Custom fields for shop-admin in Commerce

[evcom]

Custom fields are a great feature but from what I understand they are used by frontend (Customers) when submitting an order. E.g. entering, an address, remark, checkbox etc...

It would be useful to have this functionality as well for Admins, in order to create additional product fields. These product fields could then be used to be displayed on product page and during checkout process. It is an essential feature to run an ecommerce shop in Europe. E.g. Both, delivery time and availability of products must be indicated on product page. In addition, on the order review page during checkout, e.g. the main characteristics of the product must be named. Product custom fields would solve this in a relatively straight forward way. 

Would there be somehow a workaround to achieve this using custom fields? Or could this be achieved with a "not to complicated" code modification?
I know that the Pages App has a feature "custom fields in templates", but could this be extended to the Commerce app?

Edited February 2, 2020 by Stefan Kaufmann
rephrasing

[Daniel F]

I have raised an internal suggestion for this because I can see that this could be handy in many ways, but couldn't you just add the delivery time to the product description field?

 

[evcom]

@Daniel F Thanks for raising an internal suggestion for this.

Yes, the delivery time could just be added the the product description and it would then appear in the truncated version just below the display of the price. It would  be a workaround for the "delivery time" and "availability" information. 

Another use case for custom fields is the "short product description" field which must be displayed on the order review page (Germany and other EU countries). A workaround would be to display the truncated product description also in the order review page on checkout. However, I am still looking for a workable solution on this. 

If shipping time and availability is shown in product description and a truncated product description version is then shown during checkout, this would likely not go well together. 
Separate product fields would be a really nice feature here. 🙂

[evcom]

@Daniel FSome more thoughts about the subject...

When thinking about it a little more, the current state of Commerce suits mainly the sale of digital goods such as memberships, software, advertisements etc...Selling such items does typically not require detailed product descriptions. Also the need to describe the "main product characteristics" on the order review page, as required for example in Europe/Germany, is not so much of an issue as the title itself describes the items already pretty well. E.g. "Ad banner space 628x90, 6 months" or "Membership Upgrade, add-free".

Additional product fields, delivery times and availability are less of an issue when it comes to sell digital items. They are typically always on stock and available immediately. 

However, when selling physical goods, Commerce lacks some some essential features to make it an option when using in Europe. Countries like Germany have something called "cease and desist letter industry. E.g. sellers resp. stores not compliant with regulations, may get such letters from lawyers. A costly exercise as sellers are forced to pay from a few hundred Euros up to several thousand. So the risk to get involved into such a case is relatively high compared to areas outside EU.

Although the above cease and desist letter industry is annoying, the ecommerce regulations itself have also a positive side. The rules itself usually make sense and help to make the store more transparent, user friendly and safe to shop. This again should also increase the sale of items. 

Now that Commerce allows to sell physical goods too, it would be very useful to make it more compliant with such standards. It would not only benefit/protect admins in EU countries but also benefit others around the world as their Commerce store would reach a better standard in terms of transparency, usability etc...

[opentype]

1 hour ago, Stefan Kaufmann said:

When thinking about it a little more, the current state of Commerce suits mainly the sale of digital goods such as memberships, software, advertisements etc...

That isn’t true. There are lots of standard Commerce features directly made for physical products. Product dimensions and weight; shipping options; shipping addresses; stock options; product options with varying prices …

Quote

However, when selling physical goods, Commerce lacks some some essential features to make it an option when using in Europe. 

Now that is a completely different argument, since it relates to EU laws not just physical products. My suggestion would be to open a feature request topic in the feedback forum and describe clearly what you (or all EU shops selling physical goods) need. Just asking them to “support such standards” probably won’t do anything. You need to be specific. And have patience. 😉  I’ve been asking for support of EU VAT ID checks during checkout since 2015 and it seems to finally come to Commerce later this year. 

Edited February 3, 2020 by opentype

[bfarber]

You can specify delivery time when setting up your shipping options, and it will show in the store specially.

For other custom fields, could you make use of the "Product Filters" feature?

 

[evcom]

@bfarber, Thanks for linking this helpful article. I really like the feature in Commerce > Store Settings > Store Display > Price Description. Because it allows HTML, I can link to separate Delivery Time and Shipping pages and add legally required text after the price easily. The fact that shipping time is shown during checkout is a great too. 
I am now testing Product Filters to test if they could replace to some degree other custom fields. However, they do not show up when editing the product.
I can't locate the error. I have Categories and Products. I created Product Filters. I added the Product Filter to the Product Category (see picture left) . But they do not show up when editing the product. It only shows the Product Filter Header (see second picture). Any idea why the filters are not displayed? Cache as emptied. Latest Version 4.4.10 is used. Thanks!

