Re: Tracking Users -- From Point of Entry to Ordering

From: C. Antonio Romero <romero_at_alumni.princeton.edu>
Date: Thu 29 Mar 2001 10:01:07 -0600

Your best bet is not an infinite number of hidden fields
in forms in every page, but rather to use a cookie. The
first time a user comes into the site, you create a cookie
noting where they came from. (Or possibly you do this
each time a visitor comes in who hasn't been in in, say,
an hour... this way you get 'where did the actual visit
that led to the sale originate' instead of 'how did this
customer FIRST find me'.) Store in the cookie the URL that
referred the user in.

At the time you process the order form, read the cookie
back in and note this in the order database.

That's the general approach I'd take to your problem.
Can't recommend a specific script, unfortunately, and I
suspect you won't get one that integrates with whatever
e-commerce chunk you're using unless you create it
yourself.

Good luck.

-Antonio Romero






Received on Thu Mar 29 2001 - 10:01:07 CST