" A programmer created a website to sell cars. The website was very beautiful and user-friendly, but it wasn’t generating any sales. The programmer was desperate and didn’t know what to do.
One day, he decided to ask his friend, a designer, for help. The designer looked at the site and said, 'Your site looks great, but it’s missing one small detail.'
The programmer asked what detail it was missing. The designer replied, 'You need to add a "Buy" button to your site.' "
Today, I’m trying to connect an online store to our website at https://elmitech.eu/. The website is built on the Odoo platform, so the store will also be on this platform.
DEVELOPING THE ONLINE STORE
Goal: Develop an online store so we can start selling our products as early as tomorrow.
In the Odoo system settings, I activate the E-commerce app. This app is included in the standard license, so no additional payment is required.
Our product list and prices have already been entered into our Odoo database, so they immediately become visible on the site, although only in developer mode for now. Before showing them to all visitors, a few settings need to be configured.
Product Display Settings
First, you need to decide and specify in the settings whether to display out-of-stock items in the store. You can also choose whether to show the available quantity of products in the product card.
For those selling products with specifications (e.g., phones, electronics, etc.), it’s useful to enable product comparison on the website.
You can also assign related and recommended products to each item.
Product Categories
Our store doesn’t have a lot of products, but for user convenience, I’ve grouped them into categories. This makes it easier to search and filter products in the online store.
If there are a lot of products with a multi-level grouping, having group-based filtering on the site is crucial.
Prices
Prices in the store can be displayed either including or excluding VAT. If you're selling within the domestic market or to individual customers, it’s better to display prices with VAT included.
However, since most of our clients are businesses located in different countries, I choose the option to "Display prices without VAT" and add information above the product list stating that VAT will be calculated after the customer inputs their details and the applicable tax rate is determined.
By the way, different prices can be applied for different customers (or customer groups). The personalized price becomes visible once the customer registers on the site.
The cost of our services depends on the amount of time worked, so next to the service cost, we display the unit price (in our case, the hourly rate). Whether or not this information is displayed can be set for each product individually.
For products with discounted prices, I enable the price comparison mode. The old price is shown crossed out.
And of course, various discounts, coupons, gift cards, and other loyalty programs can be applied.
A little surprise
For our clients, I’ve added a little surprise. When selecting certain products in the cart, they can receive an additional discount.
A small tip: The discount applies if, in addition to the main product, you add several items of a low-cost (but still worthy) product to the cart.
Payment Options for Orders
By default, the store offers bank payment, and you can proceed to payment directly from the order.
However, I wanted our clients to be able to pay more easily, for example, by card. The Odoo system offers this option, providing a list of providers through which payment can be made by card or via PayPal.
Shipping
For product delivery, the customer can specify a shipping address in the order. There’s also integration with some popular shipping systems.
In our case, since we provide digital services, this feature is not very relevant for our store.
Once the order is paid for, our clients gain access to a reporting system that allows them to track the progress of their order and monitor the time spent on its execution.
Publishing
That’s it – all the settings are done. Now all that's left is to select the products from the list and publish them by clicking the corresponding button.
You can now see our products by visiting the link https://elmitech.eu/lv/shop.
And if you’d like, we can help you create a similar store.
You can be sure that we won’t forget to add a "Buy" button to your site!