Building an E-Commerce Shop Front

Congratulations you've made it to the end! Hopefully along the way you have learned the basic techniques for an online store. Now you can take it further and improve on the foundations laid.

One of the most useful additions would be a customer log-in facility, which would save database space for you and the hassle of retyping their details for the customer. It also provides the opportunity to find out more about your customers and perhaps keep them informed of updates to the web site or new product lines.

You may also decide that with 70% of people browsing with a version 4+ browser that you can afford to rewrite this in JavaScript 1.2 and make use of some of the advanced features that offers, particularly in string manipulation.

Taking things further with a component written in Java, C++ or Visual Basic you could implement full credit card checking, such as verifying account details and obtaining authorization.