Good ecommerce check-out tips

16-Apr-2009

FROM: Good ecommerce check-out tips

A summary: "...only 2 out of 10 people who visit the checkout will actually buy anything. Tips to help:

1. Remove registration from the checkout process – Research from Econsultancy indicates that registration pages at the beginning of the checkout process contribute to checkout abandonment as this can be time-consuming, off-putting and often tedious for those who have forgotten their username or password.
2. Don’t ask customers to duplicate information – if a customer has keyed in their name and email address, make sure this data is populated automatically as the default value if the information is needed in another part of the order process, for example for billing and delivery.
3. Use additional services to make it easier for the customer, such as automated address lookup. This can reduce keystrokes and save time by up to 80%.
4. Don’t collect data you don’t need – have a valid business reason to collect the data
5. Make sure the layout is simple and clear, with any steps to purchasing labeled and progress clearly visible. If you have more than 5 steps, you probably have too many.
6. List all the relevant information such as delivery costs and times, on the main part of the website to ensure there is no interruption to the buying process and no nasty surprises when payment is finally required. Hidden charges are another reason customers may abandon the checkout."

Writing PHP code

16-Apr-2009

I’ve just downloaded jEdit onto a notebook for "on the move" - actually more like "on the sofa" - website editing. So far, I’m really impressed. Like many web-programmers I write my code in Dreamweaver. I bought Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 several years ago, for several £100, and use it on my main computer. Why? Mainly because familiarity breeds speed. Nowadays, I very rarely use the wysiwyg features, and I don’t really use any other Dreamweaver features. I’ve become more and more frustrated by the lack of PHP debugging help. Its ftp is not so great either, as I’ve needed to use filezilla to change read/write file priorities. So...time to hunt for a replacement. After reading many reviews and forums, and trying a few options, jEdit is my choice. It was really easy and quick to install, it has a plug-in that debugs PHP, and it even has an ftp service. Best of all, while jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code, provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It can also be used on all platforms, Windows, Unix or Mac. Check it out here: http://www.jedit.org/

More Twitter Feed

18-Mar-2009

If you read my earlier post on making a Twitter feed using PHP4, like the one on my homepage, you may now be thinking that to have it automatically refresh would also be cool. To do this you need Ajax as well as PHP and Steve Reynolds article will help you.

On Safari

18-Mar-2009

I’m a real Google Girl so I’ve been happily using Chrome as my browser since it’s launch. Always a minimalist, I love being able to type a search term or a url in the same place, I love the clarity of the graphics and I find the history and saved links really easy to use. But I must say that the new Safari 4 has really impressed me too. If you’re an Apple user you’re aware of it’s browser charms but for us Windows bods the first really usable version only arrived on the scene last month. It claims to be the fastest browser and that is really holding true. On the Bald Guy’s Vista -grrr - machine it’s proved a Godsend. A constantly refreshing program that he runs had become unusable in every other browser, but Safari to the rescue! It is perfect on that! Also, it copes even better than Chrome when watching streamed TV and videos - important if like us you have abandoned conventional TVs and only have computers. So a browser summary: if you’re a geek Mozilla has tonnes of add-on extensions to keep you quiet, if you need speed Safari’s for you, if you’re a minimalist then it’s Chrome, and if you’re paranoid about safety then it’s Opera. So if you’re still using Internet Explorer there’s just one question...why??

Twitter to Facebook too

16-Mar-2009

Visit here and set up your account then just #fb at the end of a twitter and it becomes your facebook status! Ideal if you twitter a lot but change your facebook status less frequently.

Showing Code the <pre> tag

16-Mar-2009

If you’re wondering how I managed to display the code in the last entry, ie how I got the system to ignore the fact that it was code then you need the <pre> tag. After the code you put </pre> You also need to replace at least the following characters: < with & lt;(no spaces) > with & gt;(no spaces) / with & #47;(no spaces) and you need to style your pre in your css. For me this was

pre {border:solid 1px blue; font-size:1.3 em; color:blue; margin:10px; padding:10px; background:#FFFFB3; white-space:pre-wrap}

The white-space:pre-wrap command is what "word-wraps" the code stopping it appearing across the page and out of it’s allocated box.But careful! older versions of Internet Explorer don't play ball so you need to put the following in your html head to make it work and be valid css code.

<!--[if lte IE 7]>
<style>
pre{word-wrap:break-word;}
</style>
<![endif]-->

Internet Explorer 8 sort of works until you get a long url, and I haven't found a perfect solution yet. Have tried white-space:pre-line and word-wrap:break-word without success. Would love an answer if anyone's got one! My temporary head work around:

<!--[if IE 8]><style> pre{font-size:88%} </style><![endif]-->