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Alex
VP-CART New User

50 Posts

Posted - September 22 2007 :  10:54:43  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
hello,

I wonder if there is anyway to customise the customer order sequence number or edit it somehow to make it less obvious and only relevant to tracking. I might even consider some letters in it.

Please advise if it is possible?

Alex

Peter
VP-CART New User

125 Posts

Posted - September 22 2007 :  22:46:41  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
This is something that I am very interested in as well.
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Alex
VP-CART New User

50 Posts

Posted - September 25 2007 :  00:24:52  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
So there is no such thing as order numbering reset or change! or it is too complicated to even discuss.
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Scooter
VP-CART New User

USA
102 Posts

Posted - September 25 2007 :  00:30:46  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I looked at what you type but I not know what your talking about?

Can u explain what you want clearer?

S.
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Alex
VP-CART New User

50 Posts

Posted - September 25 2007 :  01:23:28  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I'd like to make orders numbers customised. VPASP orderids are increasing by one. Can I make the orders being generated with some letter prefix.
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support
Administrator

4679 Posts

Posted - September 25 2007 :  01:27:54  Show Profile  Visit support's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Hi Alex

By default the order numbers need to remain as they are.

The actual functioning of the cart rel;ies on the order umbers being set to be autonumbers.

Thanks
Cam

VP-ASP Support
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Peter
VP-CART New User

125 Posts

Posted - September 25 2007 :  02:09:24  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I think it's actually fairly important to hide the order number somehow. I get a lot of information about my competitors simply by watching the rare of their order number increase.

I haven't looked into options of how to hide the order number yet (and I imagine is would be a bit of a pain as the auto order number is used in some url's), but have wanted to for some time as I am sure that my competitors do the same thing.
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Alex
VP-CART New User

50 Posts

Posted - September 27 2007 :  19:33:09  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Cam,

could you at least consider some flexibility in the next release?

thanks
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support
Administrator

4679 Posts

Posted - September 27 2007 :  21:29:17  Show Profile  Visit support's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Hi Alex,

As the order numbers are such an integral part of the inner workings of VPASP we will not be able to change how it works by default.

To be honest I am not even 100% sure what it is you are after here? If you want a prefix to appear before the order number you could simply adjust your email template and place a letter in front of the order id perhaps?

But there is no way of including a letter in the actual order number itself.

Peter, you could perhaps have them set to increase by a set number on the first login to the admin of the day which would change the order to a degree.

This would need tweaking of the code though to achieve.

Thanks
Cam

VP-ASP Support
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Steve2507
VP-CART Expert

590 Posts

Posted - September 28 2007 :  03:46:42  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
I think it's actually fairly important to hide the order number somehow.


I can see your reasoning for wanting a letter prefix for the order number (I don't want one but I can understand why you may like one), but I can't understand why you would want to hide the order number.

If, as a customer, I placed an order with a company and did not receive an order number I would be very dubious about the company and probably look at cancelling the order immediately either via the company or via a chargeback.

quote:
I get a lot of information about my competitors simply by watching the rare of their order number increase.

So to do this you would need to place an order? Or are their sites so insecure that you can login to their order system?

To be honest I think you are worrying about something that isn't worth worrying about. You time would probably be better spent marketing your site and pulling customers away from them, rather than watching how many orders they are getting.

Sorry to be blunt.


Steve
www.clixgalore.co.uk/AffSelectProgram.aspx?AdvProgID=7911
www.temptationsdirect.co.uk

Edited by - Steve2507 on September 28 2007 04:03:03
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Peter
VP-CART New User

125 Posts

Posted - September 28 2007 :  21:10:02  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Steve2507
If, as a customer, I placed an order with a company and did not receive an order number I would be very dubious about the company and probably look at cancelling the order immediately either via the company or via a chargeback.



Of course the customer needs to receive a unique order reference, but it doesn't need to be sequential. Something like CRW-103-DH works just as well.

This is what Alex and I are suggesting above (and I note I wasn't very clear in that respect). Many of the larger online business do it this way.


quote:
Originally posted by Steve2507
So to do this you would need to place an order? Or are their sites so insecure that you can login to their order system?

To be honest I think you are worrying about something that isn't worth worrying about. You time would probably be better spent marketing your site and pulling customers away from them, rather than watching how many orders they are getting.





