Allow shop managers to set a minimum order amount value

[audez]

What is the need / problem?

Some shops want to set a minimum order amount value, as orders received below this value may not be profitable. (see #253 ) Some other shops want to set up a minimum order value from which they accept Stripe payments, as it wouldn’t be interesting to pay Stripe fees under these amounts.

Which type of users does this problem affect (and how many, if known)?

Shoppers Hub Managers (MCFEs) Producers

Potential solutions that will solve the problem?

In the Enterprise settings, add an option to apply a minimum order value to all orders or to specific payment methods (Stripe, Paypal...) For ex it could look like this:

If the manager chooses to apply the threshold to all orders: the minimum order amount is communicated clearly to customers in the shopfront. If the customer tries to checkout with a cart below this value, they're reminded of the minimum value requirement and redirected to the shopfront.

If the manager chooses to apply the threshold to one or several payment methods, and the customer tries to checkout with a cart below this threshold, these payment types will be disabled and information will be provided to explain why.

Connected wishlist and discovery discussions

Slack discussions: https://openfoodnetwork.slack.com/archives/CG7NJ966B/p1655738772923509 https://openfoodnetwork.slack.com/archives/CG7NJ966B/p1659433999750909

Issues: https://github.com/openfoodfoundation/wishlist/issues/253 https://github.com/openfoodfoundation/wishlist/issues/121

Discourse: https://community.openfoodnetwork.org/t/shops-can-require-a-minimum-spend-before-customers-can-checkout/1350 https://community.openfoodnetwork.org/t/minimum-orders/542

Additional context

The actual workaround is to offer the shop manager to add fees on the payment or shipping methods, using the Price Sack calculator, for orders under a certain value (eg you can add a 50c charge for orders under 5€). This is not exactly answering the need though, as ordering below the threshold is still possible, and it increases the price of orders.

Furthermore, in certain countries (France, Belgium, UK...), adding a fee to a specific payment method is illegal. So the shop manager will have to add the fees to all payment methods, which can be tedious and will impact customers that were not targeted. On the contrary there’s no problem to limit the use of certain means of payment to a minimum amount.

[tschumilas]

We have users who have wanted a minimum order amount for a long time - and who find the price sac fee doesn't quite do what they need. So I"m happy to see this. One question/discussion point - is it better that the option for minimum order amount is applied at the enterprise level (so then it would apply to all shops the enterprise opens), or could it apply at the OC (shopfront) level? That way, an enterprise might have one shop open with minimum spend, but another shop open for different products, without minimum spend.... Most enterprises here use multiple shops for various reasons.... Having the minimum apply here (like fees ) seems more flexibile to me.

[lin-d-hop]

This will need some solid inception and design as it impacts the checkout process - another reason that I deeply encourage the use of price sacks as much as possible since this is an existing, tested, albeit imperfect feature.

@tschumilas Please could you add your specifics as to exactly which cases the price sack calc doesn't work for your users. That will help the inception process. Please explain as if you were talking to a 5yr old with adhd ;)

Agree that this should apply on OC level. I actually think that after we get Backoffice Uplift Products released the next redesign should be for Order Cycles with a big level up that makes this kind of feature easier to implement.

[audez]

Hi @tschumilas and @lin-d-hop, glad to read your inputs! Actually when i wrote "Enterprise" in the issue, i meant "Shop/Hub/Profile". I was thinking it could appear in the "Shop preferences" tab, or maybe in a new tab in the shop settings. I too thought it should be at the shop level so it can be tuned independently for each shop -- But as far as I understand you say it should be at the OC level: do you mean that it would be possible to choose the minimal amount when creating a new OC? It sounds good too. As a disadvantage I see that the manager would have to choose it for every new OC, instead of setting it once if it's at the shop level. I think that for the minimal order amount for Stripe payments, the need was to set it at the shop level. But maybe that's different for other users?

I also have a question for the hubs: how to handle suppliers that are selling through a hub and want to set a minimal order amount? We could advise them to find an agreement with the hub coordinator?

And a last thought: we're adressing the minimal values for individual orders amounts (ie each order must be above 5€). The idea is to block the checkout for a specific customer if their order didn't reach the threshold. But it could also be possible to handle the minimal amount values for the total orders amount (ie the producer will accept to deliver only if the value of all customers' orders is above 100€). This case is much more complicated as you have to warn the customers at the end of the OC if the threshold has not been reached. I know other apps that do this, but I guess we're not going there?

[lin-d-hop]

@audez you are starting ot get into the complexity that is the reason this feature hasn't been delivered :)

For sure the producer side of this is out of scope. This will need a totally different inception process.

Inception required:

• OC or enteprrise level (remember most users create OCs by duplicating so this field can duplicate with the OC and just be set once)
• Impact on checkout. Where and how to communicate to shoppers eg checkout button disabled with a msg, or shopper sees after click etc etc

Given that this impact checkout once the wireframe inception is agreed for the shopper experience I would say we should get some design on it before development.

[tschumilas]

The reason price sac doesn't work for our users - is that price sac adds/removes an amount when an order is over/below a set amount. So (real example with my own shop). I have a wholesale shop. I want all orders to be at least $200. If a customer's order comes to $150 - I want their order total to be adjusted to my minimum - $200. (or block their checkout perhaps.) Price sac doesn't do this. If I set price sac to add $50 to every order under $200 - then a customer checking out with $190 in their cart ends up with an order total of $240. But I don't want to penalize them like this - I just want their $190 order to adjust to my minimum.

Is there a way we can do a different fee calculation to accomplish this? Like if order total is less than x, make the order total = y.

I totally agree it would be nice to do with a fee if we could find a way.

[lin-d-hop]

Further inception questions:

• Do you mean that the checkout button is disabled until the minimum cart size is reached. And an error message when you try to checkout that notifies the user of this. Or at what stage of the checkout process do we disable checkout? Perhaps a warning if you enter the checkout flow without the min spend and by the final stage of checkout if you are under the min amount you cannot checkout?
• Does this need to apply in the case of subscriptions? Or can we assume subs are a separate case we can ignore.
• Can we assume that this applies across the board as a global enterprise level setting? If turned on it applies to all shoppers and all carts with all OCs for this enterprise.
• Or is this an OC level setting? That applies to all carts and customers for an OC.
• Are orders placed in BO exempt?
• Are we happy that this is a min spend before Shipping/Payment fees are added?
• As vouchers are applied in the checkout process, how does this interact with vouchers?

[tschumilas]

I can respond for the use cases here - but welcome other thoughts of course Yes - a warning if buyer enters the checkout flow without the hub-specified minimum spend. And user cannot checkout if minimum is not reached. I don't think this needs to apply to subscriptions. Ideally it would apply to all carts and customers in an OC. I think a hub might have some stores where a min spend is required and others where it is not required. Ideally it would apply to BO orders placed in the affected OC also. Yes - happy that min spend is before shipping/payment fees are added. In taxes not included in prices instances, I assume the min spend is also before taxes are added As to vouchers - I'm not sure - I haven't used them yet. It also makes me think of the scenerio where a buyer reaches minimum spend and checks out. Then something n/a is removed from their order so their order is not below the minimum - what happens then? (Always more things to think about - eh?)

I'd be very happy if min spend only applied at checkout to the 'first' order total. So removing an item from the order in the bo would work. removing cost with a voucher would work. (at least thats my view)

_