Hello everyone,
First. I'm quite new here, but I already thanks those who share links to useful modules.
Second, I'm currently working on a new version of the website. I'm quite lost between the different modules for product combinations and layers.
And, humbly, I'm asking your advice about the best practices and/or modules resolving our needs/problems.
Actually:
My company has 7 peripherals products linked to 9 brands of computers. We sell on our website (prestashop 1.7) but also on Amazon (with some difficulties, but that's another subject...).
We have products with A LOT of predetermined customization options, sometimes conditionals of previous options.
Our products usually use the same pattern of options.
To not confuse people, we do not split each product by brand, so the customer selects a product, goes on the product page, and then selects the brand and the options...
Each product has :
- 9 computer brand compatibility options
- 5 color options for part 1,
- 5 color options for part 2,
- 2 color options for part 3,
- 6 accessory option for part 4,
- 2 accessory option for part 5,
- 3 mounting options.
That's 16'200 combinations (9*5*5*2*6*2*3) and I didn't mention part 6 with 2 accessory options but available only for 2 of the computers brands...
We also have 5 of those products with a premium preset of options at a discounted price.
In the future, we want to go from 5 to 10 options colors for part 1 and part 2...
Our problem :
As you can see, that's too much to be handled with the default Prestashop combination tool, which doesn't even deal with conditional options. Generating and assigning images and prices to those combinations are MAMMOTH tasks.
Our needs are quite simple to explain, but seems quite hard to get resolves:
My managers don't want a configurator like Zekeke. Because:
On the new website version, we plan to allow the customer to browse by computer brand too. But we don't know if we should create separate products for each brand or use some kind of cookies to display the "generic" product with the chosen brand as a preset option.
I downloaded Attribute Wizard Pro but it doesn't seem to do what we want. Still going to learn more about it.
Do you have an idea/suggestions on how we should resolve this?
Thank you for your reading time and thank you in advance for your advice
First. I'm quite new here, but I already thanks those who share links to useful modules.
Second, I'm currently working on a new version of the website. I'm quite lost between the different modules for product combinations and layers.
And, humbly, I'm asking your advice about the best practices and/or modules resolving our needs/problems.
Actually:
My company has 7 peripherals products linked to 9 brands of computers. We sell on our website (prestashop 1.7) but also on Amazon (with some difficulties, but that's another subject...).
We have products with A LOT of predetermined customization options, sometimes conditionals of previous options.
Our products usually use the same pattern of options.
To not confuse people, we do not split each product by brand, so the customer selects a product, goes on the product page, and then selects the brand and the options...
Each product has :
- 9 computer brand compatibility options
- 5 color options for part 1,
- 5 color options for part 2,
- 2 color options for part 3,
- 6 accessory option for part 4,
- 2 accessory option for part 5,
- 3 mounting options.
That's 16'200 combinations (9*5*5*2*6*2*3) and I didn't mention part 6 with 2 accessory options but available only for 2 of the computers brands...
We also have 5 of those products with a premium preset of options at a discounted price.
In the future, we want to go from 5 to 10 options colors for part 1 and part 2...
Our problem :
As you can see, that's too much to be handled with the default Prestashop combination tool, which doesn't even deal with conditional options. Generating and assigning images and prices to those combinations are MAMMOTH tasks.
So, we use the "product composer" (v1.8.6) by Tuni-Soft, a layered product configurator.
In our case :
But it has a lot of problems:
We contacted Tuni-Soft and propose a new configurator, but we aren't convinced about the visual aspect of it.
We contacted DMConcept for their conditional product composer (https://demo.configurateurdeproduit.com/en/accueil/20-configurateur-produit.html). But for layered product images, it requires their "customized complementary module" ($$$...). This and it loads slowly.
- You create an option group,
- In each group, you create any option you want with an image layer and a price adjustment,
- You create a parent group,
- You put any group inside it,
- Inside a parent, the customer can only choose 1 option.
In our case :
- For part 1 :
--- Parent group = Computer Brand
--- Inside the parent: 9 groups (1 for each computer brand)
--- Inside each group: 5 color options
- 1 group for part 2: 5 color options
- 1 group for part 3: 2 color options
- 1 group for part 4: 6 accessory options
- 1 group for part 5: 2 accessory options
- 1 group for mounting option : 3 options
But it has a lot of problems:
- the configuration choose by the customer only appears on the invoice and not in the back-office data --> no sales data --> no marketing adjustment & no production planning
- no mass edit
- no conditional options
- not responsive (50% of our traffic comes from mobile...)
- not visually attractive
- Impossible to use this configurator with Amazon
- Limited/bad integration with theme and hooks.
- This product configurator replaces the Prestashop basic product images/configurator. So we can't show other images such as an in-use photo or 360° product video...
- Only 1 view. Impossible to see the product from another angle and even less turn it in 3D.
- Impossible to copy a configuration between a product and another one. There is an option to load another configuration. BUT it is buggy.
--- First, the copied configurator display is visually bugged (too much space). So, we have to add each option manually.
--- Secondly, it doesn't only copy the configuration of the first product. It links the configurator of the 2 products. When you apply changes to one configurator (first or former product), the changes are also applied to the other product configurator. Impossible to change prices, an image, etc. without affecting the other one. So, it is not perfect and each time we redo a product configurator, it is a mammoth task too.
We contacted Tuni-Soft and propose a new configurator, but we aren't convinced about the visual aspect of it.
We contacted DMConcept for their conditional product composer (https://demo.configurateurdeproduit.com/en/accueil/20-configurateur-produit.html). But for layered product images, it requires their "customized complementary module" ($$$...). This and it loads slowly.
Our needs are quite simple to explain, but seems quite hard to get resolves:
- A better way to display and sort the combinations of Prestashop in back-office
- Combination/attributes with conditions
- Mass import and edit products / attributes / combinations
- Copy combination between products
- Attributes with layer images? or a way to generates and auto-assign 113'400 product images (7 products * 16'200 combinations)?
- Auto repricing depending on the chosen attribute
- Compatible with Warehouse or Panda theme/page builders (or with manageable hooks and appearance)
- Besides the configurator, being able to display product photos, or even display the configured products in several settings (at home, at work, etc.). Like this: https://www.guirled.com/personnalisee/115-881-guirlande-personnalisee-d-interieur.html (customized configurator from DMConcept)
- Following the sales of each option chosen by customers
My managers don't want a configurator like Zekeke. Because:
- They don't want to pay a monthly fee (or even worse, a fee on each sale)
- They fear to get our product's design/patent/blueprint getting stolen
On the new website version, we plan to allow the customer to browse by computer brand too. But we don't know if we should create separate products for each brand or use some kind of cookies to display the "generic" product with the chosen brand as a preset option.
I downloaded Attribute Wizard Pro but it doesn't seem to do what we want. Still going to learn more about it.
Do you have an idea/suggestions on how we should resolve this?
Thank you for your reading time and thank you in advance for your advice
