[FX.php List] Shopping Carts - Keep in SessionVars or Add Records right away?

[Jonathan Schwartz]

At 2:22 PM +1000 7/29/09, Head Honcho wrote:
>Hi Jonathan,
>
>On 29/07/2009, at 1:19 PM, Jonathan Schwartz wrote:
>
>>Hi Joel,
>>
>>My experience is that should be a business 
>>decision, not just a technical one. 
>>Technically, it can be done either way with 
>>advantages and disadvantages for each. 
>>However, the Client has to WANT to offer a 
>>richer shopping experience and/or be EAGER to 
>>data mine the abandoned shopping carts for 
>>possible clues why customer do what they do. 
>>Otherwise, saving the order data before the 
>>order is confirmed is a wasted effort...at 
>>least from a business stand point.
>>
>>My 2¢.
>>
>
>Not wanting to be contrary, but, in my mind, 
>there's no "wasted effort" in saving the cart 
>data before the order is confirmed... there's 
>the same amount of coding in both.  One you need 
>to keep track of line items in session 
>variables, the other you need to keep track of 
>items in the database. The only "effort" is in 
>deleting "dead" items/orders.
>
>But I agree, it needs to be a business decision.
>
>Regards
>
>Michael Ward
>--


Hi Michael,

Agreed on the technical effort between the two methods. Lets call them even.

My suggestion that this was partly a business 
decision has to do with whether or not the client 
wants the benefits of saving the unfinished 
orders and then offering an enhanced online 
system that allows customers to resume unfinished 
orders, as was suggested.

If the client doesn't have an interest in 
unfinished orders, then either method will do. 
On the other hand, if the client DOES want to 
interact with unfinished orders, the technical 
decision is made: you need to save orders in the 
DB as you go. Otherwise, they are gone when the 
session ends.

Jonathan





-- 
Jonathan Schwartz
Exit 445 Group
jonathan at exit445.com
http://www.exit445.com
415-370-5011