What could be done to improve the shop?

[admin (no pm's please)]

Thus far the intention is to keep it simple.

But we could of course add more.

For most peoples purposes more might actually be a pain as it adds complexity. For example a lot of people will not want stock control, will not need transaction logging as they get all the details in the email from both paypal and the shop system. Speaking personally here we use paypal and were using a more fully fledged shop and I have not been into the reports side of our shop once, I do it all via paypals own reporting system.

So I am presenting here some options as a poll, feel free to suggest others.

Please only vote if you are, or are considering using the shop as a REAL shop.


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[Symon]

I think we have enough but i did vote for customer review, of course this could be done using the feedback form and a little html, but maybe one integrated into the shop system would look more professional.

But i have never used a proper live shop on this system yet is it all the same but checkout ?
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[feekychucker]

I voted for the customer review too as it would be (in my opinion) a major plus.

I haven't set anything up on my forum yet (http://charnwoodsundayleague.myfastforum.org), but I am looking at setting up the real shop version.

I noticed when I had a peek at the portal, that it said to contact Support if thinking of using it as a real shop? -- Can anyone help with this...?  Who exactly do I need to speak to if not anyone here?

What the shop will be used for:  The centralised buying of football equipment/kits for our member Clubs and Referees, and of course the general shopper! I will want to set up the shop so that if they are a Club or Referee, they will receive a 15% discount from the Leagues retail price. If a general shopper, then you will only receive a small discount on orders over a certain amount... those kinds of things (although I realise that's for me to code/include, not any of you good people).

So, what do I need to contact Support for when trying to create my shop?
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[admin (no pm's please)]

Any real shop involves real money and I want to closely liaise with people going down that route, both to help minimise risk and also to help ensure they know that they do use the system at there own risk! a rather relevant point in a new system like this.

There is also a different dynamic to catering to the needs of a real shop that needs extra features like discounts.

I don't know what that dynamic is yet, but it does exist.
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[feekychucker]

I am not intending on going live with the shop until around May 2008.  That's when our sponsorship deal kicks in

I have complete faith in your brilliance and my trial & error processes! (Mental note to self: stop sounding like a kiss-ass! )

Anyway, I am not unfamiliar with the business world, and fully understand and accept that no fault would be pointed in your company's direction in the event of something happening when (and after) I launch(ed) the shop... you can even keep this post to quote me on that.  Calculated risks are risks nevertheless, and close liaison with someone of your experience would only be beneficial to anyone thinking of going ahead with a real ecommerce shop on their forum.

Will you need information about what the shop will be used for (in greater detail than that in my previous post)?  I also will need to try and increase the product allowance from 20 to... oh, say in the region of about 250?  Maybe not possible (definitely not tried!) yet, but I'm sure with a bit (make that a lot) of time I can amend it.

I am away on holiday from the 29th Dec. through to the 4th Feb., so that should enable me to have plenty of peace and quiet to do some jiggery-pokery.

Tell me what it is that we need to closely liaise on, and I'll gladly get the ball rolling.
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[archers-rest]

Would it be possible to integrate options into an item, i.e I will sell some items of clothing in my shop so rather than than list each colour and size could a drop down list of options be added to these items?
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[admin (no pm's please)]

I have added the options mentioned by people to the poll.

There is an issue of balance here. Clothing is a good example.

I coded:

http://www.squatorange.com/

which is a t-shirt shop.

It allows the permutations of size and colour to be displayed, and a shop like that simply has to be a customized affair.

No standard shopping site code is going to deal with such specific needs, let alone a cart where simplicity is the prime intention.

There is more than one way to use myff with an integral shop. e.g. if you are on your own domain.

forum.mydomain.com can be the forum.
shop.mydomain.com could be hosted on your own space and run one of the decent free shopping cart systems like virtuemart under joomla.

You would lose some integration with the forum, but you would gain a more sophisticated shopping cart. Bus as I say even then a standard cart cannot address every need.

how far we go with our own shop reminds me a lot of the current phpbb2 v phpbb3 issues, with our card on roughly the phpbb1 level   At this point we can and should add more, but as some point we could go phpbb3   e.g. add so much to deal with so mnay needs that it is next to impossible for people to use for most basic needs

Having said that. Lets recap on the new suggestions.

1) More Items. Easy and we can probably add a tweak which will put the items in a scrolling area, so that it keeps it decent for people with just a few items.
2) Options dropdowns. also pretty easy.
3) Discounts. Trickier as there may be many different needs in this area.
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[RobertoRoboto]

The customer review bit sounds cool. Though I like the idea of the discount options

Though the shop is great already
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