Web based product ordering method with shopping carts actions queued
Call center order system and process allows a customer service representative to make remote calls to a server to perform shopping cart actions, all on one web page. Historically, representatives would need to enter client information and product information on several different web pages to satisfy a purchase. Eventually, the representative would have “loaded” several different pages to enter product and customer information. This method resulted in a high amount of errors and increased the risk of fraud. The system utilizes AJAX and dynamic HTML technology. The representative is able to add, update, or remove products in the cart without waiting for the page to “refresh” after every action. Cart actions are flagged with a “ticking” indicator bar. Orders may be placed in a “queue” instead of loading a different page. A mild fraud mode to allow multiple orders is also described. A storefront is used in this process.
1. A method for ordering a product through a web-based interface over a network, comprising steps of:
loading an order placement web page with all product items as the web-page is first loaded by a computer, the order placement web page including a shopping cart and providing an interface to a purchase order system;
obtaining information about a purchase order of a product from a user by selecting product information from the order placement web page;
repopulating product items in a menu specific to a category on the order placement web page based on the user selecting that category;
queuing a first and second shopping cart action for the shopping cart into a pending cart action queue based on the user selecting shopping cart actions; and
updating the shopping cart portion of the order placement web page based on the queued shopping cart actions without loading and refreshing the entire order placement web page.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of submitting the purchase order for the product.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising steps of:
sending the first and second shopping cart actions
utilizing dynamic hypertext markup language to a server; and
receiving updated shopping cart information from the server.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the updating step comprises utilizing dynamic hypertext markup language to update only the shopping cart portion of the order placement web page whereby the entire web page is not reloaded while the product option information is updated on the purchase order web page.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein the dynamic hypertext markup language comprises Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language (AJAX).
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of entering additional information into the purchase order web page subsequent to updating the shopping cart portion of the order placement web page.
7. The method of claim 3 wherein the queuing step comprises acting by the server upon the actions in the pending cart action queue prior to submitting a purchase order for the product.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the queuing step comprises locking the shopping cart from other entry of information while the server acts upon the action.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the queuing step comprises not locking the shopping cart from other entry of information while the server acts upon the action.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the order placement web page comprises a single web page and the loading step comprises providing the interface to the purchase order system as the single order placement web page including product selection, product quantity, and payment information.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the order placement web page comprises a single web page and the loading step comprises providing the interface to the purchase order system as the single order placement web page including customer service wrap up codes.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the order placement web page comprises a single web page and the loading step comprises providing the interface to the purchase order system as the single order placement web page including an “up sale” opportunity of a product for a customer.