stupid question

[Joe Lewis Wilkins]

>>
Thanks for the thoughts/reaction Spark,

I've decided to take the conventional approach, using XTML, CSS and  
JavaScript. Too bad.

Joe Wilkins

> It's not such a stupid thing - this is how (for example) Tesco  
> introduced
> online shopping in the UK. People would install an application from  
> CD which
> they would use to select their shopping list and then go online to  
> submit
> and confirm the purchase and select the delivery timeslot. Each time  
> the
> user went online, any updated items, special offers etc would be  
> downloaded
> to the application and the shopping catalogue would be updated.  
> Since its
> inception the general availability of broadband internet services  
> has made
> it more convenient for both users and Tesco to do the whole shopping  
> process
> online, but there's no reason why an offline "store/catalogue"  
> application
> that submits the selection to an online order and payment processor  
> couldn't
> be a workable thing, especially if the target market is limited in  
> broadband
> availability.
> It's true though, that generally users' perceptions would be that  
> it's "not
> like" all the other online shops and may be resistant to installing  
> some
> application for the purposes of "having you sell me stuff" - so the
> development of a more "normal" online shopfront is probably the way  
> to go,
> even so.