[UPHPU] I need shopping cart advice

[Mac Newbold]

Today at 2:40am, Nathan Garza said:

> First some background.  I'm working on a site that sells candles. It's a
> kind of build your own deal.  So the user gets to pick a jar (type and
> size), a type of wax (type, with wick or not) and a fragrance.  The scope of
> the project does not include writing a custom shopping cart app.  I was
> planning to treat each of these (jar, wax and fragrance) as item types, and
> just do some kind of package deal (ie, you have to purchase one jar, one wax
> and one fragrance).
>
> Now the question.  Does any one know of a shopping cart app that does
> packages?  I know that zen cart doesn't do it (at least that's what their
> forum says) and it doesn't look as though osCommerce does either.  Or baring
> that, can any one think of a better way of dealing with this situation.  And
> my final question (and this is the really important question) Does any of
> this make sense, or should I have given up and gone to bed hours ago?
> Thanks a ton in advance.

You might look at ClickCartPro, we tried it once and it seems like it 
could do that. It will run you $99 I think.

The assumption here is that any jar can be used with any wax, with or 
without wick, and with any fragrance. As long as that is the case, then 
what you are proposing would likely work. Figuring out how to price those 
items might be harder. One thing to be careful with if it does "packages" 
of items is that it really does bundle them together in the cart. If it 
doesn't bundle them properly, then someone who orders two jars, two waxes, 
and two fragrances would most likely get their order mixed up with the 
wrong jars with the wrong waxes and fragrances.

Another way that you might be able to put this together is similar to the 
way you'd sell something like T-Shirts. Each shirt design may be a 
separate product, like a jar might. Then the size of the shirt is probably 
an option similar to what wax and wick/no wick you prefer. The color of 
the shirt may be a choice similar to the fragrance. Depending on what cart 
you get, you may or may not be able to change the price of the product 
depending on those options.

A custom cart may not be as hard as you think, and may not be a bad idea 
since you've pretty much got custom products. That way you'd also be able 
to make a step-by-step Candle Configurator (tm) that walks them through 
the ordering process, explaining the wax and wick/no wick options perhaps.
Then it would only drop fully configured candles in the cart, and they 
could manage things like quantity from there.

It sounds like a fun project. Good luck with it, and if you happen to find 
a good cart system that works out really well, let us know what it is. 
Most I've found are so hard to customize that it takes longer to make them 
look the way you want and do what you want than it would have to build 
your own. So we generally end up building our own... :)

Thanks,
Mac

--
Mac Newbold		MNE - Mac Newbold Enterprises, LLC
mac at macnewbold.com	http://www.macnewbold.com/