Testing out Fluent Cart
Here is what is missing in my opinion. Manual order is great. However, my services are sometimes custom. It would be great to add a custom product without adding a new product. I am sure others will understand in my position. From an accounting stand-point its like adding a line item. I have numerous clients locally that I create a custom service that I do not want my entire customer base to have access to. It is very unique to the individual client.
Think of it like invoicing a client on a custom service.
Or another work around. Allow a private product to be used in creating a manual order. This would confirm my decision to go live with fluent cart.
FYI - current stack is FLUENT cart, booking, community, crm, forms.
My intention is to ditch woo, ditch all the over-bloated plugin heavy crap lol
We shared some similar ideas recently!
Totally agree :)
Not sure if it will suit you case, but we shared how a PWYW feature (pay what you want), could allow the creation of one unique product, and custom prices while creating manual orders.
We have been doing this for years with other platforms, and works seamlessly. And if there’s any need of customization, we usually add memos (notes) and custom footers.
Would love to see this in FluentCart too!
In the end, just proper care for service providers 🙈
PS.: being able to use private products has also been reported many times. Hopefully we can see that in an update soon!
Jorge de los Reyes I came across a post of yours and absolutely agree. Service providers are never thought about. I've been using WordPress since the beta version this is an ongoing issue. Not to be an @$$ but when developing software/plugins the one thing that most developers miss in real world capabilities.
Carly Hahn totally agree.
I think this comes from a common misconception: e-commerce is often understood only as physical or digital products, while services get lumped into a vague “digital” category.
🤦♂️ In practice, very few tools or platforms truly pay attention to service-based businesses (or are designed by people who actually understand how service industries work).
Services should be a category of their own. We’re clearly in a digital economy 🙈, but many plugins and platforms are still stuck in outdated classifications.
Everything is framed around “scalability”, when the reality is that most SMEs are primarily service-driven.
Sure, building a SaaS or a plugin company is exciting (but along the way, you end up hiring a lot of people and managing complex service operations… often without the right tools to do so 😂).
Jorge de los Reyes I love your response!! The misconceptions about providing a service is even treating them as a bookable service. Although, my company does offer live sessions, we also provide services that are not scheduled per se. What I would loveeee is the capability to upload a pdf, etc to the clients account (account page) as a deliverable. Since the document is unique to the client. I have tons of ideas LOL
Carly Hahn Facts! (Services are not just about $/h; but about $/value)🥇😂
I jumped into that discussion a couple of months ago while thinking about automating the delivery of contracts, terms, and other documentation.
I quickly realized there are two very different use cases:
• documents for clients
• documents for members
For client documents, I think it was Thomas Oates who pointed us toward WP Cloud integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, and similar providers. That led to a really solid setup: especially for client-facing docs. You can automate uploads, use templates, and even auto-generate documents. I played around with it a bit: very cool and interesting if set right!
For member documents, though, I still think tools like Fluent Community really need CPTs (specifically to build proper resource and deliverables libraries).
Of course, you can build this yourself. But how many companies already have a massive headache just thinking about how to create a library that is:
– partially public (shop / showcase),
– restricted for clients or members, and
– actually usable and well structured?
A lot of creators face this when building intranets or communities (offering resources). And in the end… you either share a Drive folder or spend way too much time trying to design a protected but visible resource library that still communicates value.
Maybe someday we’ll see this handled natively:
– access to general client documents,
– browsable community resources via CPTs: you know, add course, add space… add resource!
– and per-service documentation.
To be fair, the last one is already partly solved through some very solid add-ons (and there are a few interesting projects emerging around FluentCart as well that cover things like service status, roadmaps, terms and so. Things that everybody can fully understand that are out of the scope for many cart tools, and are more on the management side).
PS.: Andre Gois was recently asking about what kind of issues are stopping users from launching their communities. As an example: I know quite a few that are stuck with this kind of things 😅. Probably, there are a lot of fears and excuses, procrastination, insecurities and so around not launching because of this minor things. But when you see so many creators struggling with the same issues… hey! You may have found something interesting there :)
Jorge de los Reyes Agree wholeheartedly just posted in the Community space lol CPT would be amazing for sure. An actually integration with Google Workplace would be a game changer personally. Not only for documents but video recordings for the client. I have been looking at this. Set the customer folder, where all documents / recording could be linked via automation inside the customer account via fluent cart is what I am thinking. The point and the way my brain works, just having a central location where a client can access deliverables.
Carly Hahn check out WPcloud plugin (Google Drive). You can connect via API , and sync with the Wordpress user.
So: Fcart purchase > folder create > and you choose: create from template or custom content.
I do not think you will see anything as smooth!
Now I have a couple things to add on that note. In the orders screen where you copy a direct link to send to a client why not add an option to choose the client to send to? Whether an integration with CRM or built into Fluent cart. I mean if the intent is to compete with Woo lets DO THAT!! What does Woo have that Fluent Cart does not? And vice versa! Apologies my days or project management and software design is showing again ha ha
If a private product could be added to an order manually that would be great in general. I haven't looked at it so I don't know what's currently possible here.
F. C. Currently when you search products any products set to private do not show up
Carly Hahn Ahh, that's inconvenient.
I totally get your point as I am in the same service-based industry, and our pain point is the order status stages which I hope will improve in the next release.
- An order can be fully paid but not yet completed (we need to update those separately) - apart from downloads each order needs to be manually fullfiled by our staff ( offer the service)
- An order can be fully completed but not yet paid (pay later but the work is done for the known clients)
- Partial order payments (we need that)
- Email notification on order placed - an email should be sent to client and let them know we have received their order and we are working on it, an email is sent to the admin alerting them abut the new order (this is not happening on manual / cash payment) . after the service is marked as complete an email is sent to the customer notifying them the service / order is complete
Totally agree. The feature is a must! In service industries, such as agencies offering design/app development/marketing services, many projects are often custom tailored to each project's requirements - this is how we do it via manual billing (off eCommerce). With such feature, it allows bridging "offline" projects to online system seamlessly, together with standard services like subscriptions and digital products ‒ all in one place!