e-Commerce help please - loyalty programs

[shags38]

Hello all,

I am new to Affiliate Marketing and need some help from some e-commerce webmaster gurus please. I currently have a couple of sites (dot coms) set up with Amazon who supply the whole box and dice store etc, however I am about to launch a site (AU) for a product line exclusive to me so will be starting the e-commerce section from scratch including setting up my own store etc - at present I am settling for a PayPal checkout because it is simple - then I will try to get my head around ZenCart to expand into credit card transactions ......... anyway here is the main reason for the thread.

Question - I want to include a "CLUB" on the site for loyal visitors and to create loyal visitors by way of offers & special promotions etc.
I need a program that will allow me to insert a "register" and "sign-in" boxes and a registration form (with the registration being only email address and password nothing else). Once they become "members" the only access they will have is to a single page with special offers etc - and maybe there will be facility for comment box - comment via submit email. (no chat or forum facilities required at this stage)

Then of course I need the program to be able to build an email list from the members registrations for me to be able then to email newsletters and offers to those members.

AND - I need the program to be able to recognize "members" to allocate special members only pricing for promotions when they are paying at the PayPal checkout.

BIG ASK ??? Does such a program exist? if not something similar? I would ideally prefer freeware but will pay if necessary. Does Zencart do all the above for instance?

Looking forward to any assistance from the pros please - thanks in advance.

cheers,
Mike
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[FirstPageResults]

In short yes, there are plugins for these things that can be configured.

You need to read the documentation or your going to get nowhere fast.

Given your history of jumping head first into things with out reading the fine print, surely you'd be better off getting a professional to set these things up for you... customisation of open source software can be cost effective and will eliminate any headaches you will run into.

 

[snoopy]

Zen-cart has options for login ids and passwords but doesn't have options for a membership area. There might be a hack to achieve this (though I wouldn't bank on it).

You can process credit cards through a paypal premier/business account. You don't necessarily need zen-cart for that.

If you want a member area then you'll likely need some form of membership software, amember is probably the most effective in terms of bang for buck, around $170 US. Building email lists won't be much of a problem.

In terms of allocating special prices to club members I think it a practical sense you'll be need to link you're shopping cart software with your membership software via a plugin. Haven't done that myself. Not sure how it would go with say the standard paypal shopping cart and membership software, it might work ok.

Another option could be using a CMS like wordpress and getting a membership plugin for it, and a shopping cart plugin for it. I'm really not sure how well the three would work together though.

 

[shags38]

thanks for the responses guys, and for your candor FPR - I can call myself FPR now if #8 on Google counts (not au nor au minus the au) - maybe I should be BFPR- it isn't as hard as I thought it would be, just a matter of knowing what you are doing and putting in many, many hours of hard work. The other 2 sites are languishing at #23 and #52, both in the same search term though "best 3D TV" which happens to be the rising search term according to Google insights.
(p.s. both sites are copies of each other with minor tweaks, one is just on 6 months old, the other 2 weeks).

I have learned a truckload of stuff over the past few months - in here and in a number of other forums - too lazy to read FPR so I ask dumb questions, make silly comments and then read the feedback - in my estimate it cuts out about 74.3% of the crap content.

Snoopy, thanks for your comments / advice. Since making the post I surfed and ........ yes FPR, I did some reading (although one tutorial was a video ) and have seemingly solved my problem, or probably more correctly put I know now how to achieve my aim of encouraging return visitors by forming a club and then being able to effectively email market from the collected data - as far as the special pricing at the checkout - I figured out a solution for myself, at least in the short term, by simply allocating a new part number or extension to a part number for a product on promotion to members only who are advised of that product number via an email alert. Simple but effective I would think. When I get to 10,000 members and 1500 products on special I figure I will need a sophisticated program or an extra 186.45 hours in a month.

Input was appreciated guys.

cheers,
Mike

 

[FirstPageResults]

Haha ok.

There is a plugin for zencart that enables you to do group pricing, you might also what to check out Magento... also has group pricing options.

 

[shags38]

Haha ok.

There is a plugin for zencart that enables you to do group pricing, you might also what to check out Magento... also has group pricing options.

Thanks FPR, much appreciated. Hey by the way I am still struggling with the interpretation of some of Googles Webmaster Tools stats, in particular Search Queries - 48 = average position (#48 ave.), what does 4.0 mean? Google help doesn't help

cheers,
Mike