Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

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William M
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Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by William M » Tue Feb 17, 2009 7:52 am

BVC5. Too much "The dog ate my homework"

Just wondering how much cleaning up I'm going to be doing assuming there is a tool/ability.

Anyone else move over? How'd it go? Third parties?

afm
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Re: Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by afm » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:44 pm

Hello Michael,

I have written one for StoreFront and could help you with BVC5 (I'm quite familiar with the product and data). The scope of work depends entirely on how much data you want to bring over. Not the number of rows, but the types. Each type would be a yes/no decision from you. Each yes would be additional work:

- Physical Products
- Digital Products
- Gift Certificates
- Product Variants
- Categories
- Customers
- Customer Address Book
- Vendors
- Manufacturers
- Orders
- Payments
- Email Templates
- Workflows

And probably some more that I can't think of right now.
Andy Miller
Structured Solutions

Shipper 3 - High Velocity Shipment Processing

William M
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Re: Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by William M » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:12 pm

Thanks. Andy to the rescue - again.

Still digesting. I'm so busy right now I'm thinking of just dumping it all on someone's desk. Any reservations working with one of the 3rd parties, Web2 for instance?

Damn, I'm frustrated. I've got so much on hold... a 2nd site, maybe another next year too.

afm
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Re: Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by afm » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:57 pm

William M wrote:Any reservations working with one of the 3rd parties, Web2 for instance?
I have no reservations about that at all. Web2Market are great people.
Andy Miller
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William M
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Re: Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by William M » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:38 pm

Just wondering...

All of my products have modifiers (no choices), some per-product, mostly shared. I'll be playing with a trial store soon, but I'm told that choices aren't shared, but are cloned(?) whatever..., and then edited. On migration to AC, how do products get their choices assigned (if at all)?

Just trying to start wrapping my brain around some of this before jumping in. Can you tell I don't do a whole lot of DB management?

afm
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Re: Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by afm » Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:53 am

Do your modifiers adjust price, weight, and shipping cost (or just price)?
Andy Miller
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Re: Is there a BVC5 migrator? Anyone familiar enough to help?

Post by William M » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:20 am

Yes. One important tool to use when you can't adjust girth, or tell the store NOT to adjust girth is to modify the cost to the customer, even if there's no way to get info to the shipping estimator. Note (cabinet modifier) below that the weight only goes up 7lb, but the girth of the larger shipping container goes up to oversize 2. $14.00 works out pretty much even.

I typically add $1 to 4.00 on the product page as extra shipping fee also to cover the cost of large, sometimes $7.00 boxes/dunnage materials.

Mirrors, for example are offered in two sizes. The large size can increase the shipping container weight and girth by up to 50%. When this increase bumps you from oversize 2 to oversize 3, the shipping costs jump, sometimes by a lot. So... the only way to stay even on shipping is to add weight and a few $ via the modifier.



Not to your question, but..... I'd love to see carts get smarter about size and # of units /box.

IE: First piece is set up on the product page as-is BUT - the size of the shipping container is entered. Weight, WxHxD. The second and any more pieces in the same box add only the size and weight of the piece, NOT the shipping box. Vital is the ability to know how many pieces can be shipped in the first box before a second box needs to be filled and shipped.

A tube of toothpaste can easily ship with 11 more in the same 1 pound, 10x10x10 box for about the same cost. Not so for bowling balls.

(Remember Joe's beads on BVC forum Andy?)

Each product gets 2 entries on the product edit page.

On the tube of toothpaste product page, You'd set up:
First unit: 1 lb, 10x10x10 (the size of the shipping container),
Add'l units, 1 oz, 4x1x1.
Up to 12 per shipping package.

Bowling Balls would set up like this:
First unit: 16lb, 12x12x12 (the size of the shipping container),
Add'l units, none.
Up to 1 per shipping package. Buying 2 makes another first unit sized package

Wall mirror would set up like this:
First unit: 25lb, 36x30x4 (the size of the shipping container),
Add'l units, 20lb, 30x22x1.
Up to 2 per shipping package. Buying 3 makes another first unit sized package

Creation of second, third, fourth packages could then be automatic.

Note that the box for a 30x22x1 mirror is the next standard size box that's larger than the product that's available from U'Line. The next mirror in the box isn't as big as the box by far, and doesn't add the 5 pounds in packaging required to ship the first one, so it rides almost for free because only the weight changed. The second unit's entry shows the actual size and weight of the piece.

As it's set now, one entry per product sets the size of the product, not the shipping container. That can be INCREDIBLY inaccurate when shipping something that needs a lot of packaging around it. Setting costs by volume alone isn't a good fit for a lot of products.

Anyway, if I ruled the world, that's where I'd start to get it right.

I've got some ideas on creating packages that can hold pieces of similar size and types so products - even marked 'ship separately' - can share a ride.

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