9 Modules that will Improve your Drupal Commerce Store
Drupal Commerce is a whole ecosystem thanks to which an online store can be constantly expanded. On drupal.org – the website where the Drupal community provides its solutions under the Open Source license – some modules can improve online sales depending on your individual needs. Below, I present nine examples of commerce modules that can be extremely helpful in everyday store management.
Commerce Product Tax
CPT is a module with which you get an interface that allows you to choose different tax rates for a product. The Commerce module always selects the default rate for both the type and the tax zone, but thanks to the fact that CPT provides the "Tax rate" field, you have the option of choosing a reduced or zero rate for products exempt from taxation.
To use this solution, create a "Tax Rate" field for a product variation, edit it and select the rate you want. It is important that as a consequence of this action the field will be automatically detected by the CPT module.
This is an extremely important function for companies that must have rate selection options for their sales.
Full information and instruction manual for Commerce Product tax you can find here.
Commerce Invoice
Drupal Commerce is a large ecosystem, and the Commerce Invoice module provides flexible and powerful options for creating patterns for invoice numbers. CI has four such patterns: subsequent numbers, daily, monthly, and annual dates. In addition, you can create your own custom numbering method. However, an integer is added to every pattern, which makes the particular number, and thus – the invoice, unique.
Invoices also have their own statuses: pending, paid, cancelled, pending return, and refunded. You can update the status list yourself.
You can also update orders, which results in creating a new invoice in relation to the already existing one. In such a case, the unpaid invoices are cancelled, and those that have been paid will be refunded.
Commerce Invoice has the Commerce Invoice PDF sub-module. It allows for generating invoices as PDF files and storing them in a private directory. CI is an extremely useful module, and thanks to the automatic operations listed above, it also allows you to save time.
More information you can find here.
Commerce Add To Cart Link
The Commerce Add To Cart Link module allows you to use a link to add a product to your cart. It can replace the standard "Add to Cart" form.
When can it be useful? Wherever there is a listing and presentation of many products on a website, surely. The links are secured with a CSRF token, so users cannot make a mistake of clicking a link and adding to their cart a product that they do not want to add. However, for the tokens to function properly, a session is being requested for the anonymous user (if it is not already present).
Also mentioned should be the "Commerce Add to Wishlist Link" submodule, which gives the same functionality but with regard to adding items to a wish list. In this case, you will need the Commerce Wishlist module.
If you want to use Commerce Add To Cart Link, your customers will surely be satisfied with this functionality, because it makes navigating the store easier, and ensures a smooth shopping process.
The module is available for Drupal 8.x and Commerce 2.x.
The full specification you can find here.
Ajax Add to Cart
Ajax Add to Cart is a Drupal 8 Commerce extension which is used for adding products to a cart via Ajax. During this activity, a pop-up message about adding appears, but also the items in the cart are being updated, regardless of where on the store's website you are.
This is another convenience for customers who like to interact with the store while shopping, and also like to be sure that the action was performed correctly.
More information about the Ajaxify extension you can find here.
Commerce Simple Stock
The Commerce Simple Stock module refers to the stock levels and makes the work easier for anyone responsible for stock management.
Here are some of its functions:
- hide "Add to cart" if the product's stock level is zero and show the "Out of stock" information
- makes it impossible for a product to be added to a cart if this product is unavailable
- prevents completing the order if the product is not available
- updates (reduces) the product's stock levels when an order is placed
As you can see, the module offers useful solutions and benefits for both the administrator and the customer. If you think about its first function, then it is not possible to buy a product that is currently not available, but the store visitor can still see the product and may be interested in it, and using other Drupal Commerce functions, they can add it to a wish list, enable the notification about availability.
All this means that thanks to Drupal you stay "in touch" with your customer, and the fact that the customer has not purchased at the moment does not mean that they are a lost customer.
Specification of the module is here.
Commerce Pricelist
When may you need the Commerce Pricelist module? For example, in the cases where you want to have:
- different prices for individual users
- different prices for various quantities
- different prices depending on the order date (e.g. during a time-limited discount)
The module allows you to create any combination of the above elements or other non-standard conditions. It works with the ERP system, Excel files. It gives you the option to manage prices independently of the product information.
So if you have many products, many customers and your sales are being strategically planned, then creating price lists in the context of different dates, for different items, and also – in relation to the quantity of an order can be invaluable.
Another convenience is the fact that the prices, apart from being manually modified, can also be imported from a CSV file.
Information about Commerce Pricelist can be found here.
Mailchimp E-Commerce
I think everyone knows how important a newsletter is in online sales… By integrating the Mailchimp E-Commerce module with your online store, you can learn more about your customers and increase your return on investment. The module will capture detailed data on purchases from customers, which can then be used to create personalised, automated marketing campaigns.
Therefore, if you will regularly analyse the behaviour of your store's visitors and present products in relation to their needs, integration with Mailchimp can be one of the most important tools in your sales.
The module supports both Drupal Commerce and Ubercart, and more information is available here.
Commerce Product Add-on
This is undoubtedly one of those options that increase the likelihood that the customer will purchase an additional product during the purchasing process.
The Commerce Product Add-On module allows users to add products as an option to the form for adding another product to the cart. A customer who looks for and finds a product (or service) will be able to use additional products that are related to the main product or complement it.
The module also adds a new view mode for product items, so you can change how the product is being displayed when it acts as an "add-on" mentioned earlier.
Adding additional products to a cart is carried out using rules, so conditions can be added if needed, in order to make it compatible with modules such as e.g. Commerce Stock.
More information can be found here.
Commerce Repeat Order
Finally, one of the modules addressed to the customers coming back to the store.
The Commerce Repeat Order module is based on a link, e.g.: l ('Repeat Order','commerce-repeat-order/%') where % is the order identifier used to repeat this order.
The benefit of the module is, above all, the reduction of time and the entire path of purchasing a product that was purchased by the customer before. It is undoubtedly a response to the customer's expectations by making the purchase process easier for the user. It is also a form of an individual approach and a way to encourage further purchases in the store.
The module's specification can be found here.
Summary
In addition to Drupal consulting or Drupal support, the commerce branch is very important in our agency. I am convinced that the modules mentioned above, which we use as part of Drupal Commerce services, can effectively support your e-sales.
