New Feature Coming Soon: Creating Sets

[iCraft Admin]

We are currently working on the feature that allows sellers to connect related or matching items in a Set. At the same time, you will be able to add discounts for people to "Buy a Set and Save".  This could be a great feature for the holidays, encouraging people to buy more than 1 item from your store. 
Stay tuned for the updates!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

That would be totally cool!

[Unique Bundle]

This would be a good feature, I can't wait to know when it will be available.

[CrystalBridalJewelry]

Yay! look forward to it 

[JaJeJems]

Love that idea!  Looking forward to seeing how it works.

[SoulfulStuff Creations]

Looking forward to this feature very much!

[iCraft Admin]

That's good to hear that there is some interest in this new feature. 
While working on it, we came across a few things that we need to make a decision on.

As you know, we have different types of discounts offered on the site.

• Sellers can place individual items on sale.
• They can also create Coupons which they'd email to their potential buyers directly.
• Plus, they can setup a "Thank You" Coupon, which will be mailed out to their buyers automatically, after they make a purchase from them.
• Now, we are introducing Sets, which offer buyers discounts for purchasing more than 1 item.

On top of that, there are 3 types of discounts - % discount, $ discount and Free Shipping (Worldwide or to specific countries). 
The challenge is in creating rules around various discounts, so they don't overlap when they shouldn't.

Here are some scenarios for you, where we are trying to make decisions, that hopefully, will make sense to both buyers and sellers.

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Scenario 1

Let's say you have a Set for Product 1+ 2, which offers buyers 30% off.
When buyer clicks on "Buy a Set" button, our system will automatically give them 30% discount.
But what if buyer adds those 2 products to their shopping bag one by one, should we still group them into a Set and give them a 30% discount?

If the answer is Yes, then what about next scenario?

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Scenario 2

You have 2 Sets:
Product 1+2 = 30% off
Products 2+3 = free shipping worldwide

When Buyer adds products 1+2+3 individually, which discounts should we apply?

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Scenario 2

Buyer adds:
Set for products 1+2 = 30% off
Product 3 - at a full price
Then adds a coupon - 20% off

Do we apply 20% off to subtotal or to product 3 only?
Should we make a hard rule that Coupons with % discount don't apply to discounted items?

What about $ Discounts and Free Shipping? Should we apply Free Shipping from a Coupon to both Sets and Products on Sale?
Looks like Min Purchase amount has to be a required field for All Coupons. Otherwise, there could be situations when buyer would not have to pay for their purchase anything at all.

Anyway, here are some of the puzzles we are trying to solve.
Looking forward to your input on this. Thanks!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Re: Overlapping discounts (excluding sets):
In most cases, I generally find where multiple discounts *could* apply, the one that gets them the most bang for their buck is the one that applies.  Can there be a formula that calculates each discount individually, compares them, and then chooses to apply the biggest discount and exclude the others?

There should be a button on the cart that says: "Calculate best discount."
If the buyer changes the cart at all, they need to press that button again to calculate the correct discount.
If the last action in the cart is anything other than that function, a warning should pop up when they try to continue: "Did you refresh your discount?"

Re: Discounted sets
I think the discount for sets should overlap with all other discounts.  It's a different nature than the other discounts.  It's like letting the buyer create a new listing.  If a buyer could create a new listing and then went to check out that listing, they would also get % discount for a repeat customer or free shipping or a sale price, etc.  So, I think the "sets" discount should apply all the time.

I also think that if a customer accidentally creates a set by having both items in their cart, they should be given the set discount.  That might alert them to the fact that sets exist and might encourage them to look for more sets.

Those are my thoughts.

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks for the feedback, Fairy Cardmaker! 

Not sure how difficult it will be to calculate the best (biggest discount) by comparing them to each other, like what's bigger 15% off or Free Shipping on the entire order? We know where to ship a bit later during the Checkout process, not at the time when people drop products into their shopping bag. So their shipping address would affect their savings amount. We'll have to see how this could be done.

[elizanne]

I like the idea of discount sets, I can think of where I would use it.  I agree with Fairy Card Maker - if the buyer puts items individually into their cart that makes a set, the discount should automatically apply, letting them know that sets are available.  I love it when I am in a store and unknowingly purchase multiple items that qualifies me for a discounted price and the cashier lets me know.

If a customer buys items 1 + 2 as a set, the set discount will apply.  If the customer then adds item 3 which has free shipping, the free shipping should only be applied to item 3.  For instance, I have my shipping set up with a combined rate.  I would think of the set as a singe item, so my shipping rate of one item would apply, add item three, which has free shipping, and the combined shipping rate would apply.  A US customer would therefore pay $3.00 for the set, and the charge of $1.00 would not be charged.

Could you set up sets in such a way that we could select whether we want coupons to apply to them or not.  That would leave it up to us to make that decision.  I haven't used coupons yet so I am not sure if we can make that distinction on the coupon.

[iCraft Admin]

FYI. We are aiming at releasing Sets functionality over this weekend, so you could start using it this holiday season.
So stay tuned! 

[iCraft Admin]

Good news. We just released our new feature - Product Sets!

We were able to allow sellers to place same products into multiple sets.
Also, we are now flagging products that belong to a set to customers during the Checkout process, that they have added individually, without knowing that there is a set offering them a discount.

The only thing we didn't add yet is overlapping discounts between sets and coupons. That function proved to be super complicated and required a lot of re-engineering of our shopping cart functionality. So for now, the message customers will see when they try to enter a coupon after adding a set into their shopping bag is "Discounts can't be combined. Coupon will not be applied to already discounted items.".

Please try this new feature and let us know how it works for you.
Here is a help article explaining sets in more detail.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I wish I had more time!  I have a few Christmas Tree cards that I did in multiple colours.  I was waiting to list them individually and then combine them 3 for X$ (by applying a set discount for the "tree set" or something!)  I think it's too close to Christmas now, but I'm going to give this serious thought.  (I have ideas for other sets!)

Thanks Admin.  The instructions looked easy enough.  I'll try it out when I have more time to create, photograph, list and, hardest of all, decide what to take out of my shop because I'm at my plan limit and don't have enough time to maintain enough listings to make the next limit up worth it.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I DID IT!  I introduced a SET!
https://icraftgifts.com/fairy-cardmaker

[iCraft Admin]

That's great, Fairy Cardmaker! Was it easy to set it up?
Has anyone else used our new Sets feature?

[Fairy Cardmaker]

It was very easy.  First, list the products, then pluck them from your listed stuff to make a set, then use the drop downs to control you set discount type (by $, by %, free shipping...).

Then I previewed one product and I can see how it shows the existence of the set in the product listing.  I really like this feature and will work on more sets.

[iCraft Admin]

That's good to hear, Fairy Cardmaker!
We are now listing sets on the left on your store page as well, under "Great Deals" along with Free Shipping and items on Sale.