Offers - Improvements

Dear Simon
Thank you for that information, I have set up a quick work around for now by doing a full category of collars linked to a single width/ length lead at a special offer price so I have only needed to add a yes to the subordinate product and that seems to work fine. Now you have pointed out the dependentmaster and dependentsub function and with a little more time I can re do the offers so that the offer product pictures also show.
It`s just a shame that the Offers function (which is a very good function) is not set up in such a way as to allow the customer to select to accept the offer as that would be a far quicker way toset up an Offer and also has the advantage of being able to select a time frame for the offer to run, but thank you again as this is now a working solution for us.
Red

"Hi,

If you simply want to offer the customer a reduced price product for example when they purchase another product then you should use up-sell/cross-sell for this. - Although you cannot make it time limited, you would need to remove the up-sell.
Many Thanks
Support"

Support,
I have just been trying to work around this with the cross-sell as you suggest but the main problem is as follows - if a Special Offer Priced item is added to the basket this way then the item that triggered the discount can then be removed so that the discounted item is left on its own which is not what we want. The reason we wish to offer the discount is to encourage the purchase of the lead to match our collars if purchased together. This does not happen with the "Offer function" because if you then remove the main item that triggers the offer the offer is also removed.

Re your - "With offers the cart has to add it automatically otherwise the customer would have to go back to your website to get the offer product."
Could the offer not come up on a seperate page as the up-sell cross-sell does and show the customer the offer below the item they are adding thus allowing them to Know they are being offered a discounted priced product and a way to select it if they wish to?
I am not keen on the use of extra pages in the check out however if that is the only way you can add a selection box for the customer to add the offer and make the Offer function work properly then that would have to do.
Red

Hi James,
The up-sell/cross-sellfeature does not alter the fact that the Offers function needs alterations. It is one of your selling point for your top cart and should be a function that we can use and not have to look for ways to work around.

We did use the up-sell cross-sell to start with but did not like it for the following reasons-

1. You have an extra page for customers to have to pass prior to checkout.

2. There is no control over the layout ie. if you have modifiers as we do then the spaces between the modifiers are pre-set and you cannot change them to look like your existing ones for your main products. If you have a product linked that has a lot of modifiers it looks very untidy.

3. The wording you add to introduce the up-sell or cross-sell is above the cut off white line, we would rather see it just above the up-sell or cross-sell items.

We wish to be able to use the Offers function for the following reasons
1. You can set up a length of time for the offer to run

2. It is much quicker to set up as you can link more than 1 product at a time to the offer

3.The offers show on the basket page, so there are no extra pages for the customer

4. It is a function that we are paying for to use

4. If we were to use the up-sell or cross-sell to set up these offers then we would have to copy existing products and then recode them in order to set up a new lower price, upload pictures to the new codes and then link each to a product one by one. It would also take far longer to change any offer set up if done this way.

As we see it all that is needed is for you to add a "select and recalculate" button to show next to the offer item.

Red

Dear Support
I have tried the work around via code that Graham provided above but the problem with that is that the product you add to the existing product as a special offer is added to the basket with the first products picture against it which is no good.

I would very much like to ust the Offers function that I have paid extra for by upgrading to the top level cart but cannot do so as I do not see how adding a product into a customers cart that adds to their basket total costs can be a legal function - the customer needs to be able to make the choice to accept or not accept the Offe. All it needs is a tick box against the offered item, which should not be that much of a problem for you to add to this function. (I have just contacted trading standards to find out the legal situation regarding adding a product directly into a customers basket that they do not know about and which adds to their basket total and will let you know their opinion once we receive it).
Red

Hi Support
Can you not set it up to show on the basket but with a tick box as you do for up-sell/ cross-sell items that then allows the customer to choose to add the offer. If I have to add it via a cross-sell then I have to make offer priced lead codes for all my existing leads and then add an cross-sell to every collar in order to do this. The Offer feature would do it far quicker and as I said has the advantage of having the time frame you can set up for the time you wish the offer to run or edit the offer if you wish at any time.
Surely you must agree that just adding an offer directly to the customers cart without them first selecting to do so is not the correct way to do it - It is like pressure selling.
Red