The main considerations include:

• Store database
• Business logic
• Look and feel
• Credit card verification/security

Store Database:
You need to store information about the products you sell (part#, prices, sizes, colors, etc.), your customers and their order history in some type of database. Databases allows store administrators to modify catalog information online with a web browser and they are capable of producing detailed management reports that detail website sales activity and profitability. Better online stores incorporate sophisticated databases that allows shoppers to perform complex product searches.

The cost of the database that drives your online store varies in direct relation to the features you incorporate. The success of your store can depend on how many of the features you decide to include. You need to make a decision that balances your financial resources with what you expect your store to return to you.

Business Logic:
Your store needs to make complicated decisions about how to compute the complete sales prices of an order. Sales taxes must be computed based on where the customer lives and whether the products they choose are taxable. Sales discounts may be computed for orders that exceed certain dollar or unit levels. Some customers may qualify for quantity discounts based on their year-to-date purchases. Freight needs to be calculated based upon where the customer lives, what freight method they choose, how much the shipment weighs, and the size of the shipping container(s). You may wish to allow your shoppers to purchase gifts to be shipped to friends and relatives with gift wrapping and messages included.

The cost of implementing the business logic that supports your store varies in relation to the complexity of the business logic that you need to conduct business.

Look and Feel:
Your store should have an attractive page design and graphic layout to make it a pleasant place to shop. Web pages need to be designed to make the online shopping experience flow in a natural progression that does not confuse the shopper. The cost of building a store that attracts first time shoppers and brings them back again varies in relation to the sophistication of the design.

Credit card verification/security:
You need to take sensitive customer credit card information online, process it in a secure manner, and make sure that you are paid for any goods/services that you ship. The best online stores can validate the customers' credit card number while they are online, so that errors or invalid credit cards can be identified immediately. Less sophisticated stores collect this information, which is later processed "the old-fashioned" way. Problems with credit cards then require that you contact the customer by phone/email to resolve the issues. The cost of implementing secure credit card processing depends on how you decide to implement this feature.

Please contact Matt Marshall for more detailed information about how to structure your store and your specific requirements.

How do I change the captions on the buttons (next page, prior page, etc.)?
Edit the chButtons chunk in the chunks.htm file.

Chunk:chButtons

(If you change the words on the checkout button, you must also change the logic on the POSTDATA page.)

You may need to change the Delphi code in the waScrollGrid webaction component if you change the names. This webaction determines what scrolling action to take based upon the value assigned to the button.

What capability does the shopping cart application have with respect to the area of sales tax charging (what kind of flexibility is there) and are there links to tax systems such as TaxWare?
The Shopping Cart Jump Start Project includes the ability to calculate sales taxes from a user populated table in the database. Taxability may be turned on/off on a store-wide or product-specific basis. There is no link to online tax calculations sites like TaxWare, but the open nature of the project source code would make such an addition relatively easy to implement.

Where can I find general information on running credit card charges with Delphi?
Please refer to the following articles for information:

• Webcomm.exe 353K: Delphi Magazine, Sept. '97, reprint of Web Commerce with Delphi by Peter Hyde article; discusses WebHub. Self-extracting; contains Adobe PDF file.

• Webcomm2.exe 221K: Delphi Magazine, March '98, Issue 31, reprint of follow-up article: Web Commerce with Delphi: Live Transaction Processing by Peter Hyde; discusses WebHub. Self-extracting; contains Adobe PDF file.