Help deciding what are products, options, or addons

[risrik]

Hi,

 

I'm in the process of setting products up and wasn't sure what the best way to do it was. I'm not sure what should be a product, an addon, or a configurable option. I have three hosting plans, dedicated IPs, Extra Bandwidth, and digital certificates. Obviously the three hosting plans are separate products, but everything else requires that a customer have a hosting plan. You can't just stop by, purchase a dedicated IP, and be on your way.

 

The Extra Bandwidth is good as a configurable option I think, because it's then charged with the hosting plan. Would a Dedicated IP and Digital Cert be better as a separate product, configurable option, or an addon? To order a Digital Cert, they need a Dedicated IP.

 

What is the best way to set these items up, especially since I'm using PayPal at the moment. I'd appreciate your thoughts!

[chickendippers]

We configure unique IPs as addons and SSL certs as products using the eNom SSL module.

[risrik]

With IPs as addons I suppose you must decide if you want to charge per month or per year. You can't have both. Wouldn't someone who purchases a yearly hosting plan get irritated with the monthly IP charge? Similarly, someone who pays monthly for a hosting plan wouldn't want to pay for a yearly IP. Do you charge yours yearly just because SSL Certs are yearly as well? I'm thinking that customers who buy an SSL cert fom me would be fine with an annual charge, but those that buy them elsewhere might want the monthly charge.

 

I notice that doing it as a configurable option allows a monthly charge only, even if you enter values in the annual or other boxes. What is the point of having Quarterly, Semi-Annually, Annually, and Biennially text boxes that you can enter prices for when only the Monthly one shows anyways?

 

So it looks like if you want to charge monthly and annually for an item, it has to be its own Product. Am I correct?

Edited February 17, 2009 by risrik

[risrik]

If dealing with PayPal, are configurable options or addons better? It seems that if configurable options change, the customer must start a new subscription for their hosting package as well (both are 'combined'). With addons, everything is separate.

 

The problem I'm having is with extra bandwidth and dedicated IPs. Extra Bandwidth comes in varying GB which, as an addon, forces multiple ones, each with its own checkbox (e.g. 1 GB, 5 GB, etc.). But technically you really can't choose multiples. This would imply a configurable option is the right choice. But since configurable options are dependent on the billing cycle, does it make sense to force the customer to choose yearly extra bandwidth? Usually bandwidth increases are just here and there during peak seasons. With regards to PayPal, customers might be upgrading and downgrading their bandwidth but each time being forced to create a new subscription for the entire hosting plan as well. That would imply that an addon is better so that they can upgrade and downgrade at their leisure without affecting their hosting plan. But bandwidth comes in varying amounts and prices that are right for a dropdown and not individual checkboxes... It's a vicious circle!

 

With dedicated IPs, I don't mind the price locking with the billing cycle because if someone buys a monthly hosting plan, they would probably prefer the cycle be the same and not be locked into a yearly subscription. But I think this really should be an addon so that it can be added on at any point. If I do so, I have to create two addons - one for monthly and one for yearly.

 

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this because I can't make a decision. Am I nuts?!