Case Study - Flash Ecommerce Site
Application: Online Shopping Cart with Flash InterfaceIndustry: Apparel
Background: Our client, an upcoming retailer of stylish and fashionable aprons online approached us with a concept of creating a website which is appealing to the customers and is not dull and drab like their previous php shopping cart website. In other words, they wanted a flash interface for website visitors. The development of this website required an in-depth knowledge of flash scripting and flash database integration for elegant and impressive visual presentation of the content to its users.
Objectives: The site was launched at a time when most shopping carts were not flash based. The primary objectives behind the development process of the site are listed below:
- Design a unique, flash based, feature packed online shopping cart
- Allow the customers to view different categories of garments and brands in a flash environment and provide billing and shipment info
- Buyers should have the ability to track their orders
- Easy to use admin panel to edit product catalog and manage orders
Solution: The product catalog at the front end can be completely managed by the admin without any knowledge of flash or database programming.
- Adding, deleting and modifying product info requires just a few clicks.
- Using flash interface we developed an elegant, powerful website. The interesting feature of this site is that the website has a product list is displayed in a stylish manner in flash using XML. So every time a new product is added or updated the catalogue at the user end automatically gets updated.
Technical Background:
- Technologies Used:
PHP 4.0, MySql and XML on the server-side
HTML, Flash and Javascript on the client-side - Operating Systems Used: Linux for deployment
Windows for development - Development Team: 1 PHP developer and Flash designer
- Duration: 200 hours
Features:
Site Administrator:
The admin area is fully password protected and can be accessed by the site administrator only. Following are some of the features available to the administrator:
- Password modification of admin area
- Manage Registered Users (Shoppers): Admin can search/view/edit/delete registered buyers.
- Manage Product Category: Admin can create, edit and delete product categories and sub-categories.
- Manage Products
- Add/View/Update/Delete Products
- Assign products to category/sub-category
- Upload product's thumbnail, main image and zoomed-in version)
- Configure Products Color List
- A list of color options available, which is displayed to the user while purchasing any garment, can be managed through the admin section.
- Configure Sales Tax
- Percentage of Sales Tax, which will be applicable to the total order, can be updated through this part of admin section.
- Manage Orders
- Search / View / Update
- Process Order. Following actions can be taken on an order.
- Canceled
- In Process
- Shipped
- Confirm (Order Delivered)
- Admin can specify comments along with the above status updation and the result will be automatically emailed to the buyer.
Buyers can browse the product catalog in a flash environment. They can view detailed product specifications, view product images and add products to their shopping cart.
At check-out stage, they can specify different billing and delivery addresses, making it easy to gift. Buyers can login and track their order status anytime after they have placed an order.
