Ordering Options

Ordering Options allow you to provide your customers with variations or customization of your products. ShopSite allows you to create pull-down menus to allow customers to select various options (such as colors or sizes), and you can even modify the price of the product based off the customer's selection. In addition, ShopSite can include a text-entry box for each product. You can use the text-entry box alone, or in conjunction with the pull-down menus, to allow customers to customize the product (such as including a monogram or a special message).

Order Options Pull-Down Menus

Creating order options pull-down menus is a very simple process. When you are adding or editing Product information, the Order Options Description textbox allows you to provide information, such as a description or instructions, about the menu. You can then create the menu contents in the Pull-down Menus textbox. All you have to do is type each of the options into the text box in the order you want them to appear, with each option on a new line:

Option 1
Option 2
Option 3

To create more than one pull-down, simply leave a blank line between lists of options:

First Option 1
First Option 2

Second Option 1
Second Option 2
Second Option 3

Special Rules

ShopSite allows you to include options in your pull-down menus that do something special, such as modifying the product price based off the selection. The following Special Rules exist:

Rule Name	Rule Indicator	Rule Description	Rule Example
Invalid Option	n	A comment or option description, useful for instruction. It is not a valid selection and the shopper can not checkout if the product in the cart has this option selected.	Select a Color;n
Increase Price	none, +	Adds the value after the indicator to the product price.	Metalic Ink;3.75 Gold Ink;+4.50
Decrease Price	-	Subtracts the value after the indicator from the product price.	Black Ink;-0.65
Multiply Price¹	*, x, X	Multiplies the product price by the value after the indicator.	Set of Two Pens;*2 Set of Three Pens;x3 Set of Four Pens;X4
Divide Price¹	/, %	Divides the product price by the value after the indicator.	No Extra Ink;/2 No Storage Case;%3

As illustrated in the examples in the table above, to indicate a special rule, simply put a semi-colon (;) at the end of the option description, then put the indicator and the value. For example:

(Ink Color);n
Black (-$0.15);-0.15
Red
Blue
Silver (+$0.45);+0.45
Gold (+$0.65);+0.65

Note that the semi-colon, rule indicator, and value are not visible in the pull-down menu. If this were a real product, however, the customer would not be able to purchase the product if the Ink Color option were selected. If the customer selected Black ink, one of this item would cost $0.15 less than the regular product price, and 3 of this item would cost $0.45 less than the regular product price.

Because the rule is not visible in the pull-down, it is usually a good idea to indicate the affect a rule will have on the selection, either in the pull-down description or in the option description itself (as in the example above). Because the invalid options are usually descriptive, and the customer will be prevented from adding the product to the cart or checking out with an invalid option selected, you may not need to do anything special to indicate such options.

As the semi-colon is used to indicate the end of an option description, you can not use a semi-colon as part of the description. You should also avoid using any other reserved characters (such as ", ?, <, >, etc.).

Advanced Options

Advanced Options requires an understanding of the basic ordering options, as it builds off of them. Instructions for Advanced Options can be found here.

Using Pull-Downs with the Text-Entry Box

You can use the Text-Entry Box to allow the customer to add information such as customization instructions. This can be done alone, or in conjunctions with the pull-down menus. For example, if you were selling pens that could have a monogram engraved on the barrel, you could have pull-down menus to select a font and the number of letters to engrave. The customer could then enter the actual letters to be engraved into the text-entry box. By using a pull-down for the number of characters, you have the option to charge per character, and to set a clear limit on how many characters can be engraved on the pen. You can also alter the price based off the font selected.

Select the font and number of characters for your monogram:

Enter the characters you want in your monogram below. Enter upper-case letters if you want them engraved in upper-case, or lower-case letters if you want them in lower-case. We will only engrave as many letters as you select above, regardless of how many letters you enter here.

¹If Special Rules are used before switching to Advanced Ordering Options, any multiplication or division used in the Special Rules will be ignored. Multiplication and division can, however, be added back in to individual product options using the Advanced Ordering Options.