store conversion

[dtc]

Hi,

I've just been talking to Ben is support - thanks for the help, Ben. He suggested a post in here to ask some seasoned Actinic users if a conversion from my developed store is possible. The address is: http://www.chaseavdirect.co.uk .

My main issues are these:

1) Search engines - places all products and exanded details on one page, then decodes it using JavaScript to produce the expanded description when you press the Info button. This means that if there are 10 products on one page, the product name is competing with 10 others and a load of extraneous bumph and the keyword density is rubbish. I want a page per expanded description, which will allow a keyword density of 3ish. I look at my competeitors sites, and they have a density of 3ish, and they are ALWAYS at the top in Google. is crippling me!

2) I want to add instant credit - when I select Apply for Credit in the Checkout, I want to be able to forward to another page so that a credit application can be completed. I'd need to store the product names/prices, cust name and address and autocomplete some of the form fields on the application. I can use JavaScript write to a cookie to do this (can I? - will I be able to capture all those fields, especially the product names and prices?), but I need to know whether I can forward to another page (similar to when transferring to a secure credit card page). This is impossible on because I can't edit the checkout directly.

Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if you guys could take a quick peek and let me know what you think of the feasibilty of the Apply for Credit thing.

Cheers,

[dtc]

Competitor name censored.

All references to REOL seem to have been removed! The product I used will be clear if you swap the first letters over. I'm 99% sure I'm going to switch to Actinic; just need the final push.

[cdicken]

I want a page per expanded description, which will allow a keyword density of 3ish.

Sorry about removing the REOL references. We just don't want out competitors benefitting from teh amount of traffic we get through the forums.

Anyway, with regards to pop-up windows, Actinic allows you to create separate pop-up windows containing the extra information for your products. I think this is going to be better from a search engine point of view.

With regards to the instant credit thing, you could provide a link in the receipt page for taking people to a form. The advantage of using the receipt is that all the name and address details are available as separate variables so would be easy enough to include into a call to a separate form page. I'm not sure you would be able to include the shopping cart contents other than the order total - which is available as a variable (together with the order number).

[dtc]

Chris,

Thanks for the reply.

Where do the product descriptions come from? I need them because a customer could default on payments, and the credit agreement has to name the items.

In the other product, I capture the data from a variable. So, in the template (which, like yours, generates the html) I use:

<script>var itemName="<--variable name-->"</script>

When the HTML is generated I end up with:

<script>var itemName="Sony Plasma Screen"</script>

I can manipulate it in some way, or display it using:

<script>{window.document.write(itemName)}</script>

I believe that you are using CGI to construct the HTML (based on a template) for the checkout. Is there not a field that constructs the list of products that I can capture using a similar method to above i.e. embed it in the template? Once I know how they are constructed, I can strip out the names and write a cookie or something to pass them to the application form.

Thanks again,

[cdicken]

The template is called Act_Order04.html. Variables in Actinic look like NETQUOTEVAR:WHATEVER.

There is a variable called NETQUOTEVAR:THEORDERDETAILS which inserts the shopping cart into the receipt page at the end of the checkout.

The shopping cart itself comes from a template called Act_ShoppingCartXML.html. The product names are inserted via a varialbe in that template called NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME. I guess this means you could use

<script>var itemName="NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME"</script>

in order to get what you want.

[dtc]

Thanks Chris

Chris,

Thanks for the info. I'm going to start looking at this later today, so I'll probably look at the checkout part first. It does look promising, anyway!

Cheers,