Advice Needed - Special Orders

[G3iDesigner]

Basically - I run a Ford dealer's actinic store selling parts and accessories - i want to put a form on there so they can request any part they like, it emails the request and i send them a quote - all of that is not a problem

The problem is then i want to be able to send them a link to pay for the item via CC - now i could make a form, PGP encrypt it etc etc but thats a lot of work - what im wondering is should i add a product to the catalogue of that value when they want to buy and delete it afterwards? i know its not ideal but i would like the order / CC details to come through actinic itself

Is there any other way of doing it?

[leehack]

Once they confirm they want the part, phone them up and create an offline order within Actinic.

[G3iDesigner]

I dont want to have to telephone them or them to telephone us - i have tried that in the past when i ran my own site and it put a lot of people off - they came to the website because they wanted to order online

[pinbrook]

if you want no intervention, then the easiest thing is to list all the parts on the website so they can be ordered online without the need for a quote

Or after quoting add the item to actinic and provide a link to the product

[leehack]

they came to the website because they wanted to order online

I may be missing something here but you want to let them use your website as they want to order online, yet they need to contact you for prices and wait for an email to come through before they can do so.

I can't quite fathom why you haven't got a website with all of the parts listed and when people come to your site, they search or select the parts they want, they see the prices and they pay accordingly. You then get the order and dispatch it.

You mention that you want them to order online, yet you appear to have a system which is hindering this. If i came to your site for a part for one of my 2 fords and i couldnt order it there and then, i would look elsewhere, i would rarely bother contacting you, if i wanted interaction, i'd visit my local Ford dealer. Like you say if people come to your site to order parts, let them do so there and then, i can't understand why it is more complicated than that?

I'm probably misunderstanding you though, ecommerce to me is find some sites that sell what you want, choose the best website and price and order. Few days later your bit(s) turn up and it's that simple. I am often guilty of simplifying things though.

[G3iDesigner]

Our site is specifically for accessories - so mats / mud flaps etc there are millions of ford parts i couldnt possibly list them all on a site - the ideal of course would just be to have the accessories on there but i have been asked by the bosses to have a quote form for other parts - the majority of people will go to one of our parts departments or ring up one of them but some people still like to do it online or they may want to order some accessories from the website but then want one way more specific part

I do know what you mean - personally i would also go to a dealer for a specific part but being a main ford dealer and having a website does make some people want to be able to order anything and after looking at most of the other ford dealer sites i know of they all just have a quote form too

I'm still toying with ideas. i may well end up just saying call us to order a part if you dont see it listed here

[leehack]

after looking at most of the other ford dealer sites i know of they all just have a quote form too

If this is true, my main motivation on the site build would be to offer something different from the rest, otherwise you are just lumped in with all of the others.

I'm still toying with ideas. i may well end up just saying call us to order a part if you dont see it listed here

Mail order would seem the only option you have, especially if using actinic. You would need to look outside of actinic for a dynamic database driven solution, where a quote number could be input by a customer and it's details are brought up. Even more so with the number of products possible.