kind of like putting candy and tabloids at the supermarket checkout.. i like it! haha

Exactly the idea of upselling, right at the counter, except it's more custom because you make offers based on what their holding :D

I've got a first pass done on my site which you can view here:
http://www.mixtapemp3.com/customer/cart.php

Add product(s) and add to cart, then proceed to checkout. After logging in you'll get the recommends (I wanted it after login so I have a commitment from them).

It looks through the products in their cart, and looks through all the order data for those products, pulling our products that were purchased at the same time as the products in their cart. It then randomly picks a set number of items (in my case 4) to return. They can click "show me more" to get another random set.

After adding to the cart, the mini cart in the top right updates, but they stay on the same page with a message saying the product has been added.

Hi Jon I'm just considering buying your Easy Checkout Addon - can I really be bothered to code it myself when you seem to have done such a nice job, but btw the recommends section on your checkout threw an SQL error at me during the order process :)

I hope I can get your mod installed and working nice if I buy it, I'm new to X-cart but enjoy the way it works.

Well I bought it and the install seemed to go okay but I have a few little problems. ..

First is it easy for me to integrate the checkout with the rest of the site design? I was a little upset that it didn't run within the main template like the original checkout system - can you explain how I can make it appear the same as the other cart pages please?

Also stage 2 of ordering (the login) doesn't appear to be working correctly on my install - it displays the cart contents at the top and doesnt look at all like your screenshots (and also if you log in it returns to the wrong part of the checkout process) please could you take a look for me, I hope you can help me :) http://mytreo.net/store/customer/cart.php?mode=checkout

thanks much for a really useful addon

Thanks for letting me know about the mysql error, I'm still brushing up the code on that :)

To have the pages contain all the components of your shopping cart, the categories, etc., don't edit cart.php to use home_main.tpl and instead keep it using home.tpl

With that however you wont get the tabs, etc. across the top. You could take the tab code and integrate it into your home.tpl if you wished.

If it's not working correctly, then likely there was an error made in your installation. If you PM me ftp details I'll have a look for you.

mytreo.net there was definitely steps missed/done incorrectly in your installation process. You'll want to go over the installation instructions again to double check everything. Please PM me ftp details if you wish me to have a look.

Thanks I'm sure I followed the install instructions properly - I had previosuly edited anonymous_checkout.tpl but since that was overwritten I didn't think it would matter. I'll send you a PM :)

^ It's fixed. Looks like you had your smarty configured not to compile every time and so the templates weren't recompiling. I set it to compile every time, ran through the process, and then set it back to your original setting. Everything seemed to work well. Note that you only have 1 payment method which is why that payment method is skipped. If you wanted to you could remove that tab, or just comment it out until you have more methods.

Thanks for fixing it, you're a gent :)

OT but what does it mean that I had the smarty configured not to recompile the templates each time? This sounds like something i should be aware of, could you explain pls or point me in the right direction?

I'm going to attempt to integrate the tag code into the home.tpl now and then you'll have another happy customer :D

In your smarty folder, you have a smarty.class.php


There's a production setting and a development setting.

Let me know how the integration goes and if you need any help just let me know in this thread.

Jon,

In your recomend mod for the checkout are you going to display thumbnails or just text links?

If you are using the thumbnails I think will be a great idea if you display them in the rigth or left side of cart from the begin and not adding an extra tab to the process. Use the thumbnail as a link to add to the cart.

Kind regards,
Ricky

^ That's a real good suggestion. The problem would come when the products have product options. In order to have an add to cart on that page, then the product options would have to be selected also. Any ideas on how to get around that?

Now I will have to think about that one now. 8O

^ you could use something from this upselling mod, it displays the thumbnails etc and if options are required then "add to cart" goes to the product details page instead.

http://forum.x-cart.com/viewtopic.php?t=6005&highlight=upselling+mod

I managed to integrate the checkout addon into the main template and I also figured out a bit more about smarty too, thanks much :)

Good luck with finishing the mod!

Excellent :)

I'm considering 2 different options, 1 is to have a recommends tab, the other is to have a recommends sidelist.

