This may or may not pertain to dreamweaver, but I want to created an
eCommerce section of my website. I can manage setting everything up to
create the shopping cart through to the checkout but I have a concern
about the buying process. I have only one of each of the items I am
selling. If I offer it up in a normal shopping cart, how do I prevent
fifteen people from purchasing the ONE-ONLY item simultaneously
or...once one person buys it, is there a way to indicate that that
one-only item is no longer available? Can this be automated? Especially
if I am away from my machine for a few hours.

Perhaps some services offer this? A dreamweaver extension? An
off-the-shelf app.?

-bob

bobby wrote:
> how do I prevent
> fifteen people from purchasing the ONE-ONLY item simultaneously
> or...once one person buys it, is there a way to indicate that that
> one-only item is no longer available? Can this be automated? Especially
> if I am away from my machine for a few hours.

Hello Bobby,

I've worked with a lot of e-commerce shops, and I've thought about this
question a good bit. There are a couple of possible solutions: 1) Let
the individual know during checkout that it is possible that you may be
out of the item, and if so that they will be refunded, or 2) Remove the
item from the store inventory the instant it is purchased. When someone
checks out, it will check to make sure the item is still available, and
then will process the checkout. If it is not the shopper is notified
that the item is no longer available and has been removed from their
cart.

I've never worked with an out-of-the-box shopping cart that works this
way, but it's usually possible to re-configure the script so that it
does.

Chris S.
Implied By Design LLC.
http://www.impliedbydesign.com
Free Web Design Tools
http://www.impliedbydesign.com/free...re-scripts.html