New feature: eCommerce

[David]

You may check out this page on the official Capitalism Lab web site for the details of the new feature eCommerce:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/e-commerce.html

[brianwiz]

LOVE IT

[Spac3y]

Oh hell yeah !

I was hoping when you clicked on the e-commerce tab youd be able to link you own products, thats killer. Really like that.

One thing to think of is how does that balance in terms of cost ? If you think about the cost to set up and run a new store, will this force you out of actually opening stores as everything will be sold online ? or will it be a suppliment income to the stores.

Loving the feature....Will it be limited to certain goods ? i.e you wouldnt buy a car on the internet itself, youd find one and then go look at it but you wouldnt physically buy it so will some of the pricey items )or bulky be exculded ?)

If so that means I can get my vehicle rental business in the new DLC

[David]

One thing to think of is how does that balance in terms of cost ? If you think about the cost to set up and run a new store, will this force you out of actually opening stores as everything will be sold online ? or will it be a suppliment income to the stores.

The eCommerce web site's visitor traffic volume determines the number of potential customer who will be buying from the eCommerce site.

So the quantity of goods that will be sold via a eCommerce site is not unlimited. In fact, in most cases, it will be a fraction of the physical stores' sales.

So yes, eCommerce will be a supplement to the brick and mortar stores.

Loving the feature....Will it be limited to certain goods ? i.e you wouldnt buy a car on the internet itself, youd find one and then go look at it but you wouldnt physically buy it so will some of the pricey items )or bulky be exculded ?)

The limitation is actually that the eCommerce site can only sell products that are sourced from firms you own. In other words, it is not possible for your eCommerce site to buy them directly from a third-party supplier. Though, you can work around that by using warehouses.

Another limitation is that you cannot select individual products from a firm to be sold via a eCommerce site. If you enable eCommerce sale on the eCommerce UI, then all consumer products from the firm (e.g. a factory) will be linked to your eCommerce site. But the linkage is not exclusive, the factory can sell products to physical retail stores at the same time.

The reason of having these limitations is to make the new eCommerce interface really intuitive to use.

[jared_allister1]

Will I be able to link eCommerce to a warehouse like I can a factory or does it only link to factories?

[David]

Will I be able to link eCommerce to a warehouse like I can a factory or does it only link to factories?

You can link it to any farms, factories or warehouses that are owned by you.

[Spac3y]

About warehouses David.

I find that i just cant fill inventorys. With an input of 9 and an output of 9 inventory never fills. I also find if I try and add another input from a differrent factory it feels like the inventory gets confused (how can it stock two seperate manufactured products in one inventory) so I feel like the actual inventory function in warehouses is actually pointless. Its only decent if you have one input going into it and the deman for the product is less than supply.

[Spac3y]

Will I be able to link eCommerce to a warehouse like I can a factory or does it only link to factories?

You can link it to any farms, factories or warehouses that are owned by you.

So does that mean it could sell the bi products, like steel,plastic,silicon that sort of thing ?

[eleaza]

About warehouses David.

I find that i just cant fill inventorys. With an input of 9 and an output of 9 inventory never fills. I also find if I try and add another input from a differrent factory it feels like the inventory gets confused (how can it stock two seperate manufactured products in one inventory) so I feel like the actual inventory function in warehouses is actually pointless. Its only decent if you have one input going into it and the deman for the product is less than supply.

Do you suggest changing the warehouse inventory unit so 1 single unit can store more than 1 type of product?

As to the function of the inventory unit, it's there to absorb fluctuation, facilitate the upstream factory utilization, or even as a visual indicator that you have insufficient supply (when it's empty it obviously means your can not meet the down stream demand, you are not making money as you should, just increase the price or increase the upstream supply). And the last and the most important function is as a connection node in a very high throughput central warehouse that have like 5 input and 3 output (you can not aggregate 5 input 3 output evenly without using the inventory unit in the middle, you usually don't need that many output units but a lot more inputs for maximum utilization, and the direct connection from input to output will not work in a 3x3 grid, you can try it and see some outputs can not be linked to some inputs, and end up have some source factories overworked while some still idle)

[David]

So does that mean it could sell the bi products, like steel,plastic,silicon that sort of thing ?

e-commerce web sites in the game are B2C and can only sell consumer products.