Products Module

So, I have decided to attempt to make my own Products Modules (to replace the existing store module) and looking for any ideas, thoughts, concerns.

Very Cool of you to (attempt to) do.  Give me a while to help come up with some idea's.

I have never really looked at, or needed, the store module.

The first question to ask is: "What doesn't it already do that you would like it to?"

Then: "What could be improved?"

Michel on Meta-Travel.com

for starters - for those like me who sell items that need to be shipped - the current store does not facilitate this.

I have several suggestions for that. Some of them are

1. SOLD OUT: It should have sold out option which can be activated if the item is sold out.

2. No of Item Available: While adding a product, there should have the option to specify Max Available and the number of items will be calculated automatically based on selling.

3. Currency Type: Option to choose from multiple currency types

4. Featured, Most Popular, Best-Selling of the week, month

5. If seller wants to give it for Free, there should be option to choose Free or if they enter 0 as selling price it should be shown as Free

6. Direct Message: Option to send direct message to seller about the product

It should have the discount options and stuff.

Reference:

https://catchthemes.com/themes/e-commerce-pro/

Nice store mod for Wordpress, very easy to set up. I can have a store up and running within 2 hours.

So, after working on this for a few days (when time permits) I have come to a few decisions. For starters - the initial module will only allow Admin to add and sell products. The reason is because this is all that I need. Once I have the module working at this aspect - then I will look at adding the ability for members to add and sell products. Second - there will only be 2 payment methods - PayPal and Authorize.net. I am familiar with these two so it will not be too hard to implement. Again - once the module is working then I will look at adding additional payment methods.

This is something I have needed for a long time as I used to run a D based site that sold Media downloads (sports instructions before anyone jumps to conclusions!)

There are 2 different approaches to this that require different things...

1 - Selling by admin only - this only requires that payments go to either admin or sellar depending on how setup.

2 - Selling by users (market approach) - payments can either be just to admin or just to users, however best approach is some sort of split payment system such as paypal chained or adaptive payments.

Major benefit this way is it allows D to be used as community retail or market site which would be huge for the platform.

Admin could charge commission or percentage on sales to finance site project.

I used to use Modzzz classifieds module which is similar to store, only more evolved.

Was charging users up front for each sale, or a membership level with more permissions to sell.

Using martinbois 'subscription management' module I could also charge recurring fees.

However, it only allows charging for listings, not on sale...

Idealy, we could have split / recurring payments integrated at point of sale using the above.

Other features needed across both approaces.

• Some sort of stock control, not advanced just basic ability to have multiple quatity of product availeble with reduced according to purchase.
• Remove listings on successful sale.
• Bulk upload!!! CSV?
• addition to users account page to access basic listings/stock/sales history
• not be dependant on attaching a file in order to list as aimed at physical as well as digital stock.

If long term we can get these working, then its a gamechanger in so far as monetising sites is concerned...

Willing to pay towards proper development!

since your post was a little lengthy - not in a bad way - I will try to answer each question separately. So - to answer #1 - Selling by admin only - this only requires that payments go to either admin or sellar depending on how setup.

For me - I am not allowing members to sell products - it is my store. But instead of using opencaart, I wanted a way to have the store as a module. Which led to my starting this project.

On top of that - when I finally do get to where I can figure out how to allow members to sell products - one big question comes to mind - how do I handle multiple items from multiple persons getting their monies.

Which then means I will have to add a function and a field asking how admin wants to handle payments. Either all payments come into admin - and then distributed by admin to corresponding member. Or, do i try and figure out how to disperse the funds to multiple accounts at with one purchase. I did try and see how the Boonex team did it with their payments module, but I just cant figure it out. So, I elected to focus on one person being able to sell items.

Now - considering where I am at right now - I could just set it up so that all payments go to Admin - and then admin is responsible for sending whatever is due to the correct member. The biggest issue I see with this is time elapse. If I am selling products, then time is an important factor. If I have to wait for the admin of the site to disperse funds, then it can hold me up big time. So it would have to be an automatic transfer or something.

adding product screenshots

add to cart screenshots

Are you going to incorporate reoccuring payments into the module with Auth.net? I want to offer up-sell memberships that activate more functions, and need the ability to "subscribe" members to a monthly payment.

this module is like an online store only - it will not be incorporated into the membership or payment modules.