Better Together Discount Module for Zen Cart

Version 3.2

Author: Scott Wilson https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com

Even more information on this contribution is provided at

https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_better_together.html

and also

https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_better_together_world.html

Overview:

The gold standard of online retailing is Amazon.com. Zen Cart store operators looking to increase their profitability should constantly be asking, "WWAD?" or "What would Amazon do?"

When you look at an item in Amazon, not only is a cross selling recommendation made, a discount is offered to persuade the customer to accept the recommendation. This mod permits you to offer this type of discounted cross selling in your Zen Cart.

You may specify

• Buy item A, get item B at a discount
• Buy item A, get an item from category B at a discount
• Buy an item from category A, get an item from category B at a discount
• Buy an item from category A, get item B at a discount

You may also specify cross sells for any of these variants. Cross sells are pairings like the ones listed above, but without a discount.

Discounts may be specified as percentages of the latter item's price or as absolute values in the currency you cart uses.

Using these discount specifications, messages are automatically displayed on the product_info page offering cross sell offers applicable to that item.

At the moment, linking must be done in code by default. If you wish, you may upgrade to the Better Together Admin Panel; see https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_better_together_admin.html

Detailed Description:

Linkages are specified in the setup() method at the bottom of the file includes/modules/order_total/ot_better_together.php. Several examples are provided.

In addition to linkages, two for one offers can be done for identical products. Linkages will be discussed first.

Four types of linkages may be performed. The format of each of these is the same:

1. first identifier (product or category), second identifier (product or category),
2. "%" or "$" to indicate how discounting is to be done (or "X" for a cross sell), and
3. a number, indicating the discount amount.

Note that where the word "category" is used, it means parent category, which is not the same as top level category for items in subcategories.

The four calls for the four types of discounting are

• add_prod_to_prod()
• add_prod_to_cat()
• add_cat_to_cat()
• add_cat_to_prod()

If a straight two for one discount is what is desired, the calls are

• add_twoforone_prod()
• add_twoforone_cat()

Let's consider two products: product 5 from category 3, and product 2 from category 1.

So suppose you want to offer a 50% discount on product 5 with the purchase of product 2. In the setup() function, add the line

$this->add_prod_to_prod(2,5,"%", 50);

Want to make it buy product 2, get product 5 free?

$this->add_prod_to_prod(2,5,"%", 100);

How about buy one product 2, get one free?

$this->add_prod_to_prod(2,2,"%", 100);

If you just want to cross sell product 5 when product 2 is displayed, use

$this->add_prod_to_prod(2,5,"X", 0);

Remember product 5 is in category 3. If instead of specifying product 5 in particular, you want to discount any item in category 3 by 20% with the purchase of a product 2 item, use

$this->add_prod_to_cat(2,3,"%", 20);

Discount can be done in currencies as well. To offer $7 (or 7 of whatever currency your cart uses), use

$this->add_prod_to_cat(2,3,"$", 7);

(The "$" is just used to specify currency; your cart's currency settings will be respected when computing the discount.)

Remember product 2 is in category 1. If you want to widen the discount to provide a discount of 20% off any item in category 3 when an item from category 1 is purchased, use

$this->add_cat_to_cat(1,3,"%", 20);

Any number of these discounts may be offered; discount computation will be done in the order in which your discounts are specified in setup(), and items will be processed in price order for the first parameter and reverse price order for the second. In other words, the least expensive eligible item will be discounted by Better Together.

Using the examples above, suppose these items are in your cart:

• 1 - Product 2, category 1
• 2 - Product 10, category 1
• 2 - Product 20, category 3
• 2 - Product 5, category 3

and suppose you have coded these discounts:

$this->add_prod_to_prod(2,5,"$", 7);

$this->add_cat_to_cat(1,3,"%", 25);

The following discounts will be computed:

• $7 off ONE product 5 because of ONE product 2 (rule 1)
• 25% each off TWO product 20 because of TWO product 10 (rule 2)

To get $7 off the second product 5, the customer would need to add a second product 2 to the cart.

