Guest Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 Hi guys! My company sells items we purchase from a drop shipper. The drop shipper's prices change frequently (sometimes every minute). I have been searching for a way to stream prices from the drop shippers website and add on our commission, but have had no luck. This seems to be quite a reach (coding-wise) but does anyone know how to do it? Thanks in advance!
FIMBLE Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 I cant see that this will update so quickly! The prices reside in the DB so you will find yourself continually updating it. There are feed managers in the addons section you can try out however i doubt they are designed for constant updates moreso daily. Nic Sometimes you're the dog and sometimes the lamp post [/url] My Contributions
Guest Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 I cant see that this will update so quickly! The prices reside in the DB so you will find yourself continually updating it. There are feed managers in the addons section you can try out however i doubt they are designed for constant updates moreso daily. Nic Ok, well maybe I can take a different approach to it... We resell gold. Our prices are based on our wholesalers prices (which changes every time gold prices change), but the wholesaler's prices are based on spot gold price + premium, thus, if I could, I could take the feed from gold prices and add the premium. But the question would be - how to do it. It seems all to complex, but there has to be a way to fit all that into 1 price output.
Guest Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 Andrew, You could create a formula to change your prices daily from admin where the prices on your site would be changed according to the base price you receive from your supplier PLUS your markup. This would require some custom coding but it is possible. Chris
NodsDorf Posted September 24, 2011 Posted September 24, 2011 It maybe more practical to try and do this with a cron. I'm wondering though with the volatility of the pricing how you can ensure that when you sell product X you can order it from the drop shipper immediately? Wouldn't that be as much of a concern as the price being displayed on your website?
MrPhil Posted September 24, 2011 Posted September 24, 2011 Gold? Talk about volatile prices! What happens if a customer sits on your web page for half an hour, and orders at the "old" price (knowing that it has gone up in the mean time)? You'd have to be careful to constantly update the price at every interaction, up til the time that the order is committed. I'm sure that it could be done, but osC isn't really architected to do live updates on product information like that. With a large enough hammer, you could probably do it, but I wouldn't want to maintain the code! Maybe you can find an RSS feed module for a forum that is constantly posting new feed, and adapt it to constantly update the price. If you add AJAX code, you might even be able to display the updated price live!
NodsDorf Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Agree with Phil, selling gold in real time is a kin to stock trading. You'd almost need a live ticker that can modify prices of each individual item. Which I'm sure can be done, but then you have to also buy it from the drop shipper at the same time of the order, which seems like it compounds the problem. On the price side I'm sure there is stock trading software or some other package that is built for rapid price fluctuations, but again the problem is that as a middle man you still have to purchase the item from the drop shipper at the time of sale. Unless the drop shipper would accept order emails and base the price off of the timestamps, I'm having trouble understanding how this scenario could actually work. Either way its a good idea, and I do wish you luck in finding a solution that works.
Guest Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Thanks guys for your input! I think it may be too difficult to custom code this, so I guess I will stick with manually updating the prices every few hours. Or I may do away with the whole website pricing and force the customer to apply for a quote. I have no problem with price volatility, as I'm pretty much making money no matter what. Of the 250 orders I got yesterday alone, the price of gold had declined quite a bit before I had changed the price - so it was a better profit for me in the end.
MrPhil Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 the price of gold had declined quite a bit before I had changed the price - so it was a better profit for me in the end. Did you used to own a gas station?
Jack_mcs Posted September 26, 2011 Posted September 26, 2011 Thanks guys for your input! I think it may be too difficult to custom code this, so I guess I will stick with manually updating the prices every few hours. Or I may do away with the whole website pricing and force the customer to apply for a quote. I have no problem with price volatility, as I'm pretty much making money no matter what. Of the 250 orders I got yesterday alone, the price of gold had declined quite a bit before I had changed the price - so it was a better profit for me in the end. While not meant for this, my Compare Prices add on has most of the code you will need to do it. Some changes would be needed but I think it would do what you want. Support Links: For Hire: Contact me for anything you need help with for your shop: upgrading, hosting, repairs, code written, etc. All of My Addons Get the latest versions of my addons Recommended SEO Addons
Guest Posted September 26, 2011 Posted September 26, 2011 While not meant for this, my Compare Prices add on has most of the code you will need to do it. Some changes would be needed but I think it would do what you want. I might be able to get that to work with that. I'll give it a try.
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