Customer Friendly, Cart-less E-commerce Site
Here is a customer friendly e-commerce site for you.
It does not require a shopping cart.
It does not require CGI. It does not require cookies.
It is a JavaScript system.
Your customer orders directly from your order form. The totals, including shipping/handling and any taxes, are added up and displayed on the same page with the order form every time your customer adds an item to their order.
This is how it works:
You make an order form with a short description for each item, which may include an image thumbnail. Within the description can be popup window links to a detailed description. The description can also have a link to a popup window with a large image. The popup window links are optional. Everything except credit card information is provided on this one page.
Your customer can quickly scan what you have available and click for more information or a large image of those items s/he is interested in -- provided you made the popup windows available.
If you have a large number of items, you'll want to have short descriptions and a minimum of thumbnails so your order form page loads faster. But if you have only a few items, the descriptions can be verbose.
With the popup window method, you may have a description page (which may contain images) and/or an independent image for each item. Yet, your customer is not harried with having to click to other pages for order descriptions or totals, and then the "back" button numerous times to return to previous pages.
Your customers always know where they're at. They always know their order total. They provide everything except their credit card information right on your order form.
It is a two-step ordering system:
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Fill in the order form.
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Click the button to provide credit card information on a secure server.
This e-commerce system truly is customer friendly:
Go to the Customer Friendly, Cart-less E-commerce Site demo page at /a/6/pl.pl?67demo and pick up your copy.
Instructions are embedded in the source code of the demo page. The demo page is, as implied, an example of how to do it.
The instructions require familiarity and some skill with JavaScript and HTML forms. If you lack familiarity, practice with the descriptive articles and tutorials found at /a/6/pl.pl?67archives -- among the articles you'll find is "JavaScript Feedback Form", an excellent familiarization project. Also, scan articles in the archives with the word "popup" in the title.
Like any other skill, familiarity and practice instill confidence. And with confidence you can do anything.
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Will Bontrager
©2000 Bontrager Connection, LLC
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