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There are several different ways to take orders over
the Internet depending upon the needs of the business
and the budget available. Generally, even when implementing
the most complicated solution, the more simple solutions
are available to the consumer as well. The goal is to
make it as easy as possible for the consumer to place
the order and to ensure there is a solutions for every
comfort level.
The most inexpensive solution is to ask your customers
to send you an email, or make a telephone call. Another
inexpensive method is to create a "fax back"
form that is an easily printable form that can be outputted
to a printer, filled out, then returned by fax or mail.
It is best that you do not encourage your customers
to send you credit card numbers through email or cellular
phones as these methods are the most easily intercepted.
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Most methods of taking orders over the Internet are
much more complicated, however. Relatively speaking,
the most complicated solution is a specialized computer
program called a shopping cart. The degree of complexity
is still quite varied between different shopping carts,
however they all work basically the same way. They allow
a customer to view information about a product and choose
the number of items to order, collect information about
the customer, and then report the entire order to your
company. A very complicated shopping cart would interface
with an inventory database, collect payment information,
verify the validity of the payment, and then contact
a fulfillment house to arrange shipment. In conjunction
with a complicated database, the shopping cart could
operate completely on its own. A simple shopping cart
would take orders, collect payment and shipping information,
and email the information to someone in your company
to further process the order.
In all cases, Kreck Design Solutions can help you choose
the right shopping cart solution and implement that
software on your site.
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