Here’s a little project I completed some time back but updated today. The essence of the project is to create a new osCommerce page that acts like the “contact_us” page but allows the person contacting to let the shopowner know precisely what he or she is interested in.
So, I made a copy of contact_us with some extra details (name, email, enquiry, location and then a chained selector system based on manufacturer, product and size). Think in terms of a shoe shop which sells a range of manufacturers and model of shoe.
What is a chained selector?
So, the person first selects the manufacturer, the second dropdown is then populated ONLY with the products from that manufacturer, the third dropdown is a size dropdown. Now the customer can fill out all the info and the shopowner can email them back to let them know where/how to purchase.
All pretty good and works well.
I then came up with the idea of showing the image of the product based on the inputs. So, when a person selects the info, an image of what they have chosen appears. Does that make sense?
Here’s a video in action;
Let me know what you think…
This sure will be a sweet add-on to a good FAQ system – if customers cannot find answers from provided information, they can ask a question through this mod.
Hi Gary
I think this is a great idea, but are you planning to replace the default contact us with this page?
If not, when customers want to ask a question about anything they usually head straight to the regular contact form, so where would you place the link to this page so that it is somewhat highlighted?
On the other hand if you are planning to make it replace the normal contact us, it would be good to allow the enquiry to go through even if nothing is selected from the selection dropdowns, and to add a radio button or something that says “general enquiry”.
A different idea would be to add a link to each product saying “enquire about this product”, and this form as shown in the video would open with the details about the product already filled in.
Just some thoughts.
Whichever way, this is gonna be a great addition. 🙂
Looks neat!
But you have very small feet Gary! 🙂
Eddy; yes that could work as part of a FAQ system.
Isa; that’s a great idea if I make it a generic page. This was coded up specifically for a shoe shop, and is what the owner wanted.
Steph; LOL