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Checkout Pages
What They Can Do Linking to the Checkout Page(s) Configurations Hanlding Multiple Shipping Options Coupon Processing Setting up the Sales Tax Option Linking to More than one Checkout Page Checkout Pages - What they can do. Your payment processing needs are unique. We've designed several checkout pages that can be easily adapted to meet your payment processing needs. They can be used as is or we are available to custom design specific applications as needed. At a minimum you'll want to provide your business address and probably a logo. The most unique aspect of online payment processing and surprisingly one of the most complicated, is shipping. Standardizing shipping costs is essential for smooth, manageable operations. We've designed several checkout pages that can be easily customized to meet your application. In addition we've put together several other checkout pages with additional options that include things like coupon processing, sales tax or even shipping rates indexed to zip codes. Generally a checkout page is used for all the merchandise selected from one retail location web site, but imagine if you wanted a different set of shipping rates for one product line and another set of shipping rates for a second product line or if you wanted to set up order processing for one distributor and have a different set of rates for a second distributor. You can simply have your distributor's customers link to different checkout pages. The most important thing about the checkout page is that it makes ordering convenient for your customer. Your customer is not yanked off a web page everytime they click 'add' to a shopping cart. Instead, they can click add all day, and they're only asked for payment processing information when they're ready, when they click your link to the checkout page. No fuss no muss. This is how online shopping is supposed to be. It's the kind of shopping experience your customers expect.
The link to the checkout page is just one line of code that can be added to any web page. It reads: <a href = "http://www.programsplus.us/merchants/checkoutPage.html">Checkout</a>" In our demonstrations we use a checkcout icon, a small image of a button with 'checkout' printed on it: <a href = "http://www.programsplus.us/merchants/checkoutPage.html"> <img src = "checkout.jpg"> </a> You might note that the word 'Checkout' has been replaced by the html image tag '<img src = "checkout.jpg">'. This way your customers will see an image of a button that says 'checkout' rather than the text 'Checkout'. Also it could be important to note that the checkout.jpg image is stored on our server at www.programsplus.us so the full URL link with the image tag, in our example, will read: <a href = "http://www.programsplus.us/merchants/checkoutPage.html"> <img src = "http://www.programsplus.us/merchant/images/checkout.jpg"> </a> There are of course unlimited options for use as checkout link images or text. There are little images of cash registers, people, arrows, shopping carts, you name it, that can be used as checkout page link images, not to mention the text. Font sizes abound, from red to blue from Amaze type style to Wingding font types, from 1 pt to 72pt and up. Once you see what we're doing with our little checkout page image link you might want to design your own and we'll be happy to install it in your web space to be used as part of your link tag.
As of this writing we have checkout pages set up with multiple shipping options, coupon processing, and multiple payment options. These have been designed with economy in mind in order to provide fast efficient adaptation to different business requirements.
The first of the checkout Pages is set up for multiple shipping options. The options range from 1 to 4. Typically option 1 will be USPS, option two will be FEDEX, etc. The rates are programmed for each one of these options by setting a base rate (this should include handling costs) and a poundage weight. It's important to point out that the OrderBar applet collects shipping weights for each product your customer selects. You can set this weight by entering it as a applet parameter. When your customer is done, they click checkout, and the tally is delivered to the checkout page and the tallied shipping weight is also delivered for shipping cost calculation. A typical example might be where option 1 is labeled UPS and a base rate might be $8.50 and 35c /lb up to 25 LB. For tallied weights between 25 and 50LB the base rate might be $10.50 and 20c /LB. For rates between 50 and 100LB the base rate might be $12.50 and 15c per LB. These of course are not accurate, just example figures. The typical example might go on to label shipping option 2 as USPS (post office) and the rates might be $6.50 for a base rate and 25c / LB for weights below 50LB, $8.00 base and 20c/LB for weight between 50 and 100LB, etc. With this package we will set up your customized checkout page with up to four shipping options, each with a base rate and pound segmentation up to four segments each. That's a base rate for example, $6.50, the first weight segment being 0 to 25LB, the second being 25 - 50LB, the third being 50 to 100LB and the fourth being over 100LB. We'll try and remain flexible beyond that and your suggestions are greatly appreciated. The most cost effective way to manage coupons on a checkout page is with blocks of numbers. The block of numbers can be any range of numbers in an even larger range of numbers, making it difficult to guess. For example if the coupons honored must match a number between 980 and 989, then it would take a hundred random guesses if some one knew the coupon had to be a number between 1 and 1,000, If we pick a range of 500 between 1 and 1 trillion the person would have to hire fifty people for twenty years to make random guesses (2 billion guesses) before they found the range of numbers that would get the coupon discount. In order to write this into the web page code we just compare the range of numbers and deduct the stated amount from the total. For example if the coupon is worth 75c and our range of numbers is between 500000 and 501000, and someone enters 500005 into the Coupon Validation code box, 75c is deducted from the order total. If a separate coupon is worth 50c and the range of numbers is between 40000 and 40200, 50c would be deducted from the order total if someone entered 400110 in the coupon validation box.
The code for this is entered directly into the web page code using JavaScript, suitable for a liberal coupon policy as the code is visible upon source code examination. We will enter up to two coupon values and 1 range of number each included with the price of your purchase. Additional options that require customization fees include adding the coupon numbers to a Java class file where they will not be visible in the page source code, adding server side script files and unique number comparison, generally in a comma delimited text file.
We will set up one sales tax option, if needed, based on a percentage of the net sales. We quite simple multiply the net sales by the sales tax figure and add that to the total due. You can note how this is accomplished in JavaScript by examining the checkout page source code. The sales tax option also comes with a check box. This allows your customer to make the choice. Mandatory methods can be customized, but are usually considered unecessary as the order is confirmed before processing.
OrderBar applets can be placed on any web page on any site. They all call the same class file, for example, located at http://www.programsplus.us/merchant/classes/OrderBar.class. Any OrderBar applet, on any web page, that calls that class file will add its product to the tally that will be displayed on the checkout page. The key to all this is that the checkout page calls the same OrderBar applet, in this case at http://www.programsplus.us/merchant/classes/OrderBar.class. You'll notice if you examine the checkout page source code, that the OrderBar html applet tags are included at the end of the page. When you purchase your online ordering system we will place a copy of the OrderBar.class in a URL file location just for you to use. If you're setting up product lines for distributors we can place additional copies of the OrderBar.class file in separate URL locations, one for each distributor and then orders will be tallied only for products calling the distributors specific OrderBar.class file. This also includes a separate copy of a checkout page that calls the same OrderBar.class file. A similar procedure can be set up for individual product lines, or as a means to provide separate handling for separate products. The inverse is to have separate checkout pages call the same OrderBar.class file. This can be handy if you want to set up different handling or order processing arrangements for any of a number of reasons. This would be visible on the web page as separate links your customer can click for different options. You don't want to make it too complicated for your customer to order and we can only do so much with the budget allotted. With your package we can set up two checkout pages for you to choose from, and up to four OrderBar.class file locations to call. Plus we will work towards expanding our library of checkout page types and styles to choose from to make future customization as inexpensive as possible. |