[thelist] how design affects ecommerce

[Keith]

> i start stuff all the time only to be defeated by not being able to
> discover the shipping cost & time before i've entered my credit card
> number! there i am in page 4 of the 6 pages of form info and i still
> don't know how much i'm gonna pay for shipping! even tho' i've already
> put a lot of time into it, i usually just bag it right there.

I've designed and sold dozens of different shopping carts over the 
years. And every one of them requires the buyer to select "Where 
your purchase will be shipped to" before it will add their first item. 
>From then on I can display the actual shipping and, if applicable, tax 
in an acurrate grand total every time they add, adjust, or remove an 
item. That destination has to be collected at some point, why not up 
front? And the shipping/tax/total has to be calculated at some point, 
why not every time the cart changes. I consider it just plain laziness 
to not give that info to the buyer. But more important, as you point 
out, it's a sale killer to try to hide the grand total until after you've 
extracted a buyer's life story from them. In the buyer's eye it's 
dishonesty no matter how you try to justify it.

keith