AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

AbleCommerce GoldR10SR1 (build 8620)

We are having some trouble reporting on sales of our products. The standard reports don’t allow us to break down the sales of our products to the individual options. For example one of our products is called ETS for Humans. This product comes in 1/2 oz., 2oz., 8 oz., and a 5-pack of 1/2 oz. bottles. Those size bottles come with a brandy or vinegar preservative option. We have these products setup as one product with multiple options. The product by sales report lists all of these together as one product.

Also, the ETS are part of other “combo” packages, and we would want a report that gives us the sales for each individual option and multiple SKUs, as well as a grand total.

I have tried to pull some data using our custom report writer and while that allows me to break the data down, it still doesn’t report the sales numbers in a useful manor.

Before we tackle this project, we wanted to reach out to you and see what other people do.

- Is there a 3rd party reporting package?
- Have other AbleCommerce customers run into this problem?
- How do other AbleCommerce customers handle sales reports?

We are considering redoing the setup of our SKUs, and we would consider reorganizing our product setup to make the reporting easier.

I noticed in the new features for R12 that there are new sales reports. Is there some place I can review these reports to see if the new ones better meet our needs.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

You can signup for a demo store or checkout the documentation:

http://help.ablecommerce.com/mergedProj ... eports.htm

That answers the question regarding viewing R12 reports.

I was hoping Katie would have some input on our issue and how to address it.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

Have a looked at the Kitting feature? It might give you the information you need without having to create custom reports.

With a Kit, you would have the main product ETS for Humans
Then you would create separate products for each bottle size: 1/2 oz., 2oz., 8 oz., and a 5-pack of 1/2 oz. bottles.
If you don't sell these separately, then simply change the visibility to hidden.

Then create a component for the main product. e.g. Size Options

Assign the products created for each bottle size to the component. You can choose between different display types for the available options. The only thing that Kits won't do is show different thumbnail images for the bottle sizes.

You can try setting one up in your dev store. Place an order and see how it looks on the invoices and reports. You'll have your answer in 10-15 minutes.

Hope this helps
Katie