Wholesale and Retail Site

[Kevin Barry]

Hello,
I would like to have a site for retail and trade customers similar to https://www.rombouts.com/uk/
Can someone advise if Virtuemart can do this please?
Would this requre two installations?
Thanks,
Kevin

[Studio 42]

I checked a little the linked shop, 1 installation can handel the case, you can do a similar site using 2 Joomla menu and using 2 layouts for eg. and checking logged user for the professional part.
You can even use 2 templates or styles for each part.
The advantages are the products and site management if you only use one installation..
In any case, you have to modify the PHP code(most can be done using templates overrides) to prevent certain parts displayed for the professionals from being visible by the other customers, if you use 1 or 2 installations.

[Kevin Barry]

Thank you for the prompt response and advice, I must look into these options further.

[Kevin Barry]

Hello,
Can I hire someone to assist with this?
Thanks

[GJC Web Design]

Hi Kevin,

You can email me about this... see profile

You can see here an example I have done of a retail/wholesale VM store

https://www.4wdpartshop.com.au/my-account/editaddresscartBT.html

basically how you register is presented with differing fields .. if as a wholesaler this is subject to approval by admins  .. if approved they are joined to the Shopper Group that allows them to buy at wholesale prices etc

[ptrouw]

I realize this is already an older post but it related to my question as well.

I am not sure what the best approach is. We have a successful B2C shop and we need a wholesale setup as well. There are 2 approaches, add all new prices, discount options, shipping, payment information, etc in B2C database and give wholesales a separate login. Or create a separate instance of the shop and tailor this one completely for wholesale users. Different layout, different template, different pricing, shipping and payment, etc.

This off course introduces a lot of extra maintenance and the challenge to synchronising stock levels. On the other hand we are more flexible adding new functionality. Such as an easy search box for SKU's to quickly add products to basket. Also an option to re-ordering certain line items of earlier orders in order history. A different category layout, to facilitate easy search and order options, but also in the near future the ability to upload a csv or xml file with wholesale orders after login.

What are you thoughts on this? Are there any other options?

[pinochico]

We realize this on one instance eshop with B2B plugin to Virtuemart.
We do not want to lose the existing position of the existing eshop.

[AH]

"ptrouw" VirtueMart supports B2C alongside B2B pretty well without any plugins

If the product range is pretty much the same then my approach has been to create Shopper group pricing and control

Note that you can create shopper groups to control many things - not just pricing ( see this basic article http://docs.virtuemart.net/manual/general-concepts/213-shoppergroups.html )

Create new shopper groups

Depending on how you will attract your B2B customers - when they "apply" for Business status - you can add them to the relevant shopper groups

Prices can be easily added to existing products and set for a specific shoppergroups
E.g. You can add a few "wholesale gold" shoppergroup prices and "wholesale standard" prices to existing items

You dont need a price for every item - just those that you wish to differentiate by shoppergroup

Imagine a wholesale customer A and B

A - can be a member of  wholesale standard AND wholesale gold
B - can be a member of  wholesale standard

When A logs in they see and get the wholesale gold price IF the product has a wholesale gold price set - otherwise the drop to the wholesale standard - if there is no wholesale standard price they get the basic retail price
When B logs in they see and get the wholesale standard price IF the product has a wholesale standard price set - otherwise they get to the  basic retail price

You can also use this strategy to offer different payment types and shipping methods etc

[loppan]

Hi all, just wanted to contribute with a real world example .

I do both B2C and B2B from my shop, I need accurate stock control and it's convenient to keep all the sales reports in one place so this is the best way to achieve this I believe.

I would say 90% of my orders are retail though, so whenever I get contacted for wholesale orders I just register the person (or ask him / her to sign up) and add the user to my "Wholesale" shopper group.

I don't offer all my products on wholesale, but those I do I add to a special category "Wholesale", and add wholesale prices for the "Wholesale" user group (based on quantity if you so wish).

Now, when a user is logged in and added to the shopper group he can visit www.mydomain.com/shop/wholesale to see what I offer on wholesale.

I do not offer invoice payments for B2C customers but B2B customers gets an "Invoice"-option, because I know most people I deal with and there's no problem for me to ship in advance. Wholesale orders are generally much heavier so I also have set up special shipping methods (generally I have to check the cost first and add it to the invoice later so there's even a 0 zero cost option (to be invoiced later).

Works like a dream, Hallelujah, Virtuemart is so flexible .

Best

Peter

[AH]

Now, when a user is logged in and added to the shopper group he can visit www.mydomain.com/shop/wholesale to see what I offer on wholesale.

No need to do this if you offer most products to both types of customer  - for many it is the price that changes significantly - rather than the range - but all options can be accommodated using VM.

How you manage payment and invoicing / dispatch is down to your business processes.

Registering Business customers up front is useful as well and the shoppergroups they are part of can influence a lot of what they see

[loppan]

Now, when a user is logged in and added to the shopper group he can visit www.mydomain.com/shop/wholesale to see what I offer on wholesale.

No need to do this if you offer most products to both types of customer  - for many it is the price that changes significantly - rather than the range - but all options can be accommodated using VM.

Of course not but in my case - with around 200 products but only around 10 of them available on wholesale it makes sense to give them their own category page I believe . But definitely not needed, no, but in my case it's a good solution.

[AH]

Yes I can see that for your example - it may work well where you have a very limited product range. 

It should be noted that you cannot restrict a category display to a specific shoppergroup, you can however (if required) restrict the display of items to specific shoppergroups -

You must be handling the view of this category in some other manner (I expect a restricted Joomla menu item ?)

Anyhow thanks for your clarification and business example

[loppan]

You must be handling the view of this category in some other manner (I expect a restricted Joomla menu item ?)

It's a hidden menu item and I give the URL to those who need it . I explain in the category description that this is the specific wholesale catalog and they should contact me if they want to see the correct wholesale prices.

For my business it works great .

Anyhow thanks for your clarification and business example

I'm glad if I could contribute to the thread .

Have a nice day

Peter