Either way, it would use thumbnails, with an add to cart and a view details button.

The view details would open a small popup window with product details only.

Any thoughts?

The sidelist with thumbnails I LIIIIIIIIIIIKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!! =D> \:D/

^ Rightside or left side or optional ? :D

right side, left side, top, bottom optional

i been meaning to post some ideas on this but I have been busy, and X-Cart is ticking me off so I'm not a big fan of the forums right now.

Keeping in mind I'm having this work with the ezcheckout mod only because I can't justify doing any work within the x-cart checkout itself :D

I also don't want it too complicated, as I want to give as little support as possible, and have it as straight forward to use as possible.

Displaying products on the top I don't think is too practical as it would get in the way, and the bottom wouldn't be very viewable. So I'm thinking I would do rightside or left side recommendations as options. This also keeps things in 1 template. If people want it at top or bottom I'll let them know how to do it via this forum but it won't be supported in the actual mod.

Products would be 1 column down either side, with the number of products configurable.

Where to pull the products from would have 2 options:

1) Takes the products in the cart and views order history to pull products that were previously purchased at the same time as those products. Then of those products it would randomly pull the number of items configured to show through each step of the checkout process. If there were no items purchased at the sametime as the products in the cart it would default to option #2.

2) Option #2: The config file will hold an array of product numbers and randomly pull the configured amount of those products through each stage of the checkout. Of course if you have 4 productid's in the array, and configure to show 4 products at a time, you will have the same products on each step of the checkout.

Another option would be to use the products in the cart to pull from the upselling links but due to the amount of work in configuring those products to begin with I'm not a big fan of it :D Anybody interested in this option?

As mentioned, adding products to your cart will keep you on the same stage of the checkout process, but will update your minicart in the top right, and display an added to cart message. This is to not disturb the flow.

Viewing product details will open a small popup window with a close button. Again, as to not disturb the flow.

Any other feedback/options/suggestions?

Just tossing around some ideas here but, how about a redirect page that is hidden from the top tabs.

Kinda like a stealthed checkout step.

I really think that adding them around the checkout breaks the idea of the EZ checkout. It's distracting from pushing them through the funnel process.

If they hit a page with a continue checking out link, then that might be much more effective.

That's a good point also. Something to think about.

What do you think the strengths and weaknesses of having a Recommends tab is?

The positive is that they know exactly what steps are involved in the process and know to expect the recommendations. This is why on my checkout I made it an actual tab.

To be honest with you, as a customer, if I see an annoying upsell coming, I bypass it.

Just my 2 cents.

Yeah have to admit it confused me at first becuase I thought my cart suddenly had other products in it and when you have it showing no recomendations it's even more confusing because your not sure what you're looking at as a customer.

I'd put the recommendations on the view cart screen at the bottom or down the side as text links.

I'll second that. Thumbnails can be too confusing and stall a checkout. I like text links personally.

The idea is to push them through with the minimum of steps, and close the deal before they rethink the purchase.

Yeah, ideally the process would never not have recommended links, I just haven't finished the coding :D

Thanks for the feedback so far, any other feedback is appreciated.

Heres a few things:

1. Is it possible to merge the "method" step with the "shopping cart" step? Taking a whole step just to make that 1 choice seems unneccessary. Personally, i feel like it should be integrated into the same step as the actual "payment" step but it seems like this isnt possible the way the code is laid out

2. Similar to the way you have the tabbed news table on mixtapemp3.com(or boomers tabbed product options), it would be nice to have the "login" step not show the whole registration form by default. Having a clean "New member? Click here to register" link which after clicking would then drop down the entire form to fill out would work much better imo.... is that possible?

3. During the "payment" step, I think the tab for "method" should remain as a link in addition to the "change payment method" button within the page. In fact I think all the tabs should remain as links throughout the entire checkout process, but im not sure if this would cause any problems or not

4. Also during the "payment" step, i would like to put the customers information in multiple columns so as to more efficiently use the space on the page/


anyways thats just a few comments for now, i think its a great mod jon! i hope you keep improving it, ive already gotten a client to purchase it too :)

I think this is a excellent upselling mod and it should be added the the xcart software as a standard feature.


