To shopping cart or not to shopping cart?

[iconidpromos]

Hello to all. A newbie here...

I own a company that sells promotional items. We already havea current site and are in the process of wanting to create a new site. A "things I would do differently now" site. Since our industry sells so many products with so many different variables affecting price, it could be the biggest headache in the world to put all this info into a shopping cart and correctly select all of their specs. Instead, what I envision is dynamic type site that publishes static pages (for seo purposes). Instead of the user purchasing through a shopping cart, the user finds their product and clicks on a "submit for more information" button and is taken to a formt hat prefills some of the info like product name, etc...

My question to all of you is where can a find a cost effectiver method for doing this? Does something already exist or do I need a programmer?? I would also need some level of design or templates for the site. Thanks for your help!

[Corey Bryant]

You could do it just with just static pages. But then when you get busy, how many inquiries can you handle per day? 5, 10, or 20? Then do not forget about the previous day because those customers will want a few more answers.

It is usually better to spend a few extra dollars in the beginning and do it right. You will enjoy it and the customers will appreciate it

[iconidpromos]

Corey, Thanks for your reply, but I'm afraid I need you to clarify.

If I do it all in static pages... couldn't that potentially be a nightmare to update, etc...? You mentioned when I get busy and handling inquiries...please clarify-- are you saying because creating the static pages will be a lot of work that I will not have time to respond to customers?

You mentioned that spending a few extra sollars int he beginning will be worth it, but it seems as though you are suggesting a the cheapest method? I do not follow.

I have a no problem doing the static pages myself, but I want a site that looks "slick" with a category that suggest the "most popular products" that rotates products. This screams "dynamic" to me, but i want the pages to be static and do not want a full shopping cart-- just a submit for quote system.

Can anyone make suggestions and Corey, can you clarify? Thanks for your help![/quote]

[Easy Web 4 U]

Would it work to have a shopping cart that is very easy to update? For example, if it was just a couple of clicks to update products and pricing?

Or do you need something different?

Teresa

[Faglork]

Some online shops allow to rewrite the dynamic url into a static one via mod_rewrite. IMO the best solution. Rewriting works well with spiders.

Alex

[Corey Bryant]

Yes - that is why I suggested it might be better to use a database. And if you are on a Windows server, there is a ISAPI re-write that can be installed as well to work that same as mod-rewrite.

It all depends on what you had in mind exactly and where you see the site going. Prepare for the worst and expect the best.