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osCommerce

The e-commerce.

Many questions on Getting an OSCommerce Store up!


Oman4x4

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Posted

I have a couple questions about setting up an online store...

 

The first problem is arranging Shipping... The store will be selling things from stickers and bits and pieces, items the size of a coke can or so on, all the way up to a vehicle body part or axle or roof rack and so on...

 

It'll also be shipped anywhere from the same state to US-wide.

 

Basically it's going to depend on what the person has bought and how far they're going to want it sent, so how can I configure that on the site? "Per Item" looks like it's a single price for each item, rather than assigning a value on each item added to the store which is what i thought it would be. "Flat Rate" appears to be a single shipping price no matter what or how much you order? Basically, I'm at a loss when it comes to setting up the shipping charges.

 

Do I wanna use Zone based? I'm not sure... I'm new to all this! :)

 

Securing the Admin tool

 

Does this just mean chmodding the admin folder to make it inaccessible?

 

Product Order Number

 

Create a test order

 

Go into phpMyadmin and change the order # in table orders manually to whatever number you like. We will use 499 as an example.

 

Create another test order and the order number will automatically be 500.

 

You then must set the first test order back to it's initial value and delete it. This is necessary in order to maintain database integrity, as this value is used in more than one table.

 

What's the purpose of this step???

 

Create a Test order, does that mean I pretend to buy something? How do I go about doing that without charging my own card?

 

 

 

And finally, does anyone know if the creditcards are processed immediately or can it be set up to require confirmation from the person running the store? I.E. if a product is on back-order and it will be a long time for the product to be available, can we hold off processing the card until the item is ready to ship?

 

How do you guys go about testing things without exchanging money?

 

Thanks... sorry for the overload of questions!

Posted

your shipping issue...

 

seems to me you need to weigh or know the weight of your items, then use the usps or usp options for shipping. This will give your customers the option of how to ship the items. Just turn this on in the shipping module.

 

 

securing the admin folder

do this with .htaccess

search for it on the forum, there are many threads (or google it)

 

 

creating a test order

just create an account, order a product, then checkout. Ensure that credit card is enabled in the admin.

use 4111111111111111 as your credit card, put the experation date ahead of today.

 

as for charging cards

if you have a machine in your "brick and mortar" store then you can split the cc and charge only for products you ship. If you use authorize.net then it will charge immediatly. To keep backordered items from being purchased you should use the inventory system in oscommerce. Set the allow checkout if no quantity to FALSE, this will keep the item from being purchased until you add more inventory into the system.

 

any more questions feel free to ask.

Matt

Need Hosting? Just ask!

Posted

Shipping install USPS & UPS in shipping modules you'll need an account for USPS.& wieght for each item.

Product order # lets you set the invoice # to start where you want.

Payment. you'll need a merchant account for most or you can install the cc module and use a company like PROPAY. Do a test order and use 4111111111111111 wiyh any expiry.

 

Regards

Rolf

Posted

OK so on a test order nothing gets charged and the email gets sent saying it's just a test?

 

As for the inventory thing, basically most of the items are shipped from the supplier when ordered - However this summer with the price of raw materials rising and so on, a lot of suppliers ended up having things on back-order while they were being manufacturered. The problem is we may not know they are on back order until we try to order it...

 

I'll try setting up the UPS modules and see how they work. Do they just calculate a rate or do they actually contact UPS in some way?

 

Like does it do anything for you or is arranging the shipping still entirely done by the person running the store.

Posted
I'll try setting up the UPS modules and see how they work. Do they just calculate a rate or do they actually contact UPS in some way?

 

Like does it do anything for you or is arranging the shipping still entirely done by the person running the store.

The UPS module connects to UPS to do a rate lookup, but nothing is enterered into their shipping system. So you do still ship it by either completing a shipping label by hand, use their WorldShip software or use their online shipping system.

 

Also, regarding your questions on credit card charging. The processing gateways allow you to set it to Authorize only. In fact, that is the proper way for any any physical goods business. Then when you ship the item, you capture the charges. Most gateways have procedures for reducing the amount charged before capturing the charge and to run charges manually.

 

So if they ordered several items and one of them was on backorder, you would remove the backordered one and its shipping amount and capture the charge. Then when the backordered item shipped, you would do a manual charge for it.

Rule #1: Without exception, backup your database and files before making any changes to your files or database.

Rule #2: Make sure there are no exceptions to Rule #1.

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