I am certainly not hacking or otherwise gaining unauthorized access to any systems! For some stores, you don't even need to complete an order to find the order number. In VPASP, you only need to get up to the payment screen and you can see the order number plain as day in the address bar. With some systems, you do need to finish placing an order to find the number.

Anyone that has ever written a business plan should know the importance of analyzing your competitors. Any investor looking over a plan wants to see how the business compares to the competition. Knowing how much business they do helps estimate the size of the market as well.

While I completely agree with the spirit of what you are saying - focus on getting your own business operations in order - I think it is a bit naive to suggest that you don't need to pay attention to what your competitors are doing. Perhaps the importance of this varies with industry.


Edited by - Peter on September 28 2007 22:12:59
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Steve2507
VP-CART Expert

590 Posts

Posted - September 29 2007 :  02:53:25  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Of course the customer needs to receive a unique order reference, but it doesn't need to be sequential. Something like CRW-103-DH works just as well.
Fair point, don't agree but fair point.
quote:
I am certainly not hacking or otherwise gaining unauthorized access to any systems!
Sorry I didn't mean that you were doing anything illegal. I was just questioning if other shopping cart system allowed easy access (useful from a customers point of view).
quote:
I think it is a bit naive to suggest that you don't need to pay attention to what your competitors are doing. Perhaps the importance of this varies with industry.

Yes you do need to know what your competitors are doing with regards to price, delivery options, range of stock etc but the easiest way to look at a competitors financial affairs are to view their accounts, not to start looking at their website order numbers.

If they are not large enough to need accounts then to be honest I wouldn't be worrying about them as competition.
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Peter
VP-CART New User

125 Posts

Posted - September 29 2007 :  23:30:49  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Steve2507
Yes you do need to know what your competitors are doing with regards to price, delivery options, range of stock etc but the easiest way to look at a competitors financial affairs are to view their accounts, not to start looking at their website order numbers.

If they are not large enough to need accounts then to be honest I wouldn't be worrying about them as competition.



How do you get access to a competitors accounts?

We don't have any publicly listed competitors and no private company (either very large or small) is going to let a competitor review their financial records.
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Steve2507
VP-CART Expert

590 Posts

Posted - September 30 2007 :  11:27:43  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hi,

In the UK you have 4 main types of business, sole traders, partnerships, priivate limited companies and public limited companies.

If a competitor is a sole trader then they are small and normally not major competition, the same goes for partnerships. Anyone serious about their business will be a private limited company or a public limited company. Both of which must submit their accounts to companies house (the body that overseas companies) and you can obtain any companies accounts for a fee.

Most countries have a similar set up.


Steve
www.clixgalore.co.uk/AffSelectProgram.aspx?AdvProgID=7911
www.temptationsdirect.co.uk
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Steve2507
VP-CART Expert

590 Posts

Posted - September 30 2007 :  11:37:07  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Sorry forgot to mention.
quote:
If they are not large enough to need accounts then to be honest I wouldn't be worrying about them as competition.

I stand by this. For our main business this statement is correct as all our main competitors are limited companies of some sort.

We are about to embark on a new area for our business (non adult related) and the majority of our competitors are sole traders. To be honest if they are not getting the business that justifies becoming a limited company then I am not going to be looking at them too much.

The competitors I am more interested in are the ones that are limited, these are the guys I am chasing, the ones with takings of £250,000+ per year and £1,000,000+ per year.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to be big headed or condescending. I expect our new business to do something in the region of £50-100,000 in the first year. But I don't see the point in chasing the minnows, its the big fish I want to catch. It is therefore these big fish we need to look at.

Steve
www.clixgalore.co.uk/AffSelectProgram.aspx?AdvProgID=7911
www.temptationsdirect.co.uk
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Peter
VP-CART New User

125 Posts

Posted - September 30 2007 :  20:28:47  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Steve2507
In the UK you have 4 main types of business, sole traders, partnerships, priivate limited companies and public limited companies.

If a competitor is a sole trader then they are small and normally not major competition, the same goes for partnerships. Anyone serious about their business will be a private limited company or a public limited company. Both of which must submit their accounts to companies house (the body that overseas companies) and you can obtain any companies accounts for a fee.


I don't know a lot about company law, other than my own reporting obligations, but I don't think we can get that access in Australia. It's seems a little bizarre to me that you can just 'buy' commercially sensitive information about privately held companies.

In any case, I stand by my assertion that I have gained valuable insight into my competitors (all registered companies by the way) and the market, simply through observation.
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