Paul K Egell-Johnsen wrote:
> JB wrote:
> >
> > I also forgot to mention. I am leaning towards using GET to send the session
> > ids. Many people have told me that customer penatration decreases, some
>
> Which people? What facts do they have to support their claims? Is this a
> bigger problem than distrust in credit card security? Is it a bigger
> problem than poorly designed shops where people never finalizes their
> deals?
>
Good question - I worked at a shop some time ago
with some of the largest ecommerce names (at that time anyway),
and they didn't have a problem using cookies.
*Perhaps* they would have had more shoppers,
but I don't think so. I think a lot of the people who rant about
cookies/privacy aren't the types who purchase much online anyway,
or want to compile their own SSL extensions into lynx before
"shopping" (slight exaggeration). :)
>
> > times significantly, when requiring cookies to use the cart. How would this
> > have an effect on my script? i will have to call the sessid in all of my
> > links, correct?
>
> That is done automatically by PHP 4.x when using the correct settings,
> but I can't remember them. There might even be a method for asserting if
> a user digs cookies or not, and thus based on that set the correct run
> time status.
>
It's not done very usefully if you rely on forms at all - at least
POST forms. You'll need to stick a hidden variable in every form -
perhaps people have form classes that do this automatically,
but I think it's still much easier to just use cookies for this.
>
> What I really wanted to pounce on was the customer penetration
> mentioned. Does anyone have numbers/research on the following:
>
> How many don't like to use credit cards on line?
> How many turn off cookies?
> How many fear cookies?
>
You touch on it below, but rephrase that last one
"how many people who would otherwise buy from you 'fear' cookies"?
>
> I feel that for the majority of people cookies are not an issue,
> probably due to lack of knowledge, or an attitude that it serves a
> purpose. If your shop is aimed towards fringe groups (like geeks) that
> sceptic group might be large. If your shop aims at the general
> population I'm pretty sure that most leave their cookies on because it
> makes their webmail easier to use, their accounts at amazon easier to
> use, etc.
>
> When in doubt, follow the stream... Check out this, Amazon uses cookies,
> Amazon does a lot of business. Do you really feel that Amazon misses out
> on a lot of customers? Do you know of any large websites doing shopping
> carts which doesn't rely on cookies?
>
Only ones I see put the session ID in the URL string, but many use
things like broadvision to handle this, which has its own problems...
>
> Finally the biggest obstacle might be credit card usage (lots of
> negative hype) or product cost, who wants to use cc for really cheap
> stuff?
>
> Even more finally, sorry that I can't shore up my thoughts with any good
> facts either, I just felt like questioning the statement since I feel
> that it isn't neccessary the full truth.
>
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