Unusual Requirements

[John Nor]

The intended scenario:
Customers can buy products as normal but instead of the items being sent to their respective addresses, each products 'supplier' will be send the items to the customers nearest stockist.

This is what I have in mind:
One the home page the customer enters their postcode. A list of nearest stockists will appear (using streetmaps) and the customer can choose the stockist that is nearest / most convienent to pick up the goods from. The address of the selected stockist will be used for the delivery address at checkout.

From this point on the customer will add the required items to his cart as normal.

At checkout the checkbox for different delivery address will be automatically checked (and not changable). Then when the form for entering the delivery address appears, it will have automically picked up the address of the stockist. (Again, this will not be changable).

The suppliers of the products will each receive an email informing them to send the products to the stockist. The customer can then go to the stockist at their convenience and pick up the products.

Hope this all makes sense

Can Actinic be modified to handle this requirement or come close to it?

John

[Rich Brady]

John,

I really don't think this will work. The main reason that people buy on the net is that what they buy will be delivered direct to their door.

If you're right and this type of customer exists they will be out numbered, massively, by unhappy customers leaving your site before payment once they realise they have to go and pick it up.

IMO anyway...

[John Nor]

Hello,

According to my client, most people who purchase from Argos prefer to have their ordered items sent to their nearest branch rather than their own door.

The theory behind it is that people dont have to stay indoors and wait for the products to arrive. They can pick them up at a time that is convenient to them. Some couriers only provide a window of am/pm. Not much use really IMO.

The stockists are happy with this set up as well, as they will recieve orders from locals that they may have missed out on AND it gets customers into their shops who may decide to buy more items when they are picking up their ordered items.

Anyway, apart from the possibility of potential customers leaving the site. Do you think Actinic could be modified to handle this situation?

[Rich Brady]

Hey John,

I understand that Argos do this but the majority of people know of Argos and how they operate. You would have to be very careful in implementing this so not to frustrate a lot of potential customers.

Perhaps someone better than I could suggest how to implement this system, but I'm not convinced it the way forward or whether Actinic is even the right product for this type of site.

[NormanRouxel]

Ignoring whether this is a good idea or not, the implementation could be done by:

One the home page the customer enters their postcode. A list of nearest stockists will appear (using streetmaps) and the customer can choose the stockist that is nearest / most convienent to pick up the goods from. The address of the selected stockist will be used for the delivery address at checkout.

Store the stockist address in a cookie. It can be later used to populate the delivery address.

At checkout the checkbox for different delivery address will be automatically checked (and not changable). Then when the form for entering the delivery address appears, it will have automically picked up the address of the stockist. (Again, this will not be changable).

Some JavaScript prefills this from the cookie details. Fields are set Readonly.

The suppliers of the products will each receive an email informing them to send the products to the stockist. The customer can then go to the stockist at their convenience and pick up the products.

Each product has a SupplierID variable set to the ID of the supplier (Upload checked so it's available to the Perl scripts). For each Product in the cart, some custom code in OrderScript.pl picks up the SupplierID and looks up the suppliers email address. It also uses the cookie to recover the deliver to address. Email is created and sent for each item. More sophisticated code could batch products from the same supplier so only a single email is sent per supplier.

That last bit is probably the trickiest to implement as it means fiddling with OrderScript.pl.

[chris ashdown]

If its just for collection, then why not send by ParcelForce who will try the address first and then leave at the local post office, or even direct to the post office

[John Nor]

Ignoring whether this is a good idea or not, the implementation could be done by:

Store the stockist address in a cookie. It can be later used to populate the delivery address.


Some JavaScript prefills this from the cookie details. Fields are set Readonly.

Each product has a SupplierID variable set to the ID of the supplier (Upload checked so it's available to the Perl scripts). For each Product in the cart, some custom code in OrderScript.pl picks up the SupplierID and looks up the suppliers email address. It also uses the cookie to recover the deliver to address. Email is created and sent for each item. More sophisticated code could batch products from the same supplier so only a single email is sent per supplier.

That last bit is probably the trickiest to implement as it means fiddling with OrderScript.pl.

I have used Actinic on another site but used it straight out of the can with minimal tweaking. Ignoring the 'tricky bit' you spoke of at the end for batch emails, is the rest of the changes relatively straight forward?

I am fairly competant with HTML, CSS, and basic Javascript. With Perl, I know next to nothing.

John

[pinbrook]

Picking up on Chris's suggestion, i thought there was a service form the PO where you had stuff delivered to them for collection

[NormanRouxel]

... the rest of the changes relatively straight forward?

The outline I gave seems workable to me. How easy it is to implement can only be judged by trying it.