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BTO and reward points

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GreggS View Drop Down
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    Posted: 24-July-2012 at 2:46pm
We sell a cleaning item for like $11 that customers can buy regularly, and we are including it when they buy a machine.  We can set the price of the cleaning item to $0 but the reward points we can't change so the customer gets the free item and the points to go with it.  For the most part it won't matter since it amounts to like $0.22 but there are some machines that we include a lot more for free and the points add up.

Is it too much to add reward points to the BTO configuration screen?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 1st-line Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-November-2012 at 9:15am
Originally posted by GreggS GreggS wrote:

We sell a cleaning item for like $11 that customers can buy regularly, and we are including it when they buy a machine.  We can set the price of the cleaning item to $0 but the reward points we can't change so the customer gets the free item and the points to go with it.  For the most part it won't matter since it amounts to like $0.22 but there are some machines that we include a lot more for free and the points add up.

Is it too much to add reward points to the BTO configuration screen?

Bump. It seems that the reward points are being calculated at the product table or a table who has a relationship thereof. This conclusion is further supported that discount coupons or gift certificates on the total amount do not decrement the reward points. Hence, if one purchases a gift certificate that has reward points, then presumably, there is double dipping y the customer. Yes, I know we can make gift certificates with zero reward points.

With the current set up, PC rewards the points when the order reaches a processed status. What happens if a customer immediately places a second order using the points, then contacts us to cancel the first order. Do the reward points calculation go negative? Is there a way to reward the points once the order goes to shipped status?

I see the complexity comes from the ability to assign more or less reward points at the product level. These nuances could be handled in a different table and added or subtracted at each page comes up.

There should be a way to accrue the reward points at the order level at time of shipping (ie after processing) based on the sub-total after discounts, but before taxes and shipping. Then, the extra nuance table can be added or subtracted from the total into the customer's account.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-November-2012 at 9:54am
Reward points are not necessarily based upon the selling price. If you have other products you always include for free then you could either :- adjust the points of the BTO product they are included with, or create separate instances of the products you include with zero points (although if you are tracking stock then that would probably not be a great approach). Adding extra tables in the database COULD be done, but personally I think the overhead of maintaining the data on those vs the relatively nominal cost of the points make it uneconomic to do so. From a software & support perspective it also introduces more complexity and risk of confusion. We could have gone straight for a percentage of total sale as a way of accruing points, but that offers far less flexibility than the approach taken, where you can boost reward points on certain lines and remove them on others.  There is no perfect answer on this as there is a trade off betwen complexity and maintenance and every store owner has their own idea as to the optimal approach for their business.
It is possible to customize the cart to accomodate what you are after, (zero points on products included with a BTO product).

Regarding the cancelling of orders you can and should adjust the reward point balance if you need to. That is accessible via the customer details in the admin pages.       
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 1st-line Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-November-2012 at 11:16am
Originally posted by Hamish Hamish wrote:

Reward points are not necessarily based upon the selling price. If you have other products you always include for free then you could either :- adjust the points of the BTO product they are included with, or create separate instances of the products you include with zero points (although if you are tracking stock then that would probably not be a great approach). Adding extra tables in the database COULD be done, but personally I think the overhead of maintaining the data on those vs the relatively nominal cost of the points make it uneconomic to do so. From a software & support perspective it also introduces more complexity and risk of confusion. We could have gone straight for a percentage of total sale as a way of accruing points, but that offers far less flexibility than the approach taken, where you can boost reward points on certain lines and remove them on others.  There is no perfect answer on this as there is a trade off betwen complexity and maintenance and every store owner has their own idea as to the optimal approach for their business.
It is possible to customize the cart to accomodate what you are after, (zero points on products included with a BTO product).

Regarding the cancelling of orders you can and should adjust the reward point balance if you need to. That is accessible via the customer details in the admin pages.       

Hamish, I definitely understand where you are coming from. We do track stock. However, we are coming from a UNIX environment with 10 year old shopping cart software that allowed us to have a) different reward points for each individual product on top of the general setting, b) the CP option as to when to assign points (before or after shipping), and c) the ability to not allow points for free items. Since an order was cancelled before it shipped, the points were never assigned - means less cost to manage and less cost from looking for a second order that may have used those points. The only thing the old software did not have was when an order was returned. Just to make you aware, one year, this cost was over $10,000 because points were used before the return. 

There is no extra cost to the users because it would still be transparent to the user in the CP to manage each item's points. The only cost would be server processing time.

http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/orders_status?s[]=points&s[]=cancel
states "If the customer accrued any Reward Points as result of the order, those points are deducted from the customer’s account when the order is canceled."

Again, when an order is cancelled in PC, what happens if those points were used?

The above is a problem if there is a processed second order. I guess the work around is to have a cancellation fee to cover the cost of the reward points or as you suggested an internal office procedure (that may not be followed) to remove the points --- further complicated if they were used on a second order placed that an office person needs to search for.

And, as for nominal cost of the current set up, it really depends upon the size of the business. The cost is much greater if there needs to be labor involved to recuperate those points.

As I mentioned, it comes down to the initial design of the tables and relationships. Although I understand DB design, I am no expert at the design of PC's DB as I have not even seen the tables yet. I did however design massive and intricate DBs for the pharma industry that involved accounting principles, inventory of 50 million units and 10k skus, 200,000 orders per year, compliance protocols, and integration with accounting software, multiple ordering system interfaces, UPS, FedEx, etc.

Do not take this in the wrong way. I am only pointing out areas for improvement to get to the next level. There are a host of features that PC delivers where our current (soon to be former software) does not! ie QB integration with inventory, BTO, quoting, etc.
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