Book Image

Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition

By : David Mercer
Book Image

Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition

By: David Mercer

Overview of this book

<p>The book can be read from front to back, but each chapter is self contained so the reader can skip chapters to read those that they are interested in. Each chapter will move from basic to advanced where applicable and also relate what the administrator (reader) is doing to how this affects what the client sees on the site.</p> <p>So, for example, the customization chapter will start off with a discussion on the concept of design and how to relate this to your business. Once the reader has a clear idea of what they need to do, we look at some really simple changes such as modifying the site's language, before moving to some advanced modifications which may involve some PHP programming. At the same time the discussion will demonstrate how the changes made affect the site.</p> <p>Throughout the book, much consideration is given to the "right" way to doing things. Readers will have the great advantage that they begin, from the very start, doing things properly. This will save them a lot of time and effort in the years to come as they build on and modify their site. Utilizing best practices and sound methodologies is a great asset for beginners and experienced users alike.</p> <p>At all times, the coverage given in this book pays homage to the fact that, ultimately, the reader has a business goal in mind. To this end, the material never gets bogged down in technical issues or long discourses, but rather focuses on what is practically important for the online business and then moves on. To complement this, there are plenty of suggestions and hints as to how and where to look for further information.</p>
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Foreword
Introduction
Index

Cross- and Up-Selling Features


It's a wonderful thing to have a dynamic feel to your website—if there is something new, interesting, and different on every page the customer looks at, then you as the retailer are doing a good job of selling your products. What's more, if you can make the dynamic part of your site show products that are meaningful or helpful to a customer, then your effectiveness as a marketer is increased and so hopefully is your bottom line. But how do you even begin finding out what a customer wants while they browse?

The answer is that you can either track everything they browse and then compare that to what other customers with similar tastes have bought in order to make suggestions, or you can simply apply a bit of knowledge about the products you are selling. As you can imagine, the first option requires a fair amount of effort and cost in order to put into action, but the second might not be quite as difficult. What do I mean by apply a bit of knowledge?

Well, look...