Customer chooses price?

[Guest]

Ok, I have a customer who wants kind of an odd thing and I can't find a contribution to do this. I'll probably end up writing the code myself but I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone else had already done it.

 

Basically this customer wants, instead of selling a product for a fixed price, to add products to his store with a "minimum willing to sell" price. Then have the site NOT show the individual customers a price when they view the listing, instead give them a text box on how much they are willing to pay for that item.

 

For example:

 

Admin adds a product to the database with a "minimum willing to sell price" of $5.00

 

No price is shown on the listing but instead a text box on how much the customer is willing to pay for the product. If the customer enters $8.00 then, since $8.00 is greater then $5.00 it lets the customer purchase the product for $8.00. If however the customer enters $4.00, the site won't sell it to him, because it's too low of a price.

 

Has anybody else even heard of such a wierd setup? the best way I know to describe it is kind of a bartering or half/auction system. Though unlike letting an auction set for a while and then selling it to the highest bidder, anyone can buy it at any price greater then the minimum price as long as there is product in stock.

[Altair]

This is a very interesting idea. I haven't heard of anything quite like it. The closest thing I can think of to this type of setup is priceline, where you can make an offer for a flight. Due to the unique nature of this request, I would say you are going to have a hard time finding code for it.

 

I suppose it would work if what they are selling are things that are hard to come by. I would think that this technique would cause more confusion than anything else, but I have no idea what they are selling.

 

I don't imagine it would be very tough to put into place.

 

Sorry I couldn't help you more. This IS a fascinating idea though.

[armadillo]

This is a very interesting idea.  I haven't heard of anything quite like it.  The closest thing I can think of to this type of setup is priceline, where you can make an offer for a flight.  Due to the unique nature of this request, I would say you are going to have a hard time finding code for it.

 

I suppose it would work if what they are selling are things that are hard to come by.  I would think that this technique would cause more confusion than anything else, but I have no idea what they are selling.

 

I don't imagine it would be very tough to put into place.

 

Sorry I couldn't help you more.  This IS a fascinating idea though.

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Sounds to me that they need to use eBay with a reserve price. After about 3 low guesses, the potential buyer would probably just give up.

[Guest]

Sounds to me that they need to use eBay with a reserve price. After about 3 low guesses, the potential buyer would probably just give up.

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Personally I would agree with you, I find this method of sales to have way too many lost revenues from sales, I would point out however that it's better then the method that the customer originally wanted. The customer wanted the user to guess a price and then have the sale NOT be completed until the Admin reviewed it and decided to accept the sale or not, then send the customer an e-mail saying "sure we'll accept your offer, go back to our site and buy it" talk about the lost sales from that environment.