B2B wholesale Private Shop OpenCart

Step 1

Customers will get a zip folder and they have to extract the contents of this zip folder on their system according to your Opencart version.

The extracted folder has admin, catalog, ocmod, system, and theme patch folders. You need to transfer the admin, catalog, and system folder into the Opencart root directory on the server.

Step 2

Once you have uploaded the folders, login to admin panel and navigate through Extensions->Extension Installer and upload the private_shop.ocmod.xml file that you will find within the ocmod folder.

Step 3

After uploading the XML file go to the Extension -> Modifications and click on refresh button.

Step 4

After that, in the admin panel go to System -> Users -> User Groups and edit the group ‘Administrator’ and choose to select all for both Access and Modify Permission for the permission that you want to provide and Save it.

Step 5

To install the extension, tap the install button by navigating through Extensions->Extensions->Modules.

After the installation of the extension, the admin can see the Private Shop menu option in the admin backend side panel.

To configure the module settings navigate through Extensions->Extensions->Modules and tap the edit button for the OpenCart Private Shop.

Tapping the edit button brings up the module configuration settings. Here, the admin can see 2 configuration settings –

General Settings

Here, the admin will first Enable the extension for use.

Privatize Store – By using this option, the admin can privatize either complete store or can restrict some of them like the – Product, Categories, and Customers.

Customer Request To View Private Group – By using this option, a customer can request for the private group for which the admin can approve the customer request.

Add To Cart Warning Message – By using this option, the admin can show the default warning message that will be displayed on the login page after tapping the Add to Cart button. This is only valid if the customer is not logged In.

Product Label Settings

Product Label/Image Status –
If this option is enabled then after the customer logs in, the customer will be able to see the Product Label/Product Image Label on the product.

Label/Image Display Position –
Using this option, you can place the Label/Image to Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right position on the product image.

Product Label Option –
Here, you can choose to set Product label as label Text or Label Image as required.
If you select Product label Option as Label Text then set up the other option for the selection –

Product Label Text – Enter the Product label text that will be visible on the product
Product Label Text Color –  Set the Product Label Text Color
Product Label Background Color – Set the Product Label background color

The admin can also select the Product Label Option as Label Image.
And for this option the admin will –

Select the Product label Image
Set the Label Image Width in Pixels for the product label image
Set the Label Image Height in Pixels for the product label image

Post installation, admin can see private shop menu option with sub-options –

• Manage Private Groups
• Customer Request(s)
• Send Notification Email
• Manage Email Template

Manage Private Groups

Here, under manage private groups the admin can create and delete any of the groups as required.

To add a new customer group tap the Add button at the top-right corner. This brings up the section to add a new group.

Here, for the new group the admin will –

• Choose Store – All the available stores will be visible for selection as required.
• Group Name –  Set the Name for the Group.
• Group Status –  Set the status of the group as enabled or disabled as required.

To save the group, tap the save button. Now, the admin can see the created group visible under the group list. The admin can also edit a group and manage the email template for each respective group.

To edit a group tap the edit button for the respective group to bring up the edit section.

To manage email template for a group, tap the Manage Email Template button and this brings up this section to select or create the email template.

The admin can select a group from the drop-down option, and then prefer to Choose/Create Email Template as required.

Customer Request(s)

Under this section, the admin can see all the requests that have been made by the customers for the various groups along with the status and requested Date.

The admin can approve/disapprove a request and can also see the customer’s request message.

Send Notification Emails

Under this section, the admin can send email notifications to the various created private groups. The admin can add, modify and delete the created notifications.

To create a new notification email tap the Add button at the top right-hand side.

Now, the add new template section appears and here –

• Enter the Email Template Name
• Enter the Email Template Subject and
• Enter the Email Template Message

The admin can make use of various pre-defined placeholder keywords within the email templates while creating the email template.

Manage Email Templates

On the, Product Add Page the admin can see the assigned private groups for each of the products if already assigned under the Private Group(s) column.

The admin can easily assign any of the private groups already created to his products. To do so, navigate to Catalog->Products and add a new product or edit a existing one to assign it to a private group.

Now, navigate to the Links menu tabs. Here, go to the below-mentioned options –

• Private Group Status and set it as Enabled.
• Assign Private Group and select the private group(the created one’s are displayed here) to assign to the product.

On the, Category Add/edit Page the admin can see the assigned private groups for each of the categories if already assigned under the Private Group(s) column.

The admin can also assign multiple private groups to the category by navigating through Catalog->Categories and then tap the Edit button for the category to which you want to assign the private groups.

To assign the private group navigate to the Data menu tab and select –

• Private Group Status as Enabled
• Private Group(s) for this particular category for the option Assign Private Group

The frontend becomes complete private when admin enables Complete Private Shop from the configuration. The guest users can only view the home page and custom CMS pages.

If the complete shop is private then the guest will not be able to add the product to the cart or check any category. When the guest user clicks on “Add to Cart” button or tries to check any category then it will redirect to the login page with a message “ Warning: Please, login first to buy the product!“.

After registering an account at the store, the customer can see a Private product(s) menu option under the My Account option.

The customer can tap on the Private product(s) menu option and a section appears for submitting a request for a particular private group. The customer will choose the group(s), enter the email address, and enter a request message for the same. Now, tap the Save button to send in the request to the admin.

After this the customer can see the list of submitted requests for the private group. The customer can see the Request Status as well that changes to Approved after the admin approves the request for the same. The customer can then navigate to the Private Product(s) section to check the status of the request.

The admin will have to approve this request for providing the customer with access to the selected private group. The admin will approve this request from the admin backend.

The admin can see the request message entered while submitting the request for the private group.

After the request approval from the admin’s end, the admin will see the status for the request as Approved.

The customer can now access the products within the requested private group.

That’s all for OpenCart Private Shop extension. For any doubts or suggestions regarding the extension get back to us at [email protected] or raise a ticket at our  Helpdesk system.