Payments in multistore cart

[Antonio Sánchez]

Hi.

 

I'm trying to understand multistore.

 

In a multistore configuration, a cart with mixed products from different stores, the payment is attached to the store from which the purchase is finally committed. I was expecting that all of the stores involved in the purchase were connected for payment. I believe I am misunderstanding payment process in multistore so I would appreciate if you can explain how it works.

 

An example:

1. www.mymultistoresite.com/store1 sells product1, 10$, and accepts bank transfers on account ####1
2. www.mymultistoresite.com/store2 sells product2, 20$. and accepts bank transfers on account ####2.
3. Multistore configuration: share customers, stocks and carts.
4. Customer logs in.
5. Customer adds to cart product1 from store1.
6. Customer adds to cart product2 from store2.
7. From store2 customer proceeds to checkout (30$) and completes the purchase.
8. Customer is given account ####2 for paying 30$.

While I was expecting that account ####1 was provided for paying 10$, and account ####2 for paying 20$.

 

I'm using here bank transfers for simplifying, and I have not tried with other payment methods but I guess it is the same thing. For instance, using a credit card this issue would be transparent for the customer, but I guess that the payment would be processed for store2.

 

In summary, it does not make sense for me that store2 receives the payment for product1 which is sold by store1, not store2. It sounds buggy. What makes sense for me is that store1 receives the payment for product1 and store2 for product2, and all this being transparent for customer. 

 

 

Please help me to understand this. Thanks.

 

Prestashop 1.6

 

PS. How does Amazon deal with this? Are payments directly and automatically distributed among involved stores? Or is the payment centrally managed by Amazon, who then distributes the corresponding quantities for all of the participating shops in the purchase?

[bellini13]

Your customer doesn't really know about store1 and store2, correct?

 

They visit either store1 OR store2.  So let's assume they visit store2 based on your example above.  This means that their customer account, cart, order etc... will all be originated under store2.  So any sales will be associated to that store2, as well as the payment options. 

 

I believe you are incorrectly thinking that multi-store is a marketplace.  It is not, instead think of it as a convenience feature for merchants that own many ecommerce businesses and only want a single Prestashop installation

 

 

PS. How does Amazon deal with this? Are payments directly and automatically distributed among involved stores? Or is the payment centrally managed by Amazon, who then distributes the corresponding quantities for all of the participating shops in the purchase?

 

I have to imagine that Amazon has spent millions of dollars to create their marketplace, and has some complex features for managing the collection of payment for an order, and distributing those payments back to the products seller.  I wouldn't try to compare PS multi-store to the Amazon marketplace.

Edited July 1, 2015 by bellini13 (see edit history)

[Antonio Sánchez]

Thanks for answering.

 

I believe you are incorrectly thinking that multi-store is a marketplace.  It is not, instead think of it as a convenience feature for merchants that own many ecommerce businesses and only want a single Prestashop installation

 

You are right, That was my mistake.What I had in mind is this.

 

What I find confusing, if multistore is just such a convenience feature, is the reason why customers, stocks and carts are permitted to be shared. It should not be allowed, in my opinion. I believe this led me to thing of multistore as a marketplace.

 

Anyway, is there any module/theme/solution for using Prestashop as a marketplace? Or is it completely unconceivable and unrecommended to even think about implementing such a feature? According to your comment about Amazon it seems a full-fledged marketplace implies a big big investment, out of the scope of Prestashop. But anyway, do you know of any other tool featuring marketplace functionality?