kenlyle
Posts: 7
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| Posted: 05/27/2004, 7:01 AM |
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I have an online store using the Bookstore example at foodnsport.com
I am using a third party shopping cart from Lynk Systems that has some nice features like couponing and decent shipping calculations. Besides, we're in a contract, so I need to stick with that.
I modified the Bookstore app to send Lynk the item name and price data in a bunch of hidden fields.
Everything is just fine.
My current issue is that I want to be able to provide CERTAIN members/friends/associates the ability to shop at a discount.
I am checking with Lynk about a discount code to be entered at checkout, but would rather develop something I can control.
Basically, I am thinking about running a clone of my current site, and just multiplying the {price} by the discount level, but I really don't know how to do that. Overall, this seems the simplest option.
I am aware that certain shopping carts like OSCommerce have some pretty cool discount modules, but I am stuck with Lynk for now.
I'm open to ideas on solving this, from simple instructions on how to multiply the prices by a discount to better applications I can purchase to ????
Thanks,
Ken
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Sixto Luis Santos
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| Posted: 05/27/2004, 11:30 AM |
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Hello there,
We had the opportunity to check your store. In our view, and to properly
address your problem, you need to either create a cupon system site-wide or
ask Lynk Systems to implement one. Cloning your store does not seems like a
good solution. It would be very hard to control who uses the system without
implementing some kind of authorization mechanism.
It is possible to implement a good coupon system at your end. But creating a
good coupon system is not trivial. There are a lot of thing that must be
taken into consideration when designing and developing such.
If you are not concerned that people could start abusing the system or that
unathorized people start taking advantage of the discount sales, then
implementing a coupon is as simple as adding a small form so that customers
are able to enter a predetermined coupon, store the coupon in a session var
or some other persisted mechanism, then, just before submitting the info to
Link Systems, checking the coupon, validating it and applying the discount
to the item price. But then, it would be just as simple to clone your store
by duplicating the database, changing the data connection source, and
publishing to a different folder. For all practical purposes, both
approaches would be equally insecure.
We can help you implement a sound coupon system to your current store; Time
and customer coded with variable discounts and variable items. If you like,
you can contact us directly atccs@tecnoapoyo.com.
Regards,
Sixto
"kenlyle" <kenlyle@forum.codecharge> wrote in message
news:2140b5f4cc22f8d@news.codecharge.com...
> I have an online store using the Bookstore example at foodnsport.com
>
> I am using a third party shopping cart from Lynk Systems that has some
nice
> features like couponing and decent shipping calculations. Besides, we're
in a
> contract, so I need to stick with that.
>
> I modified the Bookstore app to send Lynk the item name and price data in
a
> bunch of hidden fields.
>
> Everything is just fine.
>
> My current issue is that I want to be able to provide CERTAIN
> members/friends/associates the ability to shop at a discount.
>
> I am checking with Lynk about a discount code to be entered at checkout,
but
> would rather develop something I can control.
>
> Basically, I am thinking about running a clone of my current site, and
just
> multiplying the {price} by the discount level, but I really don't know how
to
> do that. Overall, this seems the simplest option.
>
> I am aware that certain shopping carts like OSCommerce have some pretty
cool
> discount modules, but I am stuck with Lynk for now.
>
> I'm open to ideas on solving this, from simple instructions on how to
multiply
> the prices by a discount to better applications I can purchase to ????
>
> Thanks,
> Ken
> ---------------------------------------
> Sent from YesSoftware forum
> http://forums.codecharge.com/
>
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Langston
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| Posted: 05/27/2004, 1:54 PM |
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The problem with some payment gateways is that they don't share the buyers detail with the calling application until the order is complete. If that were so, you could just enter the discount in the customer's profile.
Here's what I would do in your case...
Create a new link or menu item for "Members Only Signin". This would force them to log in to get discounts. Use CCS to protect this module with security.
In the customer record (database and form) add a field named "Discount" and make it default to something like 5. When a new member signs up they will automatically get 5%. You can use your admin screen to change that for special customers.
Whenever the user logs in, read his discount and save it as a SESSION variable.
Now change the module you go to for "Add to Cart" to read the session variable and to the math and send the new calculated value to your gateway. If there is no session variable (value is 0) then there is no discount.
You can even get a little more complex and add "Discountable" flag on each item in your products db table and use this to suppress discounts on certain items.
Hope this helps.
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kenlyle
Posts: 7
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| Posted: 05/27/2004, 2:43 PM |
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Thanks, both of you, for your thoughtful replies.
I feel like I have several problems, lack of programming skill not the least. I currently have separate databases (not just tables) for my store, and the Mambo system I am moving to. I don't want a maintenance problem. I like OSCommerce, but Lynk does not support OSC. There is an OSC module for Mambo, but it's very immature. There is another Commerce component called mambo-phpshop, which already has the integration to Mambo, discounts, and affiliates features that I want.
Lynk has advised me that I can do percentage discounts within their cart. I am working on that.
I agree with some of the security concerns, but remember that we have the final say because we can refuse to ship if a discount was taken inappropriately. I thnk that I'll implement the percent discounts with Lynk, then transition over to mambo-phpshop with Authorize.net.
If that doesn't work, I'll come back to Langston's tip, since it seems pretty straightforward.
Thanks.
Ken
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