How it works

1. Vendor registration

Vendors register using the stepped registration form that requires many details and information from the vendor like store name and address, type of orders the vendor is going to offer, delivery zone and fees per kilometers/miles, store opening timings..etc. The system will use all of that information to control the purchase process for customers.

You can either allow/ask vendors to register or you can also do it your self using the registration form, and the best method to do that is by having a meeting with your vendors with a tablet and allowing the vendor to see the process while you enter their information.

The more accurate and completed details you filled on vendor registration the less issues you will face when customers make orders, for example if you put an inaccurate value for the delivery fee, accepted order types, delivery time or zone, you will face a lot of unhappy customers and more likely lose profit.

2. Item searching

Norsani uses some powerful systems to guide the user to his favorite items as quickly as possible, these include:

  1. The main search engine: A smart search engine to search form all vendors and items. The search engine will automatically start searching after the user starts typing few words bringing results as quickly as possible and as accurate as possible ordered by the most matching results at the top.

  2. The favorite system: Registered users and visitors can add favorite items and vendors to their favorites to reach them quickly each time. When visitors add items or vendors to their favorites they will only be their when they open the website using the same device they used when they added those items or vendors to their favorites while registered users can see their favorites on any device after login.

  3. Vendors lists: Norsani groups vendors by their type and create a separate list page for each type so users only browse the type of vendors they wish to order from.

  4. Vendors list filters: Users can use the filters available on the vendor list pages to filter vendors by:

    1. Order type available.

    2. Classification/Category.

    3. Name.

    4. Favorites.

    5. Top rated.

    6. Recommended (according to user purchase history).

  5. Featured vendors and items: You as website admin can select some vendors and items in Norsani admin settings as featured. The selected items and vendors will appear whenever the user starts to use the main search engine just before starting typing. This will allow you to promote some vendors and items to users and drive more traffic to them.

3. Add to cart

Whenever users have found their items they can either click on the + icon on the right to quickly add it to cart or click on the item's name to go to the item's full details page to see more photos on the item, full description and details, leave a review and see related items.

Users can select the way they wish to get each item before adding it to cart. Norsani offers four order types by default but the website admin can select which are accepted on the website and the vendors can select which are accepted on their items:

  1. Delivery: This will require the user's location to be within the delivery zone of the vendor. Users will be asked to set their location before they can select this option and if the selected location is within the delivery zone of the vendor the system will allow selection and calculate the delivery fee from the vendor's store to the user's location using Google Distance API.

  2. Pickup: By selecting this option, users are required to physically go to the vendor's store and pickup their order. Users can simply click on the "Get directions" button on the vendor's page which will direct them to the Google Maps service with directions to the vendor's store.

  3. Dine-in: This is same like Pickup except it will allow the vendor to know that the user is going to dine-in so they can do any preparations like table reservation.

  4. Curbside: This is also the same as pickup and dine-in except it will allow the vendor to know the method of pickup.

4. Checkout

After users have added some items to cart, they can - at any time - edit their cart to change quantities, add discount coupons and view detailed total amount and go to checkout page.

On the checkout page, users will need to choose their preferred payment option from the available payment options. You will have to setup your accepted payment methods during system implementation. The Payment system is controlled by WooCommerce so you can add any payment gateways support by Woocommerce, there are hundreds available on the web.

5. Order processing

After user completes submitting the order, the complete amount of the order goes to your payment account associated with the payment gateway the user have chosen. If the payment was confirmed, the order will appear on the vendor's orders dashboard page under the processing tab, and if the vendor was online at the time the order was made the system will play a notification tune to get the vendor's attention.

The vendor then starts preparing the order, and finally change the order status to completed when order has been delivered. The order then moves to the completed list.

6. Money distribution

Each of your vendors have a balance meter on their dashboard home that will display their current website balance.

After receiving the order and during preparation the vendor's balance meter is kept unchanged until the order status is changed to completed. At that point, you fall into two situations:

The customer has paid online?

In that case, the actual money is hold by you, but in numbers the system will do the following:

  1. Get the order total amount.

  2. Deduct any fees/commissions set by you on the vendor.

  3. Add the remain number to the amount (number) in the vendor's balance meter.

The customer has chosen an offline payment like Cash on Delivery?

In that case, the total order amount is paid to your vendor - including your fees/commissions - after delivery so the system will do the following:

  1. Get the order total amount.

  2. Calculate your share from the order total according to the fees/commissions set by you on the vendor.

  3. Deduct your share from the amount (number) in the vendor's balance meter. This is like if the vendor has made a withdraw from their balance.

However, you can change this behavior if you are the person doing the delivery service and receiving the actual amount of the order.

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