 

 

[evcom]

On 2/3/2020 at 9:13 AM, opentype said:

My suggestion would be to open a feature request topic in the feedback forum and describe clearly what you (or all EU shops selling physical goods) need. Just asking them to “support such standards” probably won’t do anything. You need to be specific. 

Thanks @opentype for this suggestion. I keep testing the different settings and options and hope that I can somehow work with the given set of features. E.g. pricing, shipping and availability information should be doable with the given tools. Should there be any functionality missing to make it not safe to use, I will raise the point in the feedback forum. 

What I like so far about the Community Software incl. Commerce is the simplicity in using it. I really hope I can make use of it in my Community. It would be awesome. 

 

[bfarber]

You have to edit the product group(s) that the product(s) are contained within and choose which filters apply to products within those groups.

[evcom]

Thanks, exactly what I did - interestingly the filters showed up a few minutes ago on the product edit page and I was able to apply filters. Tested it in front end. But when going back to the backend, the filters did not load again and only the header was displayed. So settings are correct it seems, but the filters do not load properly. Tried different browsers (FF and Chrome) but no success. Hmm? 

I was hoping that applied filters would be displayed during checkout. This would have solved the issue to have the main characteristics displayed on the order review page during checkout. 
Is there any way to display a shortened description below the product name or the applied filters on the order review page? Or should I raise this point in the Feedback Forum?

[evcom]

Now I've found the culprit regarding the missing product filters. For some reason, they only show if I change in the Admin Panel the Language from English to German. Could this be a bug?

Now just need to find somehow a way to add a shortened product description to the product title in checkout. Do you guys think this is a case for the Feedback Forum? 

[opentype]

12 minutes ago, Stefan Kaufmann said:

Now just need to find somehow a way to add a shortened product description to the product title in checkout. 

Can you give a real-world example of the product types that require this and what those options would be? It would probably help.

[evcom]

An example would be a physical product like a desktop computer. 

Title: IBM Pentium III Desktop Computer
Short Description: Medium Tower, i386, 8Ghz, 400GB HD, 8GB RAM, DVD, VGA, HDMI, PCI
Description: The IBM Pentium III family of computers is the latest addon to IBM. If offers unparalleled performance, both for office and multimedia applications. 
Processor: Intel Pentium III with 8GHz. The 400GB Harddisk from Panasonic comes with dual SATA connectors....etc....etc...

Such feature is probably more needed when selling physical products. Although there might also be a need for example a subscription or when selling an ad.

E.g. Title: Ad Banner 828x90
Short Description: Banner Ad 828x90px, Frontpage, 1 month, subscription renewable
Description: With our top banner ads, your marketing will definitely get a boost....etc. etc..

By just putting more attributes into the title, the second example might also work without a short description. 

The above requirement comes from: Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32011L0083
It basically requires shop owners to display the main characteristics of a product right before the customers orders it. Just putting it onto the product detail page would not be sufficient as this is too early in the whole buying/checkout process.
Here an article that describes it in full detail (german only): https://www.it-recht-kanzlei.de/buttonlösung-informationspflichten.html

An alternative would be custom product fields with the option to selectively display them  on product page and optionally on the order review page. 

[opentype]

I see. Yeah that should be part of the admin-defined product fields, which do not exist yet. If they get added, there could be a checkbox “Show on cart”. 

(P.S. I just checked if Amazon.de fulfills this requirement and they just stick everything in the product title.)

[evcom]

The way Amazon is doing it is a way to satisfy this requirement. Thanks for the pointer! It's probably what I will go ahead with too. 
In some countries this EU directive is implemented/enforced quite strictly, particularly in Germany. While all EU Shops are affected, those that deliver to Germany are a bit more...

What "main product characteristics" exactly means, is a bit open for interpretation. But most legal advisers suggest to name the main specifications. 

As I work through all requirements, I will make a summary of it and once complete, I'll post it on the forums. It might be a help to others to stay compliant too. 

[PatrickRQ]

On 2/2/2020 at 1:28 PM, Daniel F said:

I have raised an internal suggestion for this because I can see that this could be handy in many ways, but couldn't you just add the delivery time to the product description field?

 

Finally! I asked for that since my first week with IPS 😄

[Ole Martin Andersen]

Just hopping in to say that I support this suggestion