X-Cart forums

[shan]

i really think that ship to address should NOT be saved in customers table and should not be asked for at all during resistration

90% of users want to ship to the billing address so why confuse them

just have an option to ship to a different address at checkout stage and then store that info in the orders table. setting this up during registration just means that if a customer returns they have a ship to address that they may have used once but dont want to again.

Im working on a store at the moment where Im having to try and fix the messy way of doing things and the way its been handled up to now is just plain bizare

I wonder how many lost sales have occoured on all the xcart sites out there because of this clunky checkout procedure that we have had going all this time

we should always imagine shoppers to be (without wanting to be rude) stupid and not programmers or web savy people. if a cash point or vending machine confused people they would not use them. if the store confuses customers they do not buy things..... even if they want to

keep it simple. think as a shopper when dealing with the flow through the store. In fact think as a shopper when designing anything apart from the admin area.

[NuAlpha]

Originally Posted by shan

i really think that ship to address should NOT be saved in customers table and should not be asked for at all during resistration

90% of users want to ship to the billing address so why confuse them

just have an option to ship to a different address at checkout stage and then store that info in the orders table. setting this up during registration just means that if a customer returns they have a ship to address that they may have used once but dont want to again.

I tried to work out a solution to this issue early on but it turned out to be more complex than I liked so I simply implemented a JavaScript "shipping address same as billing address" checkbox (also checked by PHP on the server of course) during customer checkout.

What I really wanted to see was everything beyond name, email, and password requested at checkout only. In the 2 years we have been in business, and the thousands of orders filled, we have only had THREE people register without first entering the checkout process. All but those three would back-out of the registration page as soon as they saw it

I can't remember if this is the case already (as we have enhanced the checkout process so much), but when a customer goes to change their shipping details or login during checkout they should NOT be redirected to an insecure page as any browser warnings that display may make them nervous about completing the process.

Originally Posted by shan

we should always imagine shoppers to be (without wanting to be rude) stupid and not programmers or web savy people. if a cash point or vending machine confused people they would not use them. if the store confuses customers they do not buy things..... even if they want to

More like too busy to learn a new way of doing things if they can't figure it out in 30 seconds or less. I'd recommend to anyone to read the web developer book "Don't Make Me Think!" by Steve Krug if you haven't done so already.

[Light Speed]

Originally Posted by NuAlpha

In the 2 years we have been in business, and the thousands of orders filled, we have only had THREE people register without first entering the checkout process. All but those three would back-out of the registration page as soon as they saw it

I get about 3-5 registrations a day and about 10 orders a day but I have streamlined my registration page so it is not so scary

[cherie]

Originally Posted by shan

i really think that ship to address should NOT be saved in customers table and should not be asked for at all during resistration

90% of users want to ship to the billing address so why confuse them

just have an option to ship to a different address at checkout stage and then store that info in the orders table. setting this up during registration just means that if a customer returns they have a ship to address that they may have used once but dont want to again.

I can definitely see your point. It should be optional. And I can see someone wanting just the opposite. For example, during this time of year I buy stuff for family members and when I buy at some major online stores it asks which address I'm sending the item to. It shows all the previous addresses so I can choose who to send it to. This would be very handy.

So maybe it would be nice to have one address, then at checkout have an option to send somewhere else, choose the ship-to address from a list of places I've shipped to before or choose to enter a new address.

[shan]

Originally Posted by cherie

I can definitely see your point. It should be optional. And I can see someone wanting just the opposite. For example, during this time of year I buy stuff for family members and when I buy at some major online stores it asks which address I'm sending the item to. It shows all the previous addresses so I can choose who to send it to. This would be very handy.

So maybe it would be nice to have one address, then at checkout have an option to send somewhere else, choose the ship-to address from a list of places I've shipped to before or choose to enter a new address.

for the most part though i would say people buy stuff for themselves. the main point here is to make the checkout as simple as possible for the majority of orders.

how much simpler would it be to have one section that asks for your name, address, email, telephone etc and have a final checkbox that asks if you would like to ship to a different address.

this way you greatly simplify the form they initialy see and still have the option for people who send gifts to others

having an adress book to choose from is a nice addition but the main focus should be on simplicity and getting users through the checkout as painlessly as possible and their money in your account

users can browse your nice new store till the cows come home but if they dont make it through the checkout your wasting your time and theirs

[cherie]

Originally Posted by shan

for the most part though i would say people buy stuff for themselves. the main point here is to make the checkout as simple as possible for the majority of orders.

how much simpler would it be to have one section that asks for your name, address, email, telephone etc and have a final checkbox that asks if you would like to ship to a different address.

this way you greatly simplify the form they initialy see and still have the option for people who send gifts to others

having an adress book to choose from is a nice addition but the main focus should be on simplicity and getting users through the checkout as painlessly as possible and their money in your account

users can browse your nice new store till the cows come home but if they dont make it through the checkout your wasting your time and theirs

I couldn't agree more. That's why everything should be optional.

[Stephen Hatton]

Hi All

NuAlpha wrote:
Another nicety would be if stored and encrypted credit card information was accessible by the customer at checkout instead of having to re-enter the information again each visit. This would further streamline the checkout process for everybody's favorite type of customer...the one that comes back for more.

It would be nice to have the credit card number partially masked for repeat customers unless they change it on screen with another card number.

ie. 5353xxxxxxxx4324 (that is credit card type and checksum)

or xxxx xxxx xxx5 4324 (that is one digit of card and checksum)

On my site the masking was easy, but I couldn't get the passing of variables to the javascript happening when they changed the number in the input field (I did ask the forum for some help). I just need some more learning and experience.

But if it could be incorporated into V4.1, it would be more friendlier for the customer.

I would leave the customer to manually enter the ccv number every time as a guarantee that they have the card though.

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton

[technicaldata]

Originally Posted by shan

yeh just to bring this thread back on topic now is the time for everyone to dive in and take a look at 4.1 beta.

if you dont have your say now you can hold your breath for another year

what we should be looking at is bug reports / comments on usability etc

if there is something that has bugged you using x4.0 and before nows the time to have your say..............

Okay, how about the Real Time Shipping modules? You know, the gigantic, elephant like bug in the room?

[shan]

Originally Posted by technicaldata

Okay, how about the Real Time Shipping modules? You know, the gigantic, elephant like bug in the room?

you should give more details, links to threads etc if you want to be heard

[cherie]

Originally Posted by shan

what happens if you list all the products you want to change in admin...

- choose modify selected
- choose options etc

does this apply the options to them all ?

That way or using "search and modify." It doesn't seem to work if a product already has options or already has the same amount of options. In other words, prod1 has 1 option, add a second option, it gets added to prod2 that has 1 option, but doesn't get added to prod3 that already has 2 options. Not sure if there's a correlation there, just an observation.

It seems it would be best to be able to create one option, then attach that one option to multiple products. Later the price for one option item can be updated without having to modify each products' options.

It would also be nice to optionally show the price in the variant menu the customer chooses from.

In a nutshell, it's really difficult to manage product options for lots of products.