Thread: ETA on being able to purchase products via the mobile site?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a mobile shopping cart platform that doesn't actually let you make a purchase. That would be like buying a printer only to find out that it doesn't actually let you print anything.

When we bought ML 9, we were assured that real mobile shopping with checkout would be up and running by the end of the year. Does it look like that goal will be met? If not, do you have a delivery date that I can pass on to my (not so happy) clients?

Jared,

Thanks for the question, and I'm so sorry that you have a less than happy customer - we have total agreement with his position. I represent the newly acquired ownership of AspDotNetStorefront and we are totally committed to making ML9 and Multi-Store fully mobile-enabled. We are also committed to our policy of "release on readiness" so I won't be driven to make any timeline promises, but I will tell you that our goals are very much in line with those that you mention. We are "all over it" and when it is released, it will be with pride.

hi Jo,

Thanks for the quick response! We'll be eagerly looking forward to future releases.

Check out our new fully-enabled Mobile Commerce Plug-in here.

Do you plan on offering a version that doesn't require a monthly fee? We've already paid for version 9, and one of the selling points was that it natively supports mobile shopping. Surely you do not expect us to pay more for functionality that is supposed to be included in the solution for which we have already paid.

Originally Posted by wunderkinder

Do you plan on offering a version that doesn't require a monthly fee? We've already paid for version 9, and one of the selling points was that it natively supports mobile shopping. Surely you do not expect us to pay more for functionality that is supposed to be included in the solution for which we have already paid.

To add insult to injury... the Mobile Commerce Plug-in has a monthly fee! At first I thought the price was pretty cheap, and then I noticed it 25 per month.

I just spent a fair amount of money on ML64 and I am disappointed that the ability to purchase via a mobile phone does not seem to be available.

From Jo:

"The mobile world is changing fast. We have left “mobile browsing” in out-of-box core code for those people who are happy to return shoppers to the full-screen version for checkout. Many people, however, were rightly clamouring for full mobile shopping.

The obvious difference between mobile development and desktop is that, while Chrome and IE bring out significant browser changes once in a while (and give us all headaches), the mobile landscape is changing all the time.

We don’t want to be delivering something that is broken within a month, so we need to be working on constant maintenance to keep up with changing mobile trends. We simply can’t do that without charging for it. Sorry.

This won’t be the last module that carries an ongoing cost, and it is not the end of constant development of core functionality. We will continue to try to get the balance right."

I don't buy your line of reasoning. Sorry.

If you can't provide the mobile shopping solution as it was advertised and sold to me, then you should not have advertised it or sold it to me. This is a classic bait and switch maneuver, and I am certain that you can understand why I will not be able to recommend your product to my customers in the future.

But doesnt the yearly maintainence contract take care of the cost for keeping the product upto date???

What is the need for maintainence contract then? Gotta agree with another poster that rules are being changed after the fact.

Thanks

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront Staff - Tammy

From Jo:

"The mobile world is changing fast. We have left “mobile browsing” in out-of-box core code for those people who are happy to return shoppers to the full-screen version for checkout. Many people, however, were rightly clamouring for full mobile shopping.

The obvious difference between mobile development and desktop is that, while Chrome and IE bring out significant browser changes once in a while (and give us all headaches), the mobile landscape is changing all the time.

We don’t want to be delivering something that is broken within a month, so we need to be working on constant maintenance to keep up with changing mobile trends. We simply can’t do that without charging for it. Sorry.

This won’t be the last module that carries an ongoing cost, and it is not the end of constant development of core functionality. We will continue to try to get the balance right."

Will the shopping cart work in anyway without the mobile plugin? Right now we just get an Applicaton error going into the product pages.

We don't need a fancy laytout for the mobile devices since we only have a few products.

Thanks

Customers will be able to browse your site on a mobile device, but not actually make purchases. To do that, you'll need the mobile plugin.

I, too, am a bit disappointed, after spending quite a bit on this software, to find that while it comes with a mobile feature, it doesn't work. It seems silly to allow browsing, but not purchasing -- isn't the wishlist just a type of cart anyway???

There are other problems with mobile: My system is currently set up to use Variants, and there seems to be no way to display any variant (other than the default) for each product. This makes it somewhat useless as even a product browser outside of the very basic stuff.

Further, I have been unable to figure out how to get size/color prompts or drop-down boxes to display on the mobile site. Argh!

In the light of these shortcomings, I would like to provide a home page that tells my users that the mobile site is limited in scope, and that they should switch to our full browser site if they want to get into more details or purchase the products. What does it take to link a user from the mobile site to the main site?

The full mobile commerce plugin is INCLUDED in MSx 9.3.0.0 at no charge.


http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p...ultistore.aspx (see 'Version 9.3' tab)

I hope the included mobile functionality helps your new customers. It doesn't help my clients much – they are not interested in spending thousands of dollars on a license + source upgrade (again).

We understand that money can be hard to come by these days, so Update Rights are frequently offered a la carte and have been taken advantage of by many savvy clients.

Update Rights are always available with a software purchase as well, so be sure to remind clients to get theirs when possible. It doesn't have to take thousands to get an upgrade.

I am finding these days that the vast majority of smartphones & tablets use a fully scaled version of the site.

The US market is about 53% Smartphones currently (and rising), so there is still a huge market for the mobile website version. There is also an AppConfig: Mobile.ShowMobileOniPad for switching the mobile view on/off easily for iPad.