Lusting for Amazon-like powers.

I like to spend money. Amazon has a plethora of clever devices designed to exploit this innate desire. And I drool at the idea of having any of this power for myself. I have set up the “recently viewed” options for clients. I have set up the “cross sell”, also known as the “you might also enjoy” option for clients. I’ve even set up the customers who purchased this also bought…

But I’ve never had it all in one place, functioning as one well oiled persuasion machine. And as the interface design world likes to say, if it works for Amazon… The fact of the matter is, Amazon is what people are used to. It never hurts to model a user interface after what people already know. It’s the same concept in branding, with a lateral attack strategy, and not making arguments in a vaccuum. People respond best to familiar environments. And man, I go nuts at Amazon.

I’ll go in to buy a book. Or maybe a movie. I’ll leave with 3 books, 2 movies and probably something I didn’t even realize I wanted before I got there. The up-sell is amazing. The suggest features never end, and the navigation never ceases to amaze me. You’ll think your lost, but you’re really just looking at what you really should have wanted in the first place. It’s crazy.

So now I’m working on putting together this kind of complete functionality in a shopping cart system. As just about everybody who knows me knows, I prefer to base my websites off of open source systems and build from there. But I have yet to find a decent open source shopping cart. If anyone has a suggestion, please, I’m begging, let me know.