Shopping Cart - Too Many Steps
 

IMHO, the default cart is a disaster and the mods I've seen both free and for sale all have one fundamental problem. They are just skin upgrades and moving items around.

Is there any reason X-Cart cannot make the checkout process in two steps? Has anyone seen a mod like this?

Screen 1 - log in or entry for customer info

Screen 2 - show cart contents with ability to update, payment type and entry field for that payment info.

Submit then done.

Why does one have to "continue" 4-5 times?

I know this sounds like a rant (please don't move me) but what I am really looking for is a solution that is more off the shelf than having to pay someone to do the mod.

Well the problem with that is, each payment type has a different type of entry screen, so once you select the payment method you have to go to the next step to get the correct form. 3 steps is really the minimum unless you have only one payment method.

That seems reasonable but there must be a way to populate an area with appropriate data based on the payment type. So if the site defaults to CC and a customer selects PayPal, refresh that area with the proper fields.

You could probably argue too that the multiple step approach handholds customers better but I am from the school less is more.

You would need to write a JavaScript routine that refreshed the payment form based on the radio button selected. Not impossible, just one more thing that not work if the customer has JS disabled.