Issue 9, March 19, 1996

This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on shopping carts and transactions.

• Outgrowing a Simple Order Form, or How to Know Whether You Need a Shopping Cart Program?
• Should You Locate Your Store in a Mall?

Outgrowing a Simple Order Form, or
How To Know Whether You Need a Shopping Cart Program?

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

If you're like a lot of our readers, you've toyed with the idea of selling products directly over the Internet. Two events have coincided to make this a very attractive opportunity:

1. AT&T has announced five hours of free Internet connect time for each of its customers, and $20 to $25 per month for unmetered service. This is likely to bring a whole new wave of people onto the Internet over the next few months. It will also force local Internet Service Provider (ISP) access fees to remain competitive.
2. VISA and MasterCard agreed several weeks ago to develop common security standards for on-line credit card purchases. When these are in effect by later this year, I think we'll see a rush toward on-line stores, and a rapid expansion of on-line commerce.

Wise entrepreneurs will be positioning themselves now so they are ready by the time the wave of ready-to-buy shoppers comes. Maybe you're one of those would-be on-line store owners.

For a store with more than a few products, you need a virtual "shopping cart" in which your customers can put their products. (You don't want their virtual arms to be so full they begin to drop things on your virtual floor!)

Just what is a shopping cart program? It is software that resides on your Internet Service Provider's computer which aids your customers in shopping from your on-line store. The image is one of an invisible shopping cart. You like a product? You click on the "order" button, and voilà! It is placed in your invisible cart, and the total of all the products you've picked up so far is displayed with tax and shipping charges calculated for you. When you get ready to check out, you can change your mind and remove the item from your cart, and then purchase what's left. This is slick software, and really convenient for your customers.

But do you really need it?

If you're only selling a few products, you can probably get by with a simple Web page form which takes the customer's name, address, phone, order, and credit information. Wilson Internet Services includes this kind of form with all our Web site packages six pages and larger.

If you'd like to better understand the substantial abilities of a simple one-page order form, take a look at our demo at http://www.wilsonweb.com/demo/descript/simple.htm

This simple form is designed for you to experiment with, and will send you e-mail so you can see the kind of feedback you'll receive from it. (Also refer to Web Marketing Today, Issue 5, January 22, 1996, "The Marketing Potential of Web Site Forms".

But when you begin to sell many products, or products which have a number of variable factors, you'll see the limitations of the simple form. Shopping cart software enables your customers to:

• Place an order for a product on the same page as it is pictured and described. Let's say you have 50 products. With a simple form your customers would have to write down the product name and catalog number so when they get to the order form they can remember what they wanted.
• Order two or more items. With a simple order form, if you leave it to find another product, it's too easy to erase the information you've already put in the order form. Frustration!
• Select multiple numbers of a single product while specifying different colors and sizes. With a simple order form if you want to order 5 blue T-shirts in large, 3 blue in medium, and 6 small shirts in chartreuse (who would ever pick that color!), your form would be overwhelmed. Just to prove it to yourself, go and try this out on our demo form.
• Total all the items along with tax and shipping charges. Simple forms don't do any calculations.

A year or two from now there'll be thousands of former Web store owners. They'll say, "We tried to sell products on the Internet but no one would buy anything." What they won't tell you is that they tried to set up an on-line store without the proper equipment. That would be like opening a "Seven-Eleven" convenience store without the convenience of shelves, carts, and cash registers. You could put all the products out there and just have one sign: "Pay the man next to the door before you go out."

When you plan to do a retail business, I'm sure you know you have to make the buying environment attractive and hassle free.

So do you need shopping cart software for the on-line store you're dreaming about? If you've just got a few products, probably not. But if you're planning to sell seriously on the Internet you can't afford to skimp on the essentials. This is an essential.

Should You Locate Your Store in a Mall?

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

I suppose I'm prejudiced, but I don't like putting my future in someone else's hands unless I believe they have my best interests at heart and that they aren't controlling types.

These are some questions to ask when you're considering placing your store in an on-line mall:

• Do they allow you to advertise your store independently of the mall?
• Do they take a percentage slice of your monthly income?
• Do they generate enough traffic and provide enough services to warrant their charges?

Malls promise to bring you more window shoppers than you'd have all by yourself. Typically, they will place an ad for your store near their front door, at least several times a year, much like stores on CompuServe do with their "What's New" list.

Another service malls commonly offer is a built-in central purchasing system. Thus you don't have to pay for shopping cart software up-front. Instead, you pay for it in higher fees over a period of time.

The way shopping cart software works, however, is to bring the customer into what is called a "state" in which the shopping system is functional. To do this you bring them in through a specific "front door". Once in this "state" you may be able to purchase items from any store in the mall, and pay once. The mall often takes care of the whole system.

Practically speaking, however, the only "front door" address which is advertised on the Internet is the mall's address, not yours. If this is the case, your potential customers can't enter your shop from the "outside" because then they wouldn't properly come into the shopping "state." Without your own unique Web address (URL), you can't market your own presence on the Internet. You have to rely on the mall owner's marketing savvy, persistence, and creativity. (Not all malls operate this way, but be sure you ask the right questions when you inquire.)

Since purchasing is controlled centrally, you may not even be able to find out your customers' e-mail addresses to contact them later.

Make sure a mall is the environment in which your store can really flourish. And when you're considering the pros and cons, realize that you can probably join the world's largest on-line mall for no charge whatsoever, and with no strings attached. When you consider the modest costs of setting up your own store's purchasing system and independent identity, you may well decide against the restrictions and costs that some malls impose.

If you have found this issue of Web Marketing Today to be of value, would you please forward it to a business associate who might also gain from it? Thanks.