How to set multi-vendors selling same products

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7 years 6 months ago #250295

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.6.4
-- HikaMarket version -- : 1.7.1
-- Joomla version -- : 3.6.2

Hi!

I've been through the documentation (which I find a bit "heavy" for a first timer - but there are so many options) and the forum here trying to figure out my set up but it is not working. So here is what I would need and I am wondering how to set it up:

  1. I have only 2 products
  2. I manually add the vendors to the site
  3. Customers pay to the site, and I pay the vendors their commission twice a month
  4. They all sell those 2 products
  5. Vendors then deliver by themselves (or ship by themselves)
  6. Customers go to their vendor page and should see those products (haven't managed that neither)

How can I set this up? I have been confused with the product & vendors categories (even brand categories considering I have 2 products from "my own brand".

As a second question I am sending customers to the website to the vendor URL as I was told this should assign the customer to that specific vendor. I would be interested to go to a deeper discussion as to how this works reliably as I do not want customers to buy from a different vendor (and be assigned to that different vendor). Is there another way to assign a customer to a vendor such as ensuring he is that customer when he accesses the site with a plug-in (my own plug-in) and then making sure the site remembers that until he registers?

As a third question, was is the main vendor? I do not have a main vendor as they are all independent and I am not a vendor myself.

Thank you very much.

Fred

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7 years 6 months ago #250305

Hi,

1/ I'm afraid that without any information about your current configuration or more details about "how two vendors can sell the same product" ; we won't be able to gave you any useful answer.

2/ Who told you that ?

3/ "You" are the main vendor.
It is explained in the first section of that documentation page : www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...or-presentation.html

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 6 months ago #250365

Hi!

1. Well my current configuration is "just installed" with probably a few options clicked here and there because I was trying... I am not sure what you answer means: just all our vendors sell the same products (2 of them). We supply, they sell. But yes, it is clear for me and it is probably why I can't seem to explain it right. Hopefully that helped a little.
2. Somewhere in the forum here. Is it wrong? Then if there is no assignment what are my options to ensure the client is assigned to a specific vendor at the time of registration?
3. Thank you, didn't read that page. I mainly look at the tutorial here: www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...-multi-tutorial.html

Thank you.

Fred

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7 years 6 months ago #250396

Hi,

1. I mean details like :
* Would it be the real same product ?
* Two different products in the store but with the same name ?
* Vendor will have access to the edition of the product ?
* How do you want to make the difference between the two vendor's products ?
* How the customer will choose his vendor ?

2. When someone tell you something which is wrong and do not exist ; well, I prefer to know what has been told exactly to be sure that they didn't have any misunderstanding about the HikaMarket features.

I am sending customers to the website to the vendor URL as I was told this should assign the customer to that specific vendor.

There is no affiliation with vendors but there are system to assign vendor dynamically to a product depending the customer zone or depending a order/item custom field.
That order/item custom field can be pre-fill by a "preferred vendor" which can be stored in the user profile (using a custom field too).

With some custom development, it is possible to improve the "vendor assignation" system and make your own algorithms.
Like, it would be possible to not have any order/item custom field for the vendor selection but just base the selection on the user custom field. And you can also make that user custom field invisible but use a plugin to store the value from a cookie just after the user has registered.

A lot of things are possible with some development but we have to know what you want to do exactly in order to guide you in the right direction.

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 6 months ago #250410

Hi!

Sorry for not thinking about all that, I guess it was not obvious for me. So here are the answers:
1. yes it is the exact same product which we supply. Just different vendors selling it (based on location but we're not going to need that information from Hikashop). The vendors do not edit the product(s), and there is no difference. But the logic is that if you live in city A you buy from vendor A who live in that city too. We want to avoid people living in city B buying from vendor A which takes us to the problem of assigning customers to vendors.
2. Ok. Well I thought I was told there was a vendor assignation possible (I should search all the posts I made and see whether I have memory problems or not ) but if not I would need one. Since all the vendors sell the same product(s) I don't think the product/vendor assignation is important in my case.
3. And so to continue on the needs in that case I actually need the site not accessible, then vendors provide URL and some identifier such as username/password which will help to assign the customer to that vendor. The customer can then access the site, register (providing his address and other details) and buy the product(s). The vendor will then know he has to fulfil the order.

How can I do that then?

Thank you.

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7 years 6 months ago #250438

and more on 2. Check this reply www.hikashop.com/forum/customers/882871-...iliation.html#243973 which talks about the affiliation system. Is this something else? I seem to have given similar requirements but again all this is very new to me.

Thank you.

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7 years 6 months ago #250429

Hi,

1. The usage of the "vendor location" (or "vendor dynamic assignation") will be more appropriate.
By just putting the product with no vendor assign, HikaMarket will affect the product to the vendor depending the zone (based on the HikaMarket zones).
So if you have a product that you don't want your vendor to sell, you will have to force the vendor assignation in the backend (and select the "main vendor" with ID 1).

If you need another algorithm for the vendor assignation ; the usage of a custom plugin will be recommended.
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...ctsVendorAttribution

2. Regarding your last message, the vendor assignation will be require.
Now you can use the "vendor location", the "vendor selection" or the "vendor dynamic assignation".
The first two are directly available in the HikaMarket configuration (while the last one is the custom plugin).
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...onfig_market_general

3. It would require some custom development. It is not a feature that HikaMarket provides (as previously introduced).
But it looks like something possible in the Joomla ecosystem.

