How to know what Version of osCommerce you are using…
Written By Gary on May 01 2008 · Comments (2)

A question that gets asked almost daily in the osCommerce forum is;
What version of osCommerce am I using?
I can understand why this is so difficult for users to know...with osCommerce being an open source product, it's possible to get osCommerce from lots of different "vendors" (free or otherwise). I've seen osCommerce packages on eBay, [...]

Your Contact Details
Written By Gary on Apr 22 2008 · Comments (2)

Customers never want to get a hold of you - that's why they buy online! Plus, if they have a complaint they have no way of getting in touch with you other than email, and we all know how easy to forget that form of communication is.
Just think, without them knowing who you are, where [...]

Adding un-necessary bells and whistles
Written By Gary on Apr 16 2008 · Comments (0)

Flash intros rock. Add two of them, and make sure you don't put one of those annoying 'Skip intro' links at the bottom. Heck, if you did that nobody would see Uncle Joe's mediocre flash skills.
Then, when you finally let the three customers who are willing to sit through your crappy intro into your store, [...]

Horrible or Awesome #8 - Product Descriptions
Written By Gary on Apr 05 2008 · Comments (0)

Completely leave out product descriptions
All your customers need is a blurry, browser resized, stretched picture of your product. They don't need to know its features, limitations, or comparisons to other products. Hey, if they knew all that they would probably go buy the other guys widget right?
Don't describe your product at all. Be sure to [...]

Horrible or Awesome #7 - Terms, Privacy, Conditions
Written By Gary on Mar 25 2008 · Comments (0)

Adding Terms of Use, Privacy, Conditions of Sale statements etc is a MUST
Some might say that customers like to know who they are dealing with, but those people are full of it. Customers don't care about your return policies, what to do if they receive a broken product, or what to do if the size [...]

Top 100 osCommerce Sites Update
Written By Gary on Mar 23 2008 · Comments (4)

2 more sites added by readers today;

Gardins Animes
Comptoir Discount

These two are different to normal osCommerce, so of course, they get added - take a look then vote them at the Top 100 list!
I don't know why but someone also added a few osCommerce sites that are pretty much out of the box - standard osCommerce [...]

The Checkout Success Page
Written By Gary on Mar 20 2008 · Comments (10)

The very last page in the checkout procedure is "checkout_success.php" - this is a completely useless page which needs attention.
My idea would be to remove the page entirely, and simply redirect the buyer to "account_history_info.php" to show him/her the summary of the order that they just made.  Obviously, you, the shop owner would need to [...]

Get a FREE Book from osC Books
Written By Gary on Mar 17 2008 · Comments (0)

Here's another special deal that I've been able to come up with.
If you order any book at osC Books, you'll get another one to equivalent value for FREE.
So, if you were to order "Designing for osCommerce", you could choose "SEO for osCommerce" or "Faster osCommerce" for free!
All you have to do to be eligible, is [...]

Horrible or Awesome #6 - SSL
Written By Gary on Mar 14 2008 · Comments (0)

All that junk about customers "Caring about their privacy" and being "Worried about identity theft" is unfounded. Just ask my friend "John" from Indonesia. Hey, by the way, he has $30,000,000.00 he wants to send you- he just needs your credit card number along with your name and billing address.
Never mind that SSL certificates enable [...]

Horrible or Awesome #5 - Your Market
Written By Gary on Mar 10 2008 · Comments (3)

Ignore the market you are going to sell in at YOUR PERIL...

Sure, there are 50,000 computer stores online, but yours is going to be better! Market research is for people who don't know what they want to sell, right?
You didn't research for your term paper in high school and you passed, so why should an [...]