Some of the basic features that come with the OScommerce shopping cart are:

a) an inventory system whereby you enter in the quantity of a product when you first upload the product. Oscommerce keeps track of the quantity by reducing the quantity by 1 every time that particular product is successfully purchased.

b) an enlarge button for the image of each product eg www.handbagqueen.com.au

c) a product colour chooser. Eg http://handbagqueen.com.au

d) a specials box which randomly displays items that are on sale

e) A what's new box that shows what the new products are for that month

f) A related products box plus a box that says people who purchased this item also purchase this item

g) A ‘tell a friend about this product’ feature eg www.handbagqueen.com.au

h) a basic newsletter feature

i) a review system where customers can come back and give feedback about their purchase

j) Sale Items Option to offer discounted prices

k) Customers to have option of creating an account.

i) A GST feature where you can choose to or not to include GST in the price

k) Search box and an advanced search feature eg http://handbagqueen.com.au/Australian_handbags/advanced_search.php

l) a secure contact us page eg https://www.handbagqueen.com.au/Australian_handbags/contact_us.php

m) Currency converter

n) The ability of customers to create an account so that they can login without re-entering their information, track their orders, etc.

o) Confirmation of Order when customer makes a payment (system to generate an order number and tax invoice)

Extra Features that can be added to your shop

a) Automatic postage calculations

b) A gift voucher system

c) A gift wrapping service option

d) A feature that allows people who are not logged in users to make purchases (purchase without account)

e) A feeding system that feeds your products into other website in order to promote sales

f) a image zooming feature

g) a more sophisticated newsletter feature, so that anyone can sign up to it.

h) SEO capability

Ask us about other features that can be added to your shop

Frequently asked questions

Q. Prior to making the website ‘live’ I may need to give potential suppliers access to my website, perhaps with a password. Can this be set up?

A. Yes, this can be set up quite easily

Q. Can postage rates & delivery be automatically calculated based on weight and destination?

A. There is information here on how the postage can be customised to suit you. But in short yes. Rates for postage can be set up so that it is dependent on location. Plus the shop can be set up so that Customers purchasing over $250 will not be charged for delivery.

Would be good to offer the below option to customers, to be able to tick the box and the information will pre-populate into the delivery details if they are the same as the billing details. Not a problem

“Blurb/Tag” in Window of Domain Name. Not too sure what you mean by that but we offer SEO which covers all aspects of SEO. I work with an SEO expert who always produces very good results. For example see the case study on this page: SEO case study. If you are unsure about what SEO is, see this page: what is SEO?

Q. If I need to provide you with keywords please let me know.

A. Yes if you decide to go ahead I will need up to 10 keywords that you would like to be found for.

Q. Please confirm what information I need to supply for a newsletter template.

A. If you like you can provide a design for your newsletter or we can design you newsletter (this would be charged at an hourly rate). Once the design is decided on you would provide the information that you want to send out and we can sent it for you or we can train you on how to send it

Q. My Domain name is currently registered with Net registry, please let me know what info you require to ensure my domain name ‘points’ to my site. Rather than just URL forward my Domain name to my store, can it be properly delegated using nameserver addresses, otherwise (I’ve heard?) the search engines will never index the pages in my store.

A. All I would need are your login details with net registry. From there I can properly delegate your domain name to your website using nameserver addresses.

Q. Would I need to host with you?

A. If your current host is able to install oscommerce than I would be able to use your current hosting. If not then you would have to use my hosting which is only $150 per year anyway (plus more for an SSL certificate)

Q. I can try and obtain a small number of product images for the shopping cart, just to upload as examples if this would help?.

A. No this would not be required

Q. I will need to upload the rest of the images once I have all my products and images and am ready to go live (which may be around Oct 07). Let me know if this is a problem.

A. No this would not be a problem. Day Dream Websites is flexible when it comes to this type of thing

Q. Am I able to have 5 email addresses for customer support?

A. This number of email addresses would be included with the hosting. Although I would combine the 5 addresses into a single email address as it would be easier for people to remember and pass on to friends.

Q. What types of Payment Methods can I have?

A. It is quite easy to set up the shop to that your customers have the following payment methods to choose from:

* Internet transfer/ direct deposit into your bank account. The relevant details are revealed once the customer chooses to pay using this method.

* Money order. The relevant details are revealed once the customer chooses to pay using this method.

* Order Forms

* Order by phone

* Can the website therefore be designed so that credit card orders can be submitted by customers securely (eg through SSL and encryption software, and secure area hosted through the hosting provider) so that I can then process them offline. Yes this can be done but it is not recommended See info here.

* Real time credit card processing:

- PayPal: upside is that is it cheap. Downside is that the customer has to leave your site to enter in their credit card details and then return once the transaction is complete

- The other option is detailed here: upside is that the customer does not leave your site but the downside is that it is more expensive. Last time I researched it I found that it is only cost effective if your business is doing over $60 000 per annum in online sales- otherwise it is more cost efficient to look at other methods of online transactions. I researched this a year ago and things may have changed since then. Please let me know if you would like me to look into this for you.

Q. Please let me know if it is necessary for me to set up my MOTO merchant account prior to design completion.

A. No, you can decide at any stage and payment methods can be turned on and off at any time even after the site has gone live.

Q. Can there be a link to a currency converter eg finance.yahoo.com/currency in the shopping bag.

A. Better than that – your customers can select which currency they want to see the prices in. See the right hand column of this page for an example.

Q. Related items displayed on product detail pages allow easy cross-selling not only enhancing the shopping experience but also providing deep linking to maximise search engine optimisation.

A. Yes this can definitely be done and as you are absolutely correct- it good for the user of your website plus search engines. An example is this page: www.handbagqueen.com.au there are a number of cross promotions such as the what’s new box, the specials box, and the 2 links at the bottom of the page that gives the customer the option of seeing more of the type of product or seeing more of the same brand of product

Q. If I decide to take a holiday and won’t be processing orders, can I temporarily ‘disable’ the website so that orders can’t be made (ie a little like closing my store)? And post a message on the site to this effect?

A. Yes, this can be done.