CSC/ECE 517 Summer 2008/wiki3 7 ws

Shopper Pattern

Preface

E-commerce has been increasingly popular these past few years and people who want a good deal are certainly taking full advantage of online shopping. Regardless of where online shoppers go, there is one consistent factor – the shopping cart. Shoppers shop online by adding items to the shopping cart and at the end can compare prices, remove items and make adjustments. There are certainly some variations of the shopping cart but the main functionalities are there as a “standard”. This “standard” leads to shopper pattern.

Shopper pattern is the inner workings of online shopping – it helps in collecting items from providers (brand names, different products etc.) and presents them to the user. It takes in users' inputs (desire to purchase by adding to cart) and at the end display the contents the user desires. It helps in facilitating the final purchase and then communicates with the providers about the purchase. This pattern is basically a middleman – shoppers and providers have no knowledge of each other – shopper buys the product and the shopper pattern takes care of communicating to the provider. Of course in the E-commerce world there are fierce competitions – many competitors’ shopping carts might have more/better functionalities than others (mini shopping carts (Barnes & Noble), dynamic item availability (Amazon)) but they all branch from the basic shopper pattern.

Actors in the Pattern

The shopper pattern has three main actors: the consumer, the provider, and the cart.

Consumer

The consumer requests an item or multiple items to be placed in the cart.

Provider

The provider is the entity or person that holds the items that consumers wish to attain. The provider may not necessarily have what the consumer requests of it.

Cart

The cart is the middleman between the consumer and provider. Its job is to maintain the requests as agreed upon between the consumer and provider.

Other Examples of Shopper Pattern

The shopper pattern does not have to be used for an e-commerce shopping cart. There shopper pattern can be generalized as a collection of objects being provided by a provider and being requested by a consumer. Some other examples of possible shopper pattern are:

• A library - A library patron (consumer) requesting books or other materials (items) from the library (provider). The patron can make a list of materials needed to be picked up or checked out. In this example no money exchanges hands, money is not needed to use the shopper pattern.

Resources

• Shopping Cart - Interactive Design Pattern Library
• Shopping Cart - UI-patterns.com
• Usability News - Naidu
• Shopping Carts - GUUUI