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Answer: We should preface this by honestly admitting that we have nothing against the Macintosh. It is a fine computer and a terrific operating system. For RealCart to work, however, JavaScript needs to be able to communicate with the shopping cart Java applet. Netscape first implemented this technology in Netscape Navigator version 2. They called it “Live Connect”. While every Windows browser since then has had this capability, Macintosh computers are now being shipped without this very basic ability. While the vast majority of the computers in use on the Internet today have 100% Sun Java compliant browsers it appears that Macintosh computers are now being shipped with browsers that are not. The Sun Hot Java browser has Live Connect and it allows RealCart to work just fine on a Mac running this browser. “Why aren’t Macs being shipped with Live Connect enabled browsers anymore” you may ask? We have no idea. We do know, however that the current percentage of internet users that use Macintosh is less than 2½%. Here are the latest findings reported by HitBoxEnterprise.com:
A future version of RealCart will address this problem, however, it is only just now in the planning stage. Econimically you are still better off with RealCart version 2 to sell your products on-line. Statistics prove that the average web site loses between 2 out of 3 and 3 out of 4 orders due to customer confusion. RealCart eliminates confusion and results in loss of 0 out of 3 order abandonment. You are better off getting 3 out of 3 orders from 97.68 of the Internet population than you are getting 1 out of 3 orders out of 100% of the internet population. On a web site with 1,000,000 visitors per month. If only 1% try to order then you are looking at the following statistics:
*Of course this doesn’t mean that nobody running Macintosh will order from you if you use RealCart. Some Mac users have opted to install Sun’s Hot Java 3.0 browser. Other Mac users simply place their order over the telephone. The example table above is based on 2 out of 3 orders being abandoned due to customer confusion. Not once in our 5 year history have we ever received a report of a shopper becoming comfused when attempting to purchase from a RealCart enabled store. Although you may end up missing some Macintosh sales, you still end up getting 976 orders with RealCart versus 333 orders with some other “hidden” shopping cart. For actual stories regarding what we mean by customer confusion go here. Moral of the StoryWhen it’s a numbers game you have to be sure that the majority of your web site visitors will be able to figure out how to order from you. With RealCart on your site, they will. |