Characteristics - Options - Variants

-- url of the page with the problem -- : 192.185.186.160/~imageft/index.php/combo-test
-- HikaShop version -- : 2.2.3
-- Joomla version -- : 2.5.16
-- PHP version -- : 5.3.27

I am confused and after a couple of hours surfing forum and trying ideas I am still lost on this one.

Background - client is selling courses. There are limits to spaces available e.g. 25 per course. Courses are at 4 different locations and at different times (afternoons/evenings/weekends). They have an offer when buying 2 or 3 courses.

Goal - Create combination packages for purchase.
Problem - If I create a course and give it a price e.g. Course A = 1950€, Course B = 1950€, Course C = 1950€ and then use these as options in the offer then the offer price becomes the total of the courses selected. I can use discount to reduce product price but this only relates to the initial product and not the options.

I need to be able to keep track of available places (stock) as well as allow selection of 2 from 3 courses. Looking at the sample page I see the 2 options currently included but no means of selection.

So do I have to create a product for each course based on course content + venue + timing (fitness instructor - dublin - afternoons (Mon & Tue)) for every course (in order to get stock control) and then use these as options? Or can I use custom fields for venue and timing and still get stock control. The 25 places on a course could be sold as either a single course or as part of the two or three course combo offer.

Struggling to get my head around the correct approach but I need to sort this as I will have to explain to end user how to run the shop.

Thanks in advance for helping me to understand the process.

David

Hi David,

Problem - If I create a course and give it a price e.g. Course A = 1950€, Course B = 1950€, Course C = 1950€ and then use these as options in the offer then the offer price becomes the total of the courses selected. I can use discount to reduce product price but this only relates to the initial product and not the options.

Why are you adding courses, as an option of another product ? the best solution will probably be to only sell this "option" so that the discount will only be applied to this product.

Hi Mohamed,

The client is selling courses where they can have a maximum of 25 delegates. So I create the Course A and allocate as 25 available. Because they offer the choice of 1 course at a fixed price, 2 courses at a discount and 3 courses at bigger discount. Then we may have people ordering one of the 25 places so we have to make sure the course does not exceed 25 people. The only way I could see that working was if the course was used as an option, rather like your PC demo.

If you have a better suggestion I am happy to hear it, so long as customers can buy a place and remaining places are reduced accordingly, and discounts can be applied to make purchasing easier. All this has to happen as well as taking into account location and time of course.

We have 4 locations and different times for different courses, each with 25 maximum limit. I looked at characteristics but it seems this would generate too many records. I couldn't see any way to control 'stock' (places) using custom fields, so that left options.

Hope this makes sense.

The client is selling courses where they can have a maximum of 25 delegates. So I create the Course A and allocate as 25 available. Because they offer the choice of 1 course at a fixed price, 2 courses at a discount and 3 courses at bigger discount. Then we may have people ordering one of the 25 places so we have to make sure the course does not exceed 25 people. The only way I could see that working was if the course was used as an option, rather like your PC demo.

Setting the "Maximum quantity per order" option of your product to 3 can be a solution. if you really have have to manage the stock of different courses regarding their type(3), locations(4), and times(..), you'll have to use characteristics, but I don't know if your server will be able to handle that number of variants.

I know the server will not handle that level of variants. I will have to rethink the best way to offer the combo courses. That is before we even consider the various payments they allow - e.g. deposit/installments/pay in full.

Thanks for looking though.