Can Magento do what our website needs?

[paulazzz]

Hello Magento Community. 

We are a retail store who is considering going the Magento route. We will be hiring a Magento developer/solutions partner since we are not technical people  

Here are a list of core features that we need. Can this be done via Magento?

Two websites in One?

We want our local customers to see different products and prices compared to customers that we ship to nationwide. I'm hoping Magento can provide an elegant solution for this. 

1. I have seen some extensions that allow you to search for products based on the zip code? but we wouldn't want our shipping customers to be frustrated by having to browse through hundreds of items that are only available locally. 
2. One solution that has been brought up is to have customers enter their zip code even before any pages are displayed and based on their zip code, different products can be shown? Is that doable?
3. Basically we need a website to display large quality of items ranging from $$ to $$$ and we display higher ticket items ranging from $$$ to $$$$ to customers we ship to. Possible?

Stock Synchronized with Inventory?

We have about 3 vendors that we use that sends us their inventory report as an excel file every day ( .xlsx ) We want some kind of a system where we can upload this file and sync the stock levels on the site with the vendor inventory. 

1. We want customers to be able to check the stock item of the vendor inventory and check accurate ETA of how long it takes before it can be picked up at the local store. ( usually 1 - 2 weeks transit. )
2. We would need to have a custom solution built to check the shipping quote for our customers nationwide based on the zip code. We use freight carriers and they will give the developers the necessary tools to achieve this. We already had an extension made for this. It might need updating or tweaking to make it work. 
3. The inventory/accounting software used is Peachtree for the local store. We would also need a solution where customers can also check what is in stock locally at the store. Maybe a solution where we can export the Peachtree inventory levels and have it be reflected on the site? 

So can these be done via Magento? It would also awesome if the community members can recommend a partner who can do this and have the resources and time to commit to a long term relationship. Thanks for any input

[KentChr_DK]

Hi @paulazzz,

Welcome to the forum, please find my feedback below on your questions.

Here are a list of core features that we need. Can this be done via Magento?

Two websites in One?

We want our local customers to see different products and prices compared to customers that we ship to nationwide. I'm hoping Magento can provide an elegant solution for this. 

> > Yes a multistore setup would be needed. One admin with multiple store-fronts

1. I have seen some extensions that allow you to search for products based on the zip code? but we wouldn't want our shipping customers to be frustrated by having to browse through hundreds of items that are only available locally. 
   1. If you setup multistore in magento, you can choose from 3 setup (website, store, storeview), I think that you would gain the greatest advangtages going with website setup. This also brings the greatest flexibilty when wanting to customizing the individuals "stores".
2. One solution that has been brought up is to have customers enter their zip code even before any pages are displayed and based on their zip code, different products can be shown? Is that doable?
   1. Yes - this should be do-able with a custom module, so that that login checks is the customer based on admin-account-details should be redirected to store A or B.
3. Basically we need a website to display large quality of items ranging from $$ to $$$ and we display higher ticket items ranging from $$$ to $$$$ to customers we ship to. Possible?
   1. Can be accomplished with a module made specially for you, or a std. solution like this one from BSS: https://bsscommerce.com/magento-multistore-pricing.html
   2. Also magento allow to control prices on store-level, when changing the price-attribute from Global > Store-view.

Stock Synchronized with Inventory?

We have about 3 vendors that we use that sends us their inventory report as an excel file every day ( .xlsx ) We want some kind of a system where we can upload this file and sync the stock levels on the site with the vendor inventory. 

1. We want customers to be able to check the stock item of the vendor inventory and check accurate ETA of how long it takes before it can be picked up at the local store. ( usually 1 - 2 weeks transit. )
   1. Would need a custom module / spec. development. There are already modules that go some off the way in above description, but still would need customization.
2. We would need to have a custom solution built to check the shipping quote for our customers nationwide based on the zip code. We use freight carriers and they will give the developers the necessary tools to achieve this. We already had an extension made for this. It might need updating or tweaking to make it work. 
   1. Sound like a custom job again, but native / standard magento supports shipping calculated either by wieght / destination (zip-codes), so this should be updated according to your needs.
3. The inventory/accounting software used is Peachtree for the local store. We would also need a solution where customers can also check what is in stock locally at the store. Maybe a solution where we can export the Peachtree inventory levels and have it be reflected on the site? 
   1. Dont know Peachtree software, but seems like there is already a connector-module made, e.g.: https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/peachtree-integration.html  - so this should be "simple" to customize to your needs.

>> Please bear in mind, if you not already aware of this, that SKU's in Magento is 100% unique, this means that no SKU's will be able to be called the same, and also for inventory management (qty) this could give you some challenges. <<

So can these be done via Magento? It would also awesome if the community members can recommend a partner who can do this and have the resources and time to commit to a long term relationship. Thanks for any input

>> I currently only work within Denmark, and therefor also only know Danish companies.. That said, I think you could have a talk with eg. Vaimo, they are a dedicated Magento team with offices worldwide.

Please choose a partner with years of experience and also with certified magento developers.

Hope this helps clarify some of your concerns, if any questions, please let me know.

Thanks.