The Checkout Success Page
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 add some verbiage to this page in order to make buyers aware "thank you for your order, here is a summary" type of thing.
Another option would be to use the "checkout_success.php" page as an upsell page - perhaps you could add "gift wrapping" to their order or "batteries" or whatever. With some coding skills, this could be added to the already existing order without the buyer having to make their way all the way through the chekout again - however, I see no reason why the buyer shouldn't go through the checkout, after all they are already logged in so it's only 3 or so clicks (in an optimised checkout tunnel)…
Or, you could have some functionality to create a discount coupon for the buyer for the next time that they shop at your store. Or you could run a poll on the page, or do any other number of interesting stuff…
So, my challenge to everyone reading this is to have a real good think about the "checkout_success.php" page and see if you cannot come up with something that is a little better than the standard osCommerce version.
How about personalizing the page, by adding the buyers name and postage selection? How about making the page into a gateway page for other products? How about having your "special offer" products listed on the page? There's lots of things you can do if you THINK ABOUT IT!
Dear Admin,
I agree with you, in fact, we completely changed the checkout success page at http://www.texeresilk.com , It now shows different navigation options in flash and it has definitely improved the user sticky-ness:)
by the way, we're second now!
cheers
Comment by Ahsan Iqbal — March 20, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
Ahsan - yes, I agree that stickyness of users should be something that shop owners need to look at. Making the sale shouldn't be the end of the customer relationship. Giving your customers something else to do is of great importance - I bet you agree with me.
Texeresilk deserves to be at least in the Top 5 osC stores - it's a very nice example. Good work.
Comment by Gary — March 20, 2008 @ 5:35 pm
We use our check-out success page to provide the customer a receipt of their purchase. We basically took the confirmation page and show the customer the confirmed sale.
This allows customers to print a copy of the receipt for their records.
jeff
Comment by jeff — March 30, 2008 @ 5:40 am
Jeff - that's a great idea. Any thing that gives your customer more confidence/information is a good thing.
Comment by Gary — March 30, 2008 @ 9:54 am
Hi Burt
I added "fast easy checkout" to RC2a and removed the "create account success" page, but what is the code to remove the "checkout success" page in an unmodified osc instal?
Thanks Adam
Comment by Adam — April 16, 2008 @ 6:32 am
Adam - FEC is a bad mistake on your part. It's poorly coded and very insecure. If you can, rip it out ASAP.
To remove the checkout_success page have a look at what I did in this contribution (in the checkout_process page at the bottom of it).
Comment by Gary — April 16, 2008 @ 8:30 am
Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!
Used your more logical checkout and then skipped the account_history_info page and directed it straght back to the index
Comment by Adam — April 18, 2008 @ 4:24 am
Glad I could help. Feel free to buy me a beer
Comment by Gary — April 18, 2008 @ 9:35 am
Gary:
Was just curious about what insecurites you are referring to in FEC.
Thanks
John
Comment by John — April 18, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
John, FEC makes too many changes to core files which means that other contributions that should work without problems, don't. A good example is my own "Discount Vouchers" mod…
Also, FEC stores passwords in plain text !, and has SQL injection vulnerabilities.
Comment by Gary — April 18, 2008 @ 3:24 pm