With the same cart, coding

$this->add_cat_to_cat(1,3,"%", 25);

$this->add_prod_to_prod(2,5,"$", 7);

Would compute the following discount:

• 25% off ONE product 20 because of ONE product 2 (rule 1)
• 25% off ONE product 20 because of ONE product 10 (rule 1)
• 25% off ONE product 5 because of ONE product 10 (rule 1)

Obviously these could be very different discounts!

To create a two for one discount for product 5, simply code

$this->add_twoforone_prod(5);

And to create two for one discount for all products in category 3, code

$this->add_twoforone_cat(3);

Note the difference between

$this->add_twoforone_cat(3);

and

$this->add_cat_to_cat(3,3,"%", 100);

The latter says, "buy any item from category three, and get 100% off any other item from category three." The former says, "all items in category three are buy one, get an identical item free." So if a customer bought items 20 and 30 from category three, a discount would only be given in the latter case.

To make these discounts visible on your product info page, customize the file includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php as described in step 6 below in the installation instructions.
This step will create text like this:

Buy this item, get an item from (link)Levis Jeans free Buy this item, get a (link)t-shirt free

The link is created to facilitate the cross-sell.

This step is optional; if you prefer, you can add your own cross-selling text.

---

Installation Instructions:

0. Back up everything! Try this in a test environment prior to installing it on a live shop.

1. If you already have the Better Together module installed, please deinstall your old copy by going to Admin->Modules->Order Total, selecting "Better Together" and pressing the "Remove" button. Make a note of your settings so you can apply them to the new version.

2. Copy the contents of the folder you have unzipped to the root directory of your shop.

3. Login to admin and in Modules->Order Total you will see 'Better Together' listed along with all the other modules available.

4. Click on 'Better Together' to highlight the module and click on 'Install'

5. Decide on the parameters you wish to use. The easiest way to do this is to open a shopping cart in another window, and just start adding discounts to includes/modules/order_total/ot_better_together.php. The discounts are shown on the second step in "Your Total" under "Better Together."

6. Customize the tpl_product_info_display.php file to advertise your discounts.

7. Put the file includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php into includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/templates if you haven't already done so.

8. Put the file includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_better_together_marketing.php into includes/templates/template_default/templates

(If you did step 3 properly, it should already be there.)

Then add this block of code to the tpl_product_info_display.php file

<?php 
require($template->get_template_dir('/tpl_better_together_marketing.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'templates'). '/tpl_better_together_marketing.php');
?>

The placement of this code is a matter of personal preference.
(There are constraints if you are using Buy Both Now, but otherwise, you can put it anywhere.)

Try placing it below the product description and adjust to your taste.

Note that in version 2.1 and greater, you can use tpl_better_together_marketing_images.php, i.e.

<?php 
require($template->get_template_dir('/tpl_better_together_marketing.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'templates'). '/tpl_better_together_marketing.php');
?>

if you wish to display images in your marketing text.

The cross sells work differently - since there is no discount to be displayed, they are shown more like a regular Zen Cart centerbox.

For instance, suppose your setup function looked like this:

function setup() {
  // Add all linkages here
  $this->add_prod_to_prod(3, 83, 'X', 0); 
  $this->add_prod_to_prod(3, 25, 'X', 0); 
}

When you are on the product info page for product 3, if you add the Better Together cross sell centerbox, you will see products 25 and 83 displayed.

To display this centerbox, simply add the following code to the bottom of your includes/templates/YOUR TEMPLATE/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php file:

<?php
require($template->get_template_dir('/tpl_better_together_xsells.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE,$current_page_base,'templates'). '/tpl_better_together_xsells.php');
?>

Note that cross sells, unlike regular Better Together offers, are not bidirectional; in the example above, product 3 will not appear on the page for products 83 and 25 unless you explicitly add a cross sell statement to do this:

  // ... 
  $this->add_prod_to_prod(83, 3, 'X', 0); 
  $this->add_prod_to_prod(25, 3, 'X', 0); 

If you wish, get a copy of the Better Together Promotional Page by following the links on

https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_better_together.html

The Better Together Promotional page displays all the Better Together discounts you are offering.

Help

Additional Help may be found in the following places:

• The main documentation page: https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_better_together.html
• The support thread for Better Together on the Zen Cart forum: https://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_better_together.html

License

This contribution to Zen Cart is licensed under the GNU Public License. See license.txt for details.