The Unsanity Store system is enterely written in-house, as we were not really happy with other solutions around in terms of flexibility and configurability to match our needs. So we have decided to code one up ourselves to allow the smoothest possible integration with own stuff.

I've coded plenty of web store scripts (back in the days when I was doing ocassional contract jobs with PHP), but this one took the most time to do, and by far is one of the most advanced I've done. Of course, it's nowhere near as advanced as the ones used in major merchant stores (like Victoria's Secret), but it covers our needs with plenty of little extras here and there. A few interesting features the store has:

• Coupons (if you make a purchase, you get a coupon code back with a certain discount to show you our appreciation. Ever been buying something from us and then thinking next day, "doh! I should've bought haxie XXX yesterday when it had a discount"? The coupons are there to address this. You're free to give it to a friend as well -- it's all good).


• Auto discounts - the store is smart. If you already have something in your basket, it will offer you other products with a discount - and best of it, it has a pretty advanced algorithm to pick the optimal discount set based on what you have already chosen.


• UPS Integration - it will talk to the UPS website to determine the shipping costs and availability for the address you enter - so we don't have to overcharge you.

The store required some changes in our SQL backend, and as a side effect, the support page lost code form now have no product popup - you just enter your email in the field, and it will email you all the codes it found that match that email. Should be more convenient.

Either way, this is a semi-big step for us, and lot of effort went into making it done. I hope the new system will make your experience even better -- and get one of these funky t-shirts! ;)