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Return to Product Support > Learning Center > Managing Add-ons > Add-on List and Instructions for Use > Ecommerce Collection

Ecommerce Addon Collection

The Ecommerce addon collection creates the account environment used by other ecommerce addons such as the shopping cart and the membership manager.

The invoice manager is the primary interface used to manage the ecommerce configuration.

The following records control the ecommerce system:

  • Accounts - Purchasing authority.
  • People (users) - Individuals that are responsible for accounts, such as customers, account contacts and/or billing contacts.
  • Items - A collection of things that can be sold. They can be tangible catalog items, download files and/or subscriptions.
  • Orders (invoices, receipts) - a collection of line items with tax and shipping. Line items may be associated to items.
  • Recurring Purchases - automatic purchases that can be scheduled.
  • Groups - An item can be configured as a subscription. When a subscription is purchased the user is added to a group which can be used for email, member access, etc.

Bundled Items

To add a bunded item:

1. Login and click on ADMIN.

2. Click on Manage Add-ons, Ecommerce and then ITEMS.

3. Select the item you want to include other items bundled with.

4. Click on the Bundling tab. 

5. Check the sub-items you want bundled with the item selected.
NOTE: DO NOT CHECK THE BOX "Renew on Expiration" for any sub-items, as they will be renewed when the main item is renewed.

6. Check "Show Bundled Items on Invoice" if you want to show sub-items, or leave it unchecked if you do not want sub-items to show on the invoice.

7. Click OK to save changes.

When this item is purchased, the bundled items will be automatically added to the order, but will not appear on the invoice and will not change the price of the line item. Transactions will be made for each of the bundled items, and the amount of the transaction for this item will calculated as the price of this item minus the total of the bundled items. When the order is paid, a fulfillment event will occur for both this item and the bundled items.


Stages of a Purchase

  1. Ordering - when an order is open new line items can be added. The order is complete when you are ready to bill. From this point on nothing can be added to the order.
  2. Billing - The order is assigned to an account and the account is charged.
  3. Payment - When payment is applied to the order
  4. Fulfillment - When the purchases are delivered to the customer.

Account Charging Methods

  1. No Payment Necessary - The purchase is completed without a direct payment and fulfillment happens immediately.
  2. Pay On-Demand - The customer must pay for the purchase when ordering is complete. This can be either online directly, or with On-Demand Payment Choices saved in the account. Fulfillment occurs when the payment succeeds. If the payment fails online, the order is not completed and it can be adjusted. If the payment is in a batch, the payment is retried every three days.
  3. Bill and Fulfill on Payment - When the purchase is complete the customer is billed (invoiced). Fulfillment occurs when payment is made.
  4. Bill and Fulfill Now - The customer is billed when the purchase is made, but fulfillment occurs after the purchase as well.

Notification Methods

Each account can be configured to one of several preferred notification methods

  1. Email - The Primary contact is notified by email. If the primary contact has no email address, the billing contact is used.
  2. Fax - The primary contact or billing contact fax number is used to deliver the notification
  3. Print and Mail - Notifications are saved in a print queue to be manually printed and mailed.

Notifications

There are several notifications to the customer and seller.
  1. Customer Invoice - sent automatically to the customer if the order is billed.
  2. Customer Receipt - sent automatically to the customer when the order is paid.
  3. Seller Notification - for any items you want notification for fulfillment, go to MANAGE ADD-ONS, ECOMMERCE, ITEMS. Open the item and click on the FULFILLMENT tab. Check the "Send Fulfillment Notification" field and then select the group you wan to be notified when fulfillment of that item is necessary. Click OK to save changes.

My Account Page

The My Account page lets you manage various aspects of your account, including your profile, online payments, payment information, account history and subscriptions.

INSERT PICTURE OF MY ACCOUNT PAGE HERE.

For more information on each option, click here.

Discounts

There are three types of discounting that can be applied to a customer order. Each item in an order can only have one discount applied to it.

Custom Pricing - Each item in the system has a unit price and a custom price. Each group in the system has a check box to Allow Custom Price. If the customer is in that group and adds an item with a non-zero custom price, the custom price applies. This can be used to create a two tier pricing schedule, like Membership Pricing.

Group Discounts - Each group in the system has an Ecommerce Discount Percentage. If the customer is in a group with a non-zero discount percentage, that discount applies to all items they purchase. This system can be used to create a multiple tier pricing system, like Gold Member price and Silver Member Pricing.

Promotional Discounts - Discount Codes can be created that apply a discount percentage to any or all items. Customers who know the codes enter them during the order process.

Batch Processing

Ecommerce processes become transactions automatically. The process that handles this is called the Batch Process. An example of a batch process is to automatically send invoices created by Recurring Purchases.

To enable batch processing, go to Invoice Manager >> Settings. Check Enable Batch Processing. You can optionally run batch transactions one at a time during debugging by selecting "Batch Process One At A Time" in the Testing tab. For normal batch processing, uncheck this box.

The Batch process goes off once per day automatically. To start it manually at any time, go to Invoice Manager >> Tools >> Process Batch. Click on Process Batch in the Background. If you know the batch is very small, you can click Process Batch Now, but on longer batches this may time-out.

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