After a bit of experimenting, our first on-line giftshop is open for
business at http://www.nhm.org/dinostore

If you're interested, please take a look and let us know what you think.
If you're interested in how the site works, please contact me.

We will be madifying the design based upon input received from users and
this group.

We've wanted to open an on-line giftshop for a while, but didn't want to
contract it out or pay for an expensive design fee unless we were sure it
would make money.  We also wanted to wait until we were receiving a
sufficiently high number of hits to feel confident that enough people would
see our on-line store (we're now getting close to 1,000,000 hits/month).

We also didn't (that is, I didn't) want to have a system that required a
lot of maintenance by our meager Web group (me).

The DinoStore is the result.

We wrote a CGI script that allows our giftshop staff to add and delete new
items at will directly from their workstations using a web browser.  No
uploading or downloading required to add or delete items. Scanned
photographs do need to be uploaded, but we will train shop staff to do the
scans and subsequent uploads of the images.

We didn't need to use cookies because everything takes place on a single
combined order form/item list.

Because we wrote the program, there is little cost.  If we start making
loads of money, then we can justify replacing the system with a more
standard shopping cart program.

I am VERY curious whether any on-line museum shops are making money...


Jim


Jim Angus
New Media
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA  90007

http://www.nhm.org

voice:    213/763-3317
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When they told me I was average, they were just being mean.