UPSELLING is really key in some / most business's

Thanks for the feedback. I've wanted to make the mod as easy and straight forward as possible for the general user to install, however some of what your asking could be customized.


The way the code is laid out your right, it's difficult, and would take some serious code changes.


This isn't too much a big deal. You can just edit the customer/main/anon_checkout.tpl to include the tabs which display or hide the login/register information.


Originally I had these as links, however prior to login, they should not be able to select method, etc. Basically it provides a way to error the flow of things.


You can edit your default invoice (I forget off the top of my head which template that page uses sorry) and take out the <pre> tags and set it up with HTML formatting.

If you need assistance feel free to post here or if your interested in custom work just PM me for details.

can you do for v4.06
 

Hi jon you seem to have quite a few happy customers, and you support seems better than xcart staff, ive only just brought xcart about 2 weeks ago v4.05 and know just installed v4.06 does your mode work on the new version, also i hate that checkout displays the picture can it be moded to only give text, showing what the customer has brought rather than showing the picture as well. many thanks Dean

Yeah it will work with the 4.0 branch no problems. Should there ever be any case of incompatibility I will create and distribute a new version and give to current customers free of charge.

To remove the thumbnail, this should work:

Open /skin1/customer/main/cart.tpl

REMOVE:


FIND:


REPLACE WITH (remove the colspan=2):


Let me know if you have any other questions.

Much better :D

Im trying to figure how to put the selected options onto one line though.

so it's like

Product name: dfglksdjgls Selected options: Colour = Red , Size = 32


Short product description

I presume im meant to be looking at this area

But cant seem to see where I can put it to one line.

EDIT

Managed to get it all on one line now, now i have the problem though of trying to stop the section titles from repeating (i.e items, options, price etc. etc. - See below)
http://www.justhom.com/Image1.jpg

check out
 

Hi jon thanks for posting your reply and for the code to get rid of the pictures, Jon i havn't got the money this side of christmas, you know what kids are like for presents, but i will most definatly be buying your service just after xmas, like everyone else has said it looks great and you offer good back up if things do go wrong, i will pm you just after xmas and pay via paypal or nochex.
Thanks again Dean

Back again
 

Jon just a question, you seem to know a far bit about coding.
I was speaking with an seo guy when i was looking for a new cart, he told me to buy a cart which displays the name of the product in the url.
E.g my cart i use at the moment untill i get xcart running diplays things like - shop.php?c=ex&page=54&sid=sid901640e742c69395d5c52 cbbb0b6e26b
which isn't search engine friendly, i sell body piercing jewellery and it would be much better for a search engine if the url displayed something like - shop/shop.php/belly_bar (just an example)
I couldn't find a cart which done this and the ones i did, i just didn't like what the carts had to offer, xcart has the funtions that i need, but it would be good if someone like you who knows what they are doing could re-code
xcart to do this, just a thought, i am sure people would also buy this service of you, i know i would, Dean

Jon..

I tried installing this mod onto 4.0.6 and I'm getting this error when i try to test it..

Parse error: parse error, unexpected '}' in /homepages/37/d108394398/htdocs/store/include/login.php on line 266

It's just a simple bracket mismatch, be sure to follow the instructions exactly.

If you PM me ftp details I'll get the login.php working for you.

Move the section titles outside of the {section} loop i.e. BEFORE the {section}

PM your full code if you can't get it to work and I'll alter and send back.

Re: check out
 

While I certainly understand kids and x-mas, if possible I'd recommend trying to put things in place for x-mas. A good marketing campaign this time of year could easily exponentially grow your business. Best of luck.

Re: Back again
 

Xcart has a built in ability to do this, it's called the HTML catalog. You can use it to generate an HTML version of your store, which resides in the catalog folder, and uses all search engine friendly links.

Yeah I can see where I need to change it but changing it so that the titles are lined up with the actual coloumns is a real bugger.

BACKUP FIRST!

Then try this: