OsCommerce Add-ons

A car is a fully featured transportation solution. Cars have complete engines that work, have roofs and doors, and have heaters to keep drivers warm in the winter. However, there are still "options" that, though not necessary to the operation of the car, make it more appealing to some. These options may include CD players, or air-conditioning; power windows, luxury interiors, and heated seats, for instance. Their inclusion is not necessary for a car to be a car, right? But it's awful nice to have them, and they make the ride more pleasant.

This is analogous to fully-featured software programs. In order to be called a fully featured shopping cart for instance, there are essential front- and back-end features which must be in place. But, options remain, which, though not necessary to operation, are awfully nice to have, and they make using the system more pleasant.

Popular osCommerce Add-ons
Examples of osCommerce add-ons might include Frequently Asked Questions content pages. This gives you the chance to anticipate customer issues and answer them immediately. Customers that have answers to their questions are far less likely to feel nervous or apprehensive about ordering products or services. Having a well-written, cogent, and helpful FAQ page can mean that people leave your site without activity less often.

Another feature some website owners add on is the ability for customers to personalize their accounts (for an excellent example of personalization features, think of Amazon.com). Personalization keeps track of an individual customer's purchases, their shipping history, their credit card and shipping information. This simplifies the ordering process considerably from a consumer point of view, and can help keep them as repeat customers. Meanwhile, it provides merchants the opportunity to target products to consumers based on previous purchases.