A and will totally ignore product B. This will be ideal if it can be done on weight and not price.

If this is not possible perhaps it is one for the wish list. I mean, Shipping can be split (well, can be associated or not associated on each product) so why can’t the minimum order.
Sorry if this sounds confusing, I hope you can understand my garbled explanation! Thank you in advance.

[leehack]

Ship by weight and input '0' as the weight on any product that does not require to be charged postage. Then in your shipping table, make sure you have:

0kg - £0.00

You can also enforce the minimum order quantity of 8 on the site per each product, not sure why you are not using the standard actinic funtions here. You seem to have complicated the issue quite a bit or i have missed the point completely - it's a 50/50, but my money is me being sane.

[OllyBug]

Nope you havent missed the point Lee, I just that I forgot to mention something critical.

Going back to Herb Plants (product A) I wasn't wanting to inforce a product minimum on each product within each section. For example a customer would not have to order 8 of each product (simple using basic actinic funtions as you said) but would like them to have to order 8 plants in general. For example if you look at the site. They don't need to order a minimum of 8 Coriander but they need to order, for example, 3 Coriander and 5 Aloe Vera or one of each herb through the range as long as they order more than 8!

Does this make sense?

[leehack]

Gotcha, a key bit of info missing.

Well there is no standard way of doing that i have ever seen. I expect that some custom coding could do this for you, checking quantities ordered, but i think it might be a nightmare to do.

The only 'far out' there solution i could come up with using standard actinic is to have all products that are in this '8 groupy thingy' into one product group and overinflate the prices on them by 75%, BUT make it quite clear that if they order 8 or more that the price will decrease by 75%. You'd then setup a discount firing on 8 or more products ordered which would reduce costs dramatically (by 75%) and they'd have to be mad not to do it. It'd also be the system sorting out the below 8 order people, or if they did order then you got bloody well paid to action the order.

Your other weight problem should be solved with my solution though.

[OllyBug]

What a good idea. I would make more money from people ordering less. LOL

Seriously though, this may well be our only option.

Thanks for working out my scribbles Lee - I think I might be slightly dyslexic! I knew what I wanted to say but it didn't come out right at first did it - made me sound like a right numpty?

Cheers

[leehack]

Much the opposite in fact Oliver to be honest, your post met the following criteria in my eyes:

1. a good question
2. written in English
3. spelling and grammar were good
4. took the time to try and explain
5. genuine problem, hard to search for a solution and find it

Counter that against, somethings we are asked on a daily basis and i'd say one of the top 10 questions asked in past 6 months to be quite honest.

[RuralWeb]

i'd say one of the top 10 questions asked in past 6 months to be quite honest.

I would agree - good question Oliver - exactly what the forum is designed for ie asking new questions, encouraging people to answer and pushing Actinic.