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 6 months ago #250493

Hi!

Ok so from something that was "wrong and did not exist" I now have 3 options to make it happen. Not bad! :-D

I am still trying to wrap my head around this and pick the best solution for my needs with as little modification as possible. So I understand that one solution is to use location, but I could have 2 vendors in the same city and therefore am not so hot about this (and I do not have products I do not want vendors to sell). Still that setup would have me create my products under main vendor and the software would pick the assigned vendor based on his location. Is that right?

From the rest of your message I understand I have 2 options left: vendor selection and vendor assignation. What is vendor selection? How does this work? I still have only 2 products which are the same for all vendors. How do I create those and make sure they can sell them?

And then there is vendor dynamic assignation which requires a custom plugin. You are referring to Joomla ecosystem to solve that problem. Do you have something specific in mind?

Lastly I am still puzzled about the link I posed above referring to affiliate link which assign customers directly. Does this not work? If so, how can I set up my store with 2 products and make use of those affiliate links? Is there documentation on that, or can you at least give me direction?

Thank you very much.

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7 years 6 months ago #250555

Hi,

Well, you first request was about giving a link to a customer and assign him automatically with the vendor page his displayed.
That feature do not exist ; it is a transposition of the HikaShop affiliation system for the HikaShop context. And that is the part I'm saying that it would require some custom development.
I didn't want you to think that there is an existing feature in HikaMarket which provide that. HikaMarket/HikaShop are highly flexible and that feature can be added, but it requires a specific development.

The existing solutions for the vendor assignation were design for the "sales repository".
You can see a section talking about that in our main HikaMarket tutorial :
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...tml#tuto_market_conf
1 - Use the location to determine which will be the most appropriate vendor.
2 - Let the customer choose the vendor when he add the product in the cart or during the checkout.

The last solution, called "vendor assignation" is in fact the name of the trigger in HikaMarket which allow plugins to interact with the component.
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...ctsVendorAttribution

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 6 months ago #250844

Hi again!
So I had to get back to the "drawing board" to see if we could run the business differently but, no. So we cannot use 1 (location selection) and would like t o avoid 2 as customers could make mistakes.

So what is the affiliation system that Nicolas talked about. Why do you seem to avoid talking about it as a solution to my problem?

I read the page for the 3rd solution but the page looks more like a dictionary than a guide on using specific features. I am lost. Would you be kind enough to provide a bit more details (assuming the affiliation system, which I asked about before purchasing and seemed to match my needs, for some reasons no longer seems to fit)?

Thank you.

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7 years 6 months ago #250860

Hi,

There is no affiliation system for HikaMarket.
It is a feature of HikaShop Business and it has no link with HikaMarket.

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 5 months ago #251051

oh.. so in Hikshop business this affiliate assignment works "for ever" as in every successive sales get assigned to the same affiliate, or not?

And then the page you linked above is a set of features which could allow me to create a plugin to associate a customer to a vendor? Could you kindly give directions?

Thank you.

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7 years 5 months ago #251063

Hi,

I don't want to re-start the explanations of what is the affiliation system and what is already possible in HikaMarket.
So please read carefully my previous messages ; specially the message #250555 which already gave the indications for the custom plugin trigger.

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 5 months ago #251508

ok, so I tried to find some documentation after looking through the affiliate menu in hikashop but didn't find much. In fact I cannot create an affiliate from the hikashop menu, is that normal?
I also saw that we (as Hikashop business customers) can have personal support via email. How do I get to that option? I've been struggling for a while now and the content of this thread is very cryptic to me. I was going to test drive the affiliate program features but again, I failed.
Thank you.

Fred

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7 years 5 months ago #251526

Hi,

First, you should stop talking about the affiliate program.
If you want to know more about that (but I can tell you that is not the case) you can open a new thread in the HikaShop section of the forum.

Now, for you request ; I already gave you several time the solution and the according explanation :

Regarding your last message, the vendor assignation will be require.
Now you can use the "vendor location", the "vendor selection" or the "vendor dynamic assignation".
The first two are directly available in the HikaMarket configuration (while the last one is the custom plugin).
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/1...onfig_market_general

Well, you first request was about giving a link to a customer and assign him automatically with the vendor page his displayed.
That feature do not exist ; so it would require some custom development.
I didn't want you to think that there is an existing feature in HikaMarket which provide that. HikaMarket/HikaShop are highly flexible and that feature can be added, but it requires a specific development.


If you want to continue in the direction of the "Affiliate system" which is not the right solution and which is something related to HIkaShop and not HikaMarket ; it will be your choice. I gave you my advice around that but in fine, that's up to you.

Regards,


Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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7 years 5 months ago #251564

wow.. I feel I am pissing you off.. Sorry for being a customer! I didn't get I had to open a new thread for the affiliate program, so I will. I also asked about the personal support by email which you advertise on your product listing. Any way to get that and maybe someone a bit more patient with customers?

Thank you

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7 years 5 months ago #251582

Hi,

This is the section about HikaMarket. If you need some advice regarding the affiliate system, which is a HikaShop feature, you can post a new thread in the relative HikaShop section, as these products are managed by different people on our end.

For personal support by email, you can use our contact form:
www.hikashop.com/support/contact-us.html

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