I sell some products as a single item and i also sell them in discounted groups of 3 (3-packs), which works remarkably well btw. The problem is that to list them as separate sellable items i have to come up with an individual stock level for each of them even though they are really the same item (just in different quantities). Instead of a 3-pack counting as a -3 to that items stock level i have to maintain 2 separate stock levels. So i constantly have to adjust the 2 types of stock level so that they stay current with the ACTUAL physical stock of the item. With this hassel i might as well not even have a stock feature.
Can you make it so that a few store items can deduct from the same stock quantity (although at diffent amounts)???

Hello,

The inventory system can only track individual units sold. If you sell a 1 bottle product then that is 1 unit. If you sell a 3 bottle product pack then that is also 1 unit. The inventory control system will tell you when a unit is sold and how many of those unit are remaining, but it can't track quantities of a product sold in 2 different unit types.

We suggest that you set aside some product for the single item and some for the multi-item packages. Give each group a different ID # and enter their inventory numbers accordingly to track them separately.

Some occassional manual accounting will be needed to make sure any product shifting from the single to the packs is tracked.

Hopefully, other suggestions will come in as others read your post.

Hi Needsrepair,

Great comment/ suggestion! I feel your pain, as I have the same problem. I've had to creat several different products for 1 item (i.e. single pack of stings, 5 pack of strings, 10 pack, etc).

Ebiz support:

Is there a way to set up a product to accept more than 1 price by quantity levels? For instance...

If a customer adds 1-4 packs of strings to their cart, thier shopping cart will calculate $3.99 for each pack but if a customer adds 5-9 packs to their cart then the price per unit goes down to $3.49 per pack and if they enter 10+ packs the price goes down to $2.99 per pack? If this were possible, then we would only have to maintain 1 inventory level but customers would receive a discount on bulk purchases.

Thank you in advance for your response!

There's currently no way to setup a product and give it automated variable pricing based on the quantity ordered.

Our software is programmed to do what you merchants tell it to do and it does it using simple, basic entry fields. If you enter $1 for the price then that is what the cart will calculate. It's basic.

If you can think of a simple way (think interface, not programming) to tell it to modify the price based on the quantity ordered then we will eventually be able to program it in.

Many times, our problem is not how to program something new. The problem is how do we make it easy to setup, use, and manage for all (or at least a majority of merchants) as compared to how everything else works in the software. A new feature is useless if it is too complicated for anybody to figure out on their own how to use it.

Hi ebiz support,

I'm not exactly sure how some of my competitors are able to have variable pricing based on quantity but here is an example of what I was talking about if it helps:

www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_parts/Acoustic_guitar:_Bridge_and_endpins/1/Fossil_Ivory_Bridge_Pins_and_Endpins.html

If you go to the above link and add only a quantity of 1 to their shopping cart then the price is $150 per set of bridge pins but if you add 3 their price is calculated at $135 per set.

Since I don't know anything about programing or how software works I'm not sure if this can be done with your existing software? All I know is that someone else is doing it :)

Thanks!
Lori

It's not that it is impossible to do. It's that if we program the capability in then we also have to program in a simple way to understand it, set it up, and correctly use it.

The page you referenced is just basic html and appears to be at least partially hand coded due to all the comment tags in the code. As somebody who knows how to read and write html fluently, coding in variable pricing for a few products on a per page basis is a piece of cake. If all our users were hand coding each individual page of their site then an example of what the code should look like when they are done would be all we would have to provide.

That's not what we do here though. Just trying to explain the complexities of this topic is difficult. Imagine trying to program an interface for it that wouldn't overwhelm the person who thinks their email address needs to have a www. in front of it to work. That's the type of thing we have to consider before it gets put into the software.

Ahhh, now I understand what you mean. I have the same problems when deciding how to write descriptions and "how-to" pages, etc.

I don't know if this helps at all, but the way I envision the product page set-up would look like exactly the same as it doesn now except you would add a couple of "Qty Price" boxes and "qty range" boxes next to it. Then to enable this feature you would check the "Qty pricing" box under the "Settings" section just like you do now to put the item on sale or make it taxable or hide the product. See example below - unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to make entry & check boxes so I wrote the words next to the item and I've added an "*" next to the items that have been added to the page:



Product information

Product Name: (entry box)
Product Id: (entry box)
Short Desc: (entry box)
Long Desc: (entry box)
Text only Desc: (entry box)
Item Price: (entry box)
Sale Price: (entry box)
*Qty Price 1: (entry box)*Qty Range: (entry box)
*Qty Price 2: (entry box)*Qty Range: (entry box)
*Qty Price 3: (entry box)*Qty Range: (entry box)
Weight:
Settings: On Sale (check box)
*Qty Pricing (check box)
Taxable (check box)
Hide Product (check box)


FWIW, that's how I had envisioned it. I understand that there must be many things that go into programming it that I don't understand or have the first clue about. I can only envision what it would look like after some brilliant minds work their magic :)

Thanks so much for entertaining this idea for as long as you have.

Take care,
Lori

Wow, ya if you could manage to do what MaurysMusic wants, that would suit me as well. That would solve my problem and im sure many others.
Also, if someone is going to start an ebusiness, then they should be prepared and capable enough to be able to navigate through a potentially difficult settings page. I can't imagine any of us having serious long term trouble getting used to setting up a variable price listing. You, eBiz, have the hard part of coding it. We, your subscibers, only have to work through prefabricated constraints, which isn't hard after you get used to it. And if you could make it is so that there is a "quantity input box" next to the items "buy" button, the user of the site shouldnt have any problems either.
Peter

Variable pricing update!!

The good folks at ebiz came up with a fantastic work around for me. If you go to the following product I can walk you through it

www.maurysmusic.com/inc/sdetail/25833

Walk through:

I entered "4-3.99;9-3.75;999-3.49" (everything in between the "" do not include the quotation marks)into the "sale price" box of the product.

The above code can be translated into 1-4 pack price is $3.99; 5-9 pack price is $3.75; 10-999 pack price is $3.49. Notice that the 4, the 9, and the 999 are the highest quantities in each price group.

I made sure to write a little blurb for my customers in the product description so they understand that the price will change with the quantity entered. I've copied the blurb below or go view it on the product I used in the deom above.

"Enter your guitar string quantity in the quantity box below, click "add to cart", and the bulk string price will be automatically calculated for you. All item quantities can be easily changed or deleted from your shopping cart.

Bulk String Prices:
$3.99 (1 - 4 packs)
$3.75 (5 - 9 packs)
$3.49 (10+ packs)"

Please feel free to ask questions if I wasn't clear enough.

Thanks ebiz... you guys are always so accommodating!