Let shoppers make an offer in OpenCart.

Adding a Make an Offer button to OpenCart

OpenCart has no way for a shopper to name a price. A contact form gets you an e-mail, and then you have to issue a coupon anyone can reuse, or edit an order by hand.

This extension adds a button below Add to Cart. The shopper offers a price for the options and quantity they chose, you answer from one inbox, and an accepted offer becomes a single-use price in the cart. It suits high-value goods, end-of-line stock and bulk quantities, and you can limit it to the products and categories you choose.

The offer flow

1. The shopper opens the dialog, full-screen on phones, and enters a price. Guests add their name and e-mail and tick the consent box.
2. Automatic rules may answer at once, with "Your offer was accepted!" and Add to cart at offer price.
3. Otherwise you answer in Sales, Offers: accept, counter or decline, with a message.
4. The customer answers from My offers or a signed e-mail link, and can accept, decline or make a new, higher offer.
5. Add to cart at offer price applies the deal, for that shopper, until the deadline.

How the agreed price is applied

The agreed price shows as a negative order total line, such as "Accepted offer #12", below the sub-total. This is deliberate: the product price stays the same, it works with every theme and payment method, and taxes are calculated on the agreed price. It covers the exact product and options, up to the offered quantity.

A second order with the same offer goes to your fraud status, as a used coupon does, and a canceled order gives the offer back.

Rules and defaults

The current price includes special prices, quantity discounts and option prices. Rules work per product, per category or store-wide, and a hidden minimum price per product accepts offers at or above it. Shoppers never see these values.

Against abuse: one open offer per product and options, five open offers per customer, three per product in 30 days, 10 guest offers per connection per hour, and a hidden spam trap. No raw IP addresses are stored, and personal data of closed offers is erased after 365 days by default.

The inbox has status tabs, a pending badge in the menu, and statistics including acceptance rate, average discount and revenue at offer prices, with CSV export.

Good to know

OpenCart 4 closes expired offers with its cron job. OpenCart 3 has no cron, so it closes them when the admin or an offer page is opened. Coupons, vouchers and gateways work as usual with the offer total. Advanced Promotions works on the price after accepted offers, and Abandoned Cart Recovery leaves offer-priced products out of its coupons, so there is no double discount.

The Make an Offer settings guide covers discount levels by margin. Get Make an Offer on the store.

Setting sensible thresholds

Start from your margin, not from a round percentage. The auto-decline default of 50% suits a store with healthy margins, but a store on 20% margin should raise it, or switch offers off on those products. Set a hidden minimum on your most expensive items, where a quick yes wins the sale. Answer pending offers within a day or two, because a shopper who is waiting is also comparing.

For a store with many categories, use category rules rather than product rules. They take minutes to set, and each field resolves separately, so you can keep a store-wide auto-decline and vary only auto-accept.

Compatibility

OpenCart 4.0.2 to 4.1.x and 3.0.3 to 3.0.5, with separate packages in one licence. Tested on 4.1.0.4 and 3.0.5.1. OpenCart events and a standard order total, with no core changes, no OCMOD and no theme edits.