INTRODUCTION TO SHOPPING CARTS
| Construction of your shopping cart can be done in a number of ways. The fastest way to get a working shopping cart on your website is by setting up a Custom Cart package on your site. The Custom Cart package is a complete set of code already constructed which you can modify completely to your site's own look and feel. The most common way to construct a shopping cart is to present the items available for purchase, and then the ensuing sequence of adding an item to the cart, displaying the subtotal, showing the final total, proceeding with the transaction, and order status notification. Adding an item to the cart can be done with Additem, Fillcart and DeleteItem. Next in the process is showing a Subtotal, where preliminary total information can be gathered, like Discounts, Tax and Shipping options. Prior to actually accepting payment, you collect all the shipping and customer information at the Purchase page where your customer is presented with the final order information. You then proceed to the order status and verification pages, where the transaction results are displayed and the confirmation emails are sent out. PLANNING YOUR CART The first thing to be considered is the presentation of the cart itself. Do you have a large inventory of items you wish to make available, such as a jewelry or video store, or one or two items such as a software package or newsletter? Will you be shipping the items to your customer or making them available on a pay-per-download basis? Do you wish to display multiple items on one web page or devote an entire web page to one product? Do you want to take your customers to a separate section of your website for shopping, or have them begin adding items to their cart right from your